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Green Day: American Idiots & The New Punk Explosion
The Green Day story is very three school friends grow up together in a cluster of small blue-collar Californian towns, form a band … and sell over 50 million albums. Except it wasn't that simple. Self-confessed latch-key kids, theirs was far from an easy ride. Inspired by both the energy of British punk bands like the Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks and cult American bands such as Dead Kennedys and Husker Du, Green Day formed in 1989. The band gigged relentlessly across the US, quickly selling out every underground club that booked them, and their 1994 major label debut Dookie was a 10-million-selling worldwide hit album that seized the zeitgeist while rock music was still reeling from the death of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. They toured the world, headlined all the big festivals, won countless awards and released multi-million selling albums. In 2004 Green Day reached a career pinnacle with the concept album American Idiot , a sophisticated commentary on modern life--not least dissatisfaction with their president and America's continued cultural and economic imperialism. The No. 1 success of the Grammy-winning album extended Green Day's fan base even further--from pre-teen kids to previously skeptical critics. This book is the world's first full biography on Green Day. An authority on punk and hardcore, author Ben Myers charts the band members' difficult childhoods, the context of the band within the US and world punk scene and their glittering rise to success. Myers has also interviewed the band for various magazines at different stages of their career.
- GenresMusicNonfictionBiography
208 pages, Paperback
First published May 26, 2005
16 people are currently reading
250 people want to read
About the author
Benjamin Myers
36 books1,222 followersBenjamin Myers was born in Durham, UK, in 1976.
He is an award-winning author and journalist whose recent novel Cuddy (2023) won the Goldsmiths Prize.
His first short story collection, Male Tears, was published by Bloomsbury in 2021.
His novel The Offing was published by Bloomsbury in 2019 and is a best-seller in Germany. It was serialised by Radio 4's Book At Bedtime and Radio 2 Book club choice. It is being developed for stage and has been optioned for film.
The non-fiction book Under The Rock, was shortlisted for The Portico Prize For Literature in 2020.
Recipient of the Roger Deakin Award and first published by Bluemoose Books, Myers' novel The Gallows Pole was published to acclaim in 2017 and was winner of the Walter Scott Prize 2018 - the world's largest prize for historical fiction. It has been published in the US by Third Man Books and in 2023 was adapted by director Shane Meadows for the BBC/A24.
The Gallows Pole was re-issued by Bloomsbury, alongside previous titles Beastings and Pig Iron.
Several of Myers' novels have been released as audiobooks, read by actor Ralph Ineson.
Turning Blue (2016) was described as a "folk crime" novel, and praised by writers including Val McDermid. A sequel These Darkening Days followed in 2017.
His novel Beastings (2014) won the Portico Prize For Literature, was the recipient of the Northern Writers’ Award and longlisted for a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award 2015. Widely acclaimed, it featured on several end of year lists, and was chosen by Robert Macfarlane in The Big Issue as one of his books of 2014.
Pig Iron (2012) was the winner of the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize and runner-up in The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize. A controversial combination of biography and novel, Richard (2010) was a bestseller and chosen as a Sunday Times book of the year.
Myers’ short story ‘The Folk Song Singer’ was awarded the Tom-Gallon Prize in 2014 by the Society Of Authors and published by Galley Beggar Press. His short stories and poetry have appeared in dozens of anthologies.
As a journalist he has written about the arts and nature for publications including New Statesman, The Guardian, The Spectator, NME, Mojo, Time Out, New Scientist, Caught By The River, The Morning Star, Vice, The Quietus, Melody Maker and numerous others.
He currently lives in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, UK.
He is an award-winning author and journalist whose recent novel Cuddy (2023) won the Goldsmiths Prize.
His first short story collection, Male Tears, was published by Bloomsbury in 2021.
His novel The Offing was published by Bloomsbury in 2019 and is a best-seller in Germany. It was serialised by Radio 4's Book At Bedtime and Radio 2 Book club choice. It is being developed for stage and has been optioned for film.
The non-fiction book Under The Rock, was shortlisted for The Portico Prize For Literature in 2020.
Recipient of the Roger Deakin Award and first published by Bluemoose Books, Myers' novel The Gallows Pole was published to acclaim in 2017 and was winner of the Walter Scott Prize 2018 - the world's largest prize for historical fiction. It has been published in the US by Third Man Books and in 2023 was adapted by director Shane Meadows for the BBC/A24.
