Hats off to Green Day

American Idiot, studio album by the American (sof) punk band Green Day, was released on September 2004. Before Green Day released American Idiot, two months ahead of President Bush's re-election, most music fans assumed that the Bay Area punk-pop trio was on the downward slope of a successful but artistically undistinguished career.

For the first time, we separated from our pasts.

They decided to produce a rock opera, inspired by the work of The Who and numerous musicals.
American Idiot was frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's version of `Tommy´, a concept album about a clueless teen the Jesus of Suburbia, who feels forgotten in Bush's America,

This land of make-believe/that don't believe in me.

It was same ideé of like int the Dino Valentei´s song What about me, 1970, in the feels of The Vietnam War:

And I feel like a stranger
In the land where I was born
And I live like an outlaw.
An' I'm always on the run.

American Idiot has sold over 14 million copies worldwide[2] and over 6 million copies in the US alone, lot, if we remember that it tells about big idiots, leaders of superpower. See the all story by JimTv.
Billie Joe Armstrong said,

As a songwriter, I get so deep into what I'm writing about, it's almost like I have to stir up shit to write about it.

American Idiot was such a bolt of lightning: not just because of the message, but because of the messenger, too. The clowns finally got serious, and no one could look away, The Newsweek wrote.

According to Armstrong no one has expected these guys to nail the fear, frustration and apathy of a war-torn nation on the brink. Until then, Green Day's signature album was titled `Dookie´, and its big hit was an anthem to a lazy afternoon of television and masturbation.