They have very good singles, mainly their 90's ones, but I never dug deep.

I know Billy is a big Oasis fan.

i m not a big fan but i like them a lot and i v got a lot of respect about them. Great band with an excellent discography.

I read somewhere Billie Joe has the smallest cock in rock.
Even smaller than Peter Frampton's. Tell a friend.

I'm a big fan of Green Day. A friend of mine bought me the "Bullet in A Bible" live album (dvd/cd) when I was about 14 or something, and I thought it was amazing. My first proper experience with rock music. Not long after that I also got the American Idiot record. The music had the melodic pop-sensibility, but also the more grandiouse rock-ballads and prog-songs, and the faster punk-numbers. For a long time I used to just play Bullet in A Bible over and over again and nothing else, while playing Football Manager on my computer. Good times.

They have had a long career that is successful in a way that I don't think many other bands have had. First they were big in the 90's, then they were starting to get surpassed by the bands that they had inspired, but then they got super-popular again with American Idiot, which of course was a brilliant album. The grandiose, ambitious and energetic spririt of the whole thing is wonderful. Even before they made a musical out of it it sounded incredibly playful and theatrical by itself. 21st Century Breakdown was also great, though it felt a little bit like they tried to replicate American Idiot. The artistry was there, but not the same genuine heart behind it. After that they kinda went wrong with the triology of albums they released, but that was a combination of a producer who polished the songs way too much, and Bille Joe Armstrong going too far with his substance abuse. A lot of weird and mediocre music on those records. Still there's some gems on those albums, like X-Kid from "¡Tré!". On "Missing You" (which is mostly an average song) from the same record, there is also a middle-eight that is just brilliant and showcase the talent they still have: first there's just a groovy bass-line, then a simple riff is played on electric guitar over it, and then Billie Joe goes full Everly Brothers in his vocal singing "oh she's my blod, oh she's my soul, I get so lost, out in the cold".


Like oasis they also know how to steal cleverly from their influences and putting their own twist on it. Considering that they have a lot of the same influences as oasis, like the beatles, the who, the sex pistols, the clash, the kinks and so on, that makes for a pretty great mix. Blend in also a little bit of the everly brothers, the replacements, the ramones and etc, and you got green day. American Idiot was very inspired by rock-operas like Quadrophenia by The Who, and the Warning album is very inspired by The Kinks. Both Liam and Billie Joe are inspired by Johnny Rotten and etc. It's kinda annoying to hear how people talk about what "true music", "true punk" or "true rock" is. Either if you listen to Noel and Liam's comments on green day, or the people bashing them as sellouts and etc, you gotta admit that they come from the same vein as Oasis and is based on some great musical elements. There's the melodic sensitivity of the 60's pop-bands, combined with the rawness of the classic rock and punk rock bands like the who and the sex pistols, mixed together in a wall of sound with a lot of electric guitar. I think that if people tried to truyly check out the albums instead of judging them by the singles and things said in the media from other bands and critics, I think they would discover at least a few songs or albums they would surprisingly enjoy very much. 

Though my musical taste has changed a bit, I still would put Green Day up with Oasis as one of my definitive favorite artists.

I like the duets album Billie did with Norah Jones.

I loved them as a teenager, before I knew about REM or Oasis. I still like them now - they're not the greatest band, they repeat themselves a lot, but Billie Joe Armstrong knows how to write a catchy chorus.
Warning, American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown were all really, really good, and the Uno/Duo/tres thing has enough good songs for at least one album (making 3 albums instead of just one really good one was a hugely stupid idea imo).
Favorite song:

What Liam said about the lead singer having a weird head...

i like a couple of songs,,not a fan though

This answer is partially a reply to you, but also a rant against the typical criticism against the band, and the more conservative ideas about punk that this is connected to.


The thing is, the moment you start to define what punk should sound like or be like, then it's not longer about defiying the establishment. It's a very conservative idea that goes against the very spirit of what punk is about. As Kurt Cobain said: “Punk is musical freedom. It’s saying, doing and playing what you want." When people make normative statements about punk, it undermines that very idea of freedom in it. If you are just following a socially constructed idea of what punk should sound like, then you end up being the opposite of punk. People who do what they want without giving a f*** about what other people think, they are punk. Bubblegum punk or not. As the band said themselves, when they released "Time Of Your Life" it was perhaps the most punk rock thing they could do. Green Day tried to listen to the people critizising them for being to pop one time, which resulted in the 1995 album Insomniac, which was a mixed success. After that they have mostly done whatever they've felt like doing. 

I'm not a big fan of the recording industry and the big labels who often are really more concerned with making money for themselves than helping the artists. But at the same time you have people like the owners at the 924 Gilman Street Club who denied Green Day access to play there when they had signed on to a big label. And those are not really any better. It wasn't about the music, there was just the idea that you couldn't be punk without sticking to a tiny indie record label and playing small clubs. In that way, that idea along with the idea of what punk should sound like, actually constitutes and constructs an establishment in itself. For a long time the band have been giving the middle finger to exactly that.

The only place they truly went wrong on this is with 21st Century Breakdown. They tried to replicate the American Idiot album to get the same success. The music was still good, but at the same time it took its toll on the band. It gave them renewed success and a lot of money, but it also was the start of what sent Bille Joe on a downward spiral with abuse of alcohol, anti-anxiety drugs and insomnia drugs, which in the end led to his breakdown. The lesson learned is that you are happiest as a musician when you can make the music that you love. Not what other people think it should be, punk enough or commercial enough, but what kind of music the artist enjoys making. Not what kind of label they are signed on, but if people enjoy the music. Of course people can have different taste in music, but don't really understand why the size of the record label or normative ideas about musical genres (bubblegum punk, real punk rock etc) should have anything to say in that regard.

Depends on your definition of "punk", to me it has always been about going your own path without kowtowing to other people's opinions simply because they don't like it or because of accepted norms it makes them uncomfortable. I apply this to business, personal and social life, so in the case of Green Day by that thinking they aren't punk. My opinion only though   

What they did remind me of was a modern update on