The Gallows Pole was re-issued by Bloomsbury, alongside previous titles Beastings and Pig Iron.
Several of Myers' novels have been released as audiobooks, read by actor Ralph Ineson.
Turning Blue (2016) was described as a "folk crime" novel, and praised by writers including Val McDermid. A sequel These Darkening Days followed in 2017.
His novel Beastings (2014) won the Portico Prize For Literature, was the recipient of the Northern Writers’ Award and longlisted for a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award 2015. Widely acclaimed, it featured on several end of year lists, and was chosen by Robert Macfarlane in The Big Issue as one of his books of 2014.
Pig Iron (2012) was the winner of the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize and runner-up in The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize. A controversial combination of biography and novel, Richard (2010) was a bestseller and chosen as a Sunday Times book of the year.
Myers’ short story ‘The Folk Song Singer’ was awarded the Tom-Gallon Prize in 2014 by the Society Of Authors and published by Galley Beggar Press. His short stories and poetry have appeared in dozens of anthologies.
As a journalist he has written about the arts and nature for publications including New Statesman, The Guardian, The Spectator, NME, Mojo, Time Out, New Scientist, Caught By The River, The Morning Star, Vice, The Quietus, Melody Maker and numerous others.
He currently lives in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, UK.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 27, 2019
I wanted to like this book. I really did. But, some of the info is wrong. For instance, Mike Dirnt did not get his last name from the family who adopted him. "Dirnt" is the sound he would make when he pretended to play air-guitar (any real Green Day fan knows that!). Since this is an unauthorized biography, I guess I should have been prepared for that. So, three stars.
October 10, 2016
What a butt-licking book this is. Poorly written and riddled with typos, this book was extremely hard to get through. Ben Myers seems hell-bent on convincing the hipsters that Green Day always was and remains punk rock, but the hipsters will never listen. He also seems to have a school-girl infatuation with Green Day. I like them, too, but at least step back and be a little more unbiased in your writing. Meanwhile, Billie's name is misspelled all over in pull quotes, and the captions to the pictures are missing letters or spelled wrong. His use of commas is atrocious, and there are many run-on sentences to be found. The worst part is that facts were not checked. Everyone knows that Goo Goo Dolls are from Buffalo, New York, and not Minneapolis, as Myers claims, and that Mike got his last name from a sound his bass makes, not from his adopted parents. Sweet baby Jesus, I hope all other Green Day books are better.
May 19, 2019
As a MASSIVE Green Day fan I was always going to love this book. I’d say it’s a fans book and I found it really interesting it tells the story from the bands early days up until American Idiot.
February 24, 2021
A good insight into Green Day's career from the very beginning in the 90s to 2006. This book was an interesting read, although with some paragraphs a bit difficult to understand. It was great to see the evolution of this band and how they were influenced musically by other bands and by the world around them, then towards the end by politics. I originally picked up this book to learn more about punk/rock bands of the 90s. Although this book was focused on Green Day, it also touched upon other bands of that era such as Blink 182, The Offspring, Sum 41 and Avril Lavigne, but the book only mentioned them and also criticizes Avril Lavigne, which is why I removed one star. I wish it would have talked about them more, but it is a Green Day biography after all.
I guess it made me understand, the different nuances of punk, where it came from, how it started, the ideologies behind it, the way of living that goes with it and the slow evolution of this genre into mainstream media. The punk/rock, pop/punk, becoming a marketing product for new artists, such as Blink 182, Sum 41 and Lavigne etc... The original punks were much more underground with The Offspring and other bands that frankly I had never listened to before (NOFX, Operation Ivy etc..)
I guess my knowledge of "punk/rock" only goes as far as the mainstream artists I've listened to, so are they really punk ? Should they be considered pop because they're mainstream ? To me, it is still punk.
I guess it made me understand, the different nuances of punk, where it came from, how it started, the ideologies behind it, the way of living that goes with it and the slow evolution of this genre into mainstream media. The punk/rock, pop/punk, becoming a marketing product for new artists, such as Blink 182, Sum 41 and Lavigne etc... The original punks were much more underground with The Offspring and other bands that frankly I had never listened to before (NOFX, Operation Ivy etc..)
