Before the song American Idiot came out Billie Armstrong had a few other protests put into his songs but none of them were filled with protests like American Idiot is. After creating this song Green Day started to come out of their box more and began to add more of their political beliefs into their songs because they realized that American Idiot had the power to influence people, and they wanted to keep it going. Throughout the song American Idiot I felt there were a few lyrics that truly influenced the people of society during this time. The first lyric is, “faggot (Liberal) America” (Lynskey, 2004). This lyric is the same as throwing a punch at Bush. What Green Day was trying to express was the fact that George Bush was becoming to Liberal during his time as president. …show more content…
Another song lyric that I felt was important to the protest portion of the song is, “Subliminal mind fuck America.” I felt that these lyrics are important because they bring about anti-corporatism, which was one of the main protests behind the song. Green Day felt that the media and the government were out to control people within society into doing what the government thought was best for them, what to buy, and what to believe in. He felt that this was occurring through media by having people watch commercials, campaigns and just television in general.The last but the most powerful influence the song had on society was the title alone. “American Idiot” can go hand in hand with “subliminal mind fuck America” because they are both relatively talking about the same thing. Where as stated above the media and the government are forcing people to believe the things they say and the American Idiot refers to the people who actually go along with
The strongest part of the song is where it says, “I keep my toes on the party line/ There is nothing wrong dear, don’t think twice”. In conclusion, the concept that propaganda is a brainwash becomes clear. The government changes the way that reality looks by altering the past, using pure power and propaganda.
In “Useless Boys” the writer, Barry Dempster, creates a strong feeling of disappointment and shame in himself and society as he looks back on his youth to when him and a friend made a promise to each other to “not be like their fathers”. Dempster expresses a sort of disgust for the capitalist society his world seems to be built around, a life where even if you’re doing something you initially enjoyed you end up feeling trapped in it. The poem is a reflective piece, where he thinks back on how he truly believed he would end up happy if he chose a different path than that of his parents. The author uses simple diction and syntax, but it’s evident that each idea has a much deeper meaning, which assisted in setting a reflective/introspective mood.
Woodstock became a symbol for a whole generation by the coming together of the political environment, the pop culture, and the current events of the time. The ‘baby boomers’ were searching for ways to separate themselves from their parents’ generation and see themselves as a more loving, compassionate, tolerant group of people. Woodstock came at a time of the youths desperation for authority and gave them beliefs they could live with. They wanted to revolt against the political chaos that they had been enduring during this memorable decade, and Woodstock was a symbol of this for the youth.
Pathos: The emotions that are really being played on the most are anger. People have so much anger when they can not understand the world or what is going on in it. The audience becomes furious to all the killing and death in the world and they need someone there to sympathize with them. Anti-Flag gets the listener angry by exposing the faults of the world. The listener appreciates this because Anti-Flag will not sell into the wrongs of the world. It uses the emotion of finding comfort in that there is someone else out there that has the same views as the listener does. The band uses punk rock music as a common ground with the listeners and expresses their views through their songs. This relates back to the author because this is a great way to protest through music.
Rise Against is a very political band. Many of their songs are about the way the United States handles immigration and the bitterness of war. The band tends to side with
...eryday life. Green day makes us really reflect on our everyday lives and makes us dig deep to see if we ourselves are letting the media tell us what kind of person we should be. We are all guilty of losing ourselves, or trying to change ourselves to try and fit in better socially at some points at our lives, weather its in school, our job or our personal life. We are constantly seeking to be accepted by our peers to feel loved, and it's sad that we would go to the extreme of changing who they truly are just to seek this acceptance without even noticing we are doing it. I feel some people did find this song offensive because it is very straight forward, harsh and honest. There is no beating around the bush with the message potrayed in this song. Billie Joe Armstrong is telling us that we are a brainwashed generation and are turning into complete idiots because of it.
This darkly satiric poem is about cultural imperialism. Dawe uses an extended metaphor: the mother is America and the child represents a younger, developing nation, which is slowly being imbued with American value systems. The figure of a mother becomes synonymous with the United States. Even this most basic of human relationships has been perverted by the consumer culture. The poem begins with the seemingly positive statement of fact 'She loves him ...’. The punctuation however creates a feeling of unease, that all is not as it seems, that there is a subtext that qualifies this apparently natural emotional attachment. From the outset it is established that the child has no real choice, that he must accept the 'beneficence of that motherhood', that the nature of relationships will always be one where the more powerful figure exerts control over the less developed, weaker being. The verb 'beamed' suggests powerful sunlight, the emotional power of the dominant person: the mother. The stanza concludes with a rhetorical question, as if undeniably the child must accept the mother's gift of love. Dawe then moves on to examine the nature of that form of maternal love. The second stanza deals with the way that the mother comforts the child, 'Shoosh ... shoosh ... whenever a vague passing spasm of loss troubles him'. The alliterative description of her 'fat friendly features' suggests comfort and warmth. In this world pain is repressed, real emotion pacified, in order to maintain the illusion that the world is perfect. One must not question the wisdom of the omnipotent mother figure. The phrase 'She loves him...' is repeated. This action of loving is seen as protecting, insulating the child. In much the same way our consumer cultur...
It is not an easy job to recreate classic Green Day songs such as American Idiot, Holiday, and Wake Me Up When September Ends- let alone to perform them in front of Billie Joe Armstrong himself. I admire both the creativity and the courage it took for Mayer to put together such an amazing show. In addition, I also enjoyed the interviews with Billie Joe Armstrong. The viewer was able to learn that he is a very private person and therefore struggled to let people in. Yet he learned to bond with the cast and crew, and let them in to his world in order to create a truly unique production that has characters everyone can relate to.
I chose to analyze the song "American Idiot" by Green Day. American Idiot derived from the American Idiot album released back in 2004. Billie Joe Armstrong, frontman of the band Green Day, and composer of American Idiot. I personally enjoyed the song by the catchy punk rock beat, but after listening to the lyrics my mind quickly opened on political issues, and how the presidency of George W. Bush era was like. Therefore, out of all the songs I have listened in the past I picked American Idiot, because the message behind the song is fairly ironic and true during that time period. I do have respect for the performer, Armstrong - he lost his mother as a young boy, and he subsisted the loss of his mother through music. Eventually, he formed a band
Al Yankovic’s song, Canadian Idiot, fits well with the postmodernist movement as it makes use of several postmodern elements, themes, and techniques. Pastiche is a technique used in postmodern works that imitates another work, artist, or period, essentially a parody. Canadian Idiot imitates Green Day’s American Idiot in the sense that it mocks and ridicules the way Americans create farcical stereotypes pertaining to Canada. The essence of identity and patriotism is disregarded and is treated with irony and dark humor. The song also makes use of paranoia and aggression through the lyrics “It's gotta mean they're all up to something
I believe that American Idiot by Green Day is a significant cultural artefact because it changed the way people saw America. It changed people’s minds about George Bush and his war on
I see the form of Pathos in the album cover because at this time there was the Cold War going on, and we had just gotten out of southeast asia, so there was lots of patriotism that was being portrayed here. The way the thumb is pointed up seems that America is on the climb, and that everyone in America should feel that sense of, “America is a great country, and I am proud to live here.” Also, in the music video for this song, the “American Dream” seems to be portrayed very well because it shows, I can get a great new car and I can get a pretty girl to love me. Also you just seem to feel the patriotism from the video from how happy everyone seems and all the scenes happening, there are people dancing, and celebrating birthdays and playing lots of
Poetry 247 gives local artist; whether they're poets, singers, rappers, or comedians, information of all the local open mic events that are around them, while also giving them the opportunity to display their art and perfect their craft in front of a live audience. What's interesting about Poetry 247 is that they've promoted a plethora of open mics throughout the tristate area & in the DMV, such as Pecola Breedlove & The Freedom Party, Jus' Words, Busboys and Poets, Sounds In A Gallery, & Urban Juke Joint, but it never had an open mic event that was created by Poetry 247 themselves. But that all changed Friday, 3/4, when the first ever "The Poetry 247 Open Mic" was presented to the city of Brotherly Love at The Irish Pol located at 114 Market St, Philadelphia, PA.
The 1960s was the era of rebellion. It was a time when views of many people started to change dramatically as unexpected things were happening from the Cold War to the assassinations of nation’s leaders. So within this disturbed era, many citizens started to rebel and question the authorities saying that they were ruining the country. The younger generation, especially, stood firmly in front to lead the action to change the ideas of the older generation. One of the main methods they used to speak their opinions was through music and we can see the power it had on the people through one of the main protest anthems called “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969. The song speaks out to the elite controlled America and becomes one of many instances of the younger generation questioning and rebelling against the authority in the late 1960s. They send people a message that the citizens of United States do not live in a fair world and the authorities are not doing their jobs. By creating images through the comparative and descriptive lyrics such as who “waves the flag” , and “some folks are born with silver spoons in hand”, its repetition of the chorus “it ain’t me” and the instrumentation of the song which sounds like the cry of the working class to signify that the Vietnam War is a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight, this song by the Creedence Clearwater Revival shouts to the world that the elite-controlled America is unfair as it can get; and becomes a big part of the counterculture movement. However, contrary to the message of the song, challenges to authority and privilege did not come exclusively from the working class. Rather, members of the upper class were also involved in opposition movements, for instance vi...
After the band green day released their album “dookie” in 1994 green day was near the top of their career. It was some time since their last album 10 years later they released their album American idiot to respond of their outlook of post 9/11 america political tension and threats of terrorism were at a all time high so they timed the release of their album at a perfect time when people were distrusting in the government. The main part of the album is the song “jesus of suburbia” where it tells a story of a person named jimmy the entire album is focused around this person getting caught up and bewildered from his suburban life which lead to him leaving his home. After leaving jimmy finds new joy in his life in the song “holiday” which is