American Idiot (song): Difference between revisions

"American Idiot" is a song by American pop-punk band Green Day, and is the first single from their seventh album, American Idiot.

Released in 2004, the single peaked at #61 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Green Day's first chart entry (previous singles had not been allowed to chart). Although the song was a relative flop in the U.S., it is known for reviving the career of Green Day (the song performed poorly for reasons which will be described below, but the song helped the album become a major hit), and for its controversial lyrics which many see as a political attack against George W. Bush and his government. However, it should be noted that the appearance of "American Idiot" on the US singles charts occurred just prior to Billboard Magazine's inclusion of internet download purchases into their Hot 100 chart data, which would have made a significant difference in the song's peak had it benefitted from the new chart tabulation system. This most recent form of sales assessment has resulted in the far greater successes of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Holiday" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends".

"American Idiot" became Green Day's first Top 5 single in the United Kingdom, reaching #3, and peaked at #7 in Australia. It debuted at #1 in Canada, holding onto the zenith position for five weeks.

The song was written by all three members of Green Day, and was co-produced by Green Day and Rob Cavallo. It is widely known for the guitar riff that plays through the whole song, excluding the chorus.

"American Idiot" ridicules the U.S. government under George W. Bush. Green Day made no effort to hide their political identity and they are strongly opposed to President Bush. In the song, they refer to such issues as gay rights, propaganda, media, and George Bush's southern background. "American Idiot" was strongly opposed by some U.S. Americans who supported the president, leading many to believe that this was the reason why it failed in the United States, despite becoming a top-ten hit almost everywhere else in the world, perhaps helped by the criticism of George Bush. ^[1]American Idiot has also been certified as an RIAA Gold ringtone (500,000 downloads) along with Boulevard of Broken Dreams, American Idiot's second single^[2].

Regardless of its weak U.S. release, the song helped pave the road for the future American Idiot singles, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" (which, in a great turnaround, would reach #2 in the U.S.), "Holiday" (a Top 30 hit worldwide), "Wake Me Up When September Ends" (which would reach #6 in the U.S. and the Top 20 worldwide), and "Jesus of Suburbia".

The EP and single covers are two frames of the scene shown on the single's cover. The EP shows the mom and the dad holding a kid while running and the single cover shows them swinging him over a bear trap. The mom and dad may be the Mum and Brad characters from Jesus of Suburbia.

The song was featured in the trailer for the 2005 film Wedding Crashers.

The song is on Madden NFL 2005.

Parodied by Weird Al Yankovic on his upcoming album Straight Outta Lynwood. The parody is called "Canadian Idiot."

Ironically, it's called American Idiot, and reached #1 on the Canadian Charts, possibly the inspiration for Weird Al's Parody. (see above)