I guess my knowledge of "punk/rock" only goes as far as the mainstream artists I've listened to, so are they really punk ? Should they be considered pop because they're mainstream ? To me, it is still punk.
April 11, 2021
The best rocking and rolling ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 4, 2007
Green Day: American Idiots and the New Punk Explosion, Ben Myers, The Disinformation Company Ltd, 2006
This is an unauthorized, but very favorable, biography of Green Day, one of the world’s biggest punk music bands.
The trio that became Green Day grew up in small towns near San Francisco. Each coming from difficult family circumstances, they fell in love with punk music (the Dead Kennedys, the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks, among many others). They formed a band, and soon became mainstays at a place called 924 Gilman. It was little more than a vacant building, but it quickly became a West Coast punk rock mecca. On any given night, veteran punk bands and bands playing their first gig would share the bill.
In the early days, Green Day was constantly on tour. They played basements, squats, anywhere they could plug in their instruments. Some nights, their audience might reach double digits, and other nights they might actually get paid for their efforts. They were living the punk rock lifestyle, fueled by large amounts of alcohol. They were loose and slacker-like about many things, but they were totally serious about their music.
Slowly but surely, they were building a fan base. Their first two albums, on a small punk label, did really well, eventually selling in the hundreds of thousands. Their first major label release, Dookie, in 1994, was a blockbuster, eventually selling 10 million copies. Marriage, fatherhood and burnout became a part of their lives, so they cut back on the incessant touring. But they were now filling major arenas. While some punk music can be indistinguishable from very loud, random noise, a big influence for Green Day was 1960s British bands, so there was actual music in their songs. In 2004, they released a concept album called American Idiot, another blockbuster and Grammy winner, giving their view of present-day America.
I really enjoyed reading this book. Of course, this book is highly recommended for those who own any of the band’s musical output. It is also recommended for anyone, yours truly included, who has seen a video or two of theirs on TV, but who knows little or nothing about punk music in general, or Green Day in particular.
This is an unauthorized, but very favorable, biography of Green Day, one of the world’s biggest punk music bands.
The trio that became Green Day grew up in small towns near San Francisco. Each coming from difficult family circumstances, they fell in love with punk music (the Dead Kennedys, the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks, among many others). They formed a band, and soon became mainstays at a place called 924 Gilman. It was little more than a vacant building, but it quickly became a West Coast punk rock mecca. On any given night, veteran punk bands and bands playing their first gig would share the bill.
In the early days, Green Day was constantly on tour. They played basements, squats, anywhere they could plug in their instruments. Some nights, their audience might reach double digits, and other nights they might actually get paid for their efforts. They were living the punk rock lifestyle, fueled by large amounts of alcohol. They were loose and slacker-like about many things, but they were totally serious about their music.
Slowly but surely, they were building a fan base. Their first two albums, on a small punk label, did really well, eventually selling in the hundreds of thousands. Their first major label release, Dookie, in 1994, was a blockbuster, eventually selling 10 million copies. Marriage, fatherhood and burnout became a part of their lives, so they cut back on the incessant touring. But they were now filling major arenas. While some punk music can be indistinguishable from very loud, random noise, a big influence for Green Day was 1960s British bands, so there was actual music in their songs. In 2004, they released a concept album called American Idiot, another blockbuster and Grammy winner, giving their view of present-day America.
I really enjoyed reading this book. Of course, this book is highly recommended for those who own any of the band’s musical output. It is also recommended for anyone, yours truly included, who has seen a video or two of theirs on TV, but who knows little or nothing about punk music in general, or Green Day in particular.
December 16, 2010
If you are into the modern era of punk rock, this Green Day bio is for you! It tells of their early days playing forgotten songs like 1,000 Hours and At the Library in California, to their 2004 punk rock opera sensation; American Idiot. Whether you're a fan of Billie Joe, Mike, or Tre', you'll like this book.
December 27, 2016
It's this simple, too much Green Day, too little "New Punk Explosion." And I like Green Day, but Myers can't keep himself from any sort of objectivity as he gushes about the band. That said, I appreciated the background story of the band and their working class ethos, though looking into how that connects more into the sociological structures of punk would have been more interesting.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews