Green Day
With over sixty five million records sold, twenty five million in the US, Green Day has proven that they are not just any ordinary punk rock band. Formed in 1987 with the original name of Sweet Children, the band consists of a trio, which includes their lead vocalist and guitarist, Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and the drummer Tre Cool. Cool was not the original drummer of the group till he replaced John Kiffmeyer in one of their concerts in the year 1990. The Green Day band recalls its history as being part of the punk scene at 924 Gilman Street in California.
Green Day and Lookout Records
Green Day’s first lucky moment was when Larry Livermore, owner of the Lookout records saw them performing in a bar. He got interested in them and had asked Green Day to perform and record under his label, and the rest was history. In 1989 Green Day recorded their first extended play, the 1000 hours. But prior to the release of 1000 hours, they had changed their name from Sweet Children to Green Day to avoid confusion from another local band, Sweet Baby.
After Green Day’s first extended play, they released their debut studio album called 39/month in 1990 under the same record studio. Green Day have release two extended plays. After Green Day’s first extended play, they released their debut studio album called 39/month in 1990 under the same record studio. Green Day have release two extended plays.
When Green Day released their second studio album, Kerplunk, it sold 50 000 copies all over the US. This album got the attention of a number of major record labels and made them interested to work with the uprising band. Few months later, the band left Lookout records and signed to Reprise Records.
Now under a new record label, Green Day worked on their album with the title Dookie. It was just recorded for three weeks and was immediately released in February 1994. It has gained a huge commercial success because a lot of Green Day’s songs were constantly being played on MTV, and that helped them increase their range of popularity. The songs, “Long View” and “When I Come Around” were among the fan favorite and have landed in the number one position of Modern Rock Tracks.
Also on the year 1994, the band performed in different events, one of this was the Woodstuck’94. Watched by millions in a pay-per-view, nevertheless increased the Green Day’s popularity and slowly helped them to make a name for themselves, in this music industry.
In 1995, Green Day released another album entitled “J.A.R.” with a single that has reached the first place in the Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks. The album was followed by another one called “Insomniac” which was found to have contents that are darker and heavier in comparison to the melodic Dookie. Although the album did not surpass the sales of Dookie, it has caused Green Day some band award nominations like Favorite Artist, Favorite Hard Rock Artist, and Favorite Alternative Artist at the 1996 American Music awards. They have also received a Grammy and MTV Video Music Awards nominations.
Claiming that they got exhausted, Green Day cancelled their European tour and took a short break from making music.
After their short break, Green Day decided to release an experimental album, which they called “Nimrod” on 1997.
This album contained a change in the type of music they were playing, from being dark and heavy, switched to a laidback surfer rock, upbeat pop music and some ballads. Nowhere in their expectations expected that one of the songs on the album, “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” would cause them to win another MTV Award for Best Alternative Video.
After this period, the band decided to have a longer break, two years this time. The band’s main purpose on taking a break was to focus and spend time with their individual families.
In 1999 their newest member, Jason White, a guitarist and backing vocals, joined them. A year later, with the same style of Nimrod, Green Day released “Warning” saying it was one their greatest collaboration as a team. From the sound reflected in the songs, it had suggested that the band members of Green day had stopped smoking marijuana, as they previously did, and it has also suggested that the members have grown up.
In 2001, Green Day won eight out of eight nominations during the California Music awards. That same year, they released a compilation, “International Superhits” followed in 2002 by “Shenanigans”. They also went on a series of tours, including one with the Blink 182 group, and after sometime, they have decided to take a short break again to spend time with their families.
Green Day’s shining moment
When Green Day released their album, “American Idiot” in 2004, never did the group expect that this would become a super hit. In fact, this was their first album to sold more than 1.5 million of copies worldwide, and went straight to number one in some countries such as Japan, Australia, Canada and UK. As of this writing, it is still that highest grossing album the group has ever had. The album brought them six Grammy nominations in 2004, and made them won the Best Rock Album. Because of this continued success, the members decided to change their group image and had stopped dyeing their hairs since then. Instead, they began wearing eyeliners with dark or black clothes.
They had their longest international tour on 2005 that lasted for 150 days. Following that year, they received recognition from the Grammy Awards as the Record of the Year. They continued to release several albums then, with songs hitting the charts, slowly, they have gained gold or platinum status of their albums in some other countries especially for the songs, “Know Your Enemy” and “Song of the Century”
Today, the group is busy recording their ninth album and has recently been uploading behind the scenes videos of their new album. Green Day are schedules to perform at the 2012 Summer Sonic Festival.
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Tags: Billie Joe Armstrong, Donkie, Green Day, Mike Dirnt, Nimrod, Tre Cool