Green Day's 'American Idiot' Is The Perfect Crystallization of George W. Bush's America

On art as a time capsule, and a time that almost feels forgotten

One of the most interesting pop culture intersections is the intersection between art and politics. While not all art is not intentionally created with politics in mind, much of culture is shaped by the politics of the world it’s created in. This is never more clear than with music. Going back a century, you can find songs that either talk about the era it was made in, or reflect the culture shifts. Think about Jazz in the 1920s, or the more somber music that was made during The Great Depression. Wartime music from the 1940s vs. the wholesome prosperity of the 1950s. The 60s and 70s are musically defined by the protest music that was happening across genres: songs like “War” by Edwin Starr, “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye, “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, I could go on.

Music in that time wasn’t just protesting war, it was also reflecting what was happening in regular society. Stevie Wonder’s “Living For the City” is a nearly eight minute opus on inner-city life. Loretta Lynn’s “The Pill” talks about the freedom women experienced after being able to take birth control pills. Those songs have become a musical time capsule that will give future generations some important lessons. That kind of music started to fall off in the 80s and 90s, with the exception of Rap and R&B music. But then in 2004, an album came out that became a perfect example of the ways music can be a time capsule. And that album is American Idiot by Green Day. I guess I’m keeping with stuff that came out 2004 and hurting my own feelings.

When you think about everything we’ve lived through in the last 10 years, it’s hard to believe that in 2004 we didn’t think things could get worse. But in September of 2004, when the “punk rock opera” was released, we really didn’t think life could get worse. At that point, we had already lived through 9/11, and were knee deep in the Iraq War. Those of us who had any hope of not having to live through another four years of George W. Bush’s reign of terror were pinning it all on John Kerry, a man so nondescript that I literally cannot tell you anything about him 20 years later. 

In September 2004, I was 18 years old and starting my first year at Emerson College. I had lived through 9/11 directly (a story that I will tell in bits and pieces I’m sure) and I was terrified that W. would be reelected. It’s a lot of pressure to have your first major election be the most important presidential election of the last, like, 20 years. Lot of fucking pressure folks. I was incredibly idealistic and anti-war and anti-Republican. Their level of conservatism scared the shit out me — I wasn’t particularly radical, but I had a strong moral compass, and I didn’t like their rhetoric. War scared me, and I knew that the Iraq War wasn’t anything but a personal vendetta W. had against Saddam Hussein for Desert Storm in the 90s. 2004 was a real turning point for the U.S. — it really set us on the trajectory we’ve been traveling on ever since.

American Idiot was written as a rock opera ala The Who’s Tommy, but much more grounded in reality. The band’s goal was to capture the simmering rage of a generation coming of age during a time where their ideals were in direct conflict with the warmongering and capitalism that was driving the government. Green Day were cis white guys in their early 30s when they were making this album, but I think the album does a great job capturing the overall feeling of hopelessness and growing apathy of Millennials, even if the direct experiences are not reflective of my own life. The album was supposed to reflect small town, suburban life, and that’s very much not my experience as a girl who grew up in one of the biggest cities in the world. But I knew the people this album was focusing on. 

The album version of American Idiot focuses on the unnamed character, known only as the “Jesus of Suburbia.” He leaves his middle of nowhere town for the big city and ends up meeting a girl with a strong sense of right and wrong with strong ideals, “Whatshername”. The two fall in love, but their relationship ultimately fails thanks to a third character, St. Jimmy — the drug fueled madman who pushes the main character to the brink. Green Day really managed to expertly capture the simmering rage of the middle American cis-het white man that would come to a head in 2016. 

I’ll admit that when American Idiot was released, I only knew the biggest singles: “Wake Me Up When September Ends” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” It wasn’t until 2010 that I really began listening to the album in full — my purse got stolen with my iPod in it and I had to use my then boyfriend’s until I could afford to get a new one. That was one of the only albums he had on there that I really liked. Even then, six years after it was released, it already felt like it captured a very specific moment in time, but it still felt fresh

At the same time I was really digging into the album, American Idiot had been adapted into a musical and was playing on Broadway. For my birthday in 2011, I decided that I really wanted to go see it before it closed for two reasons: Billie Joe Armstrong was playing the role of St. Jimmy, and I thought it would be so unbelievably cool to see the person who created the musical star in it, and Justin Guarini was also starring in the show as Will. Justin was the runner-up on the first season of American Idol, losing to Kelly Clarkson. I LOVED him, and not just because his name was Justin and he had curly hair. He was so talented, and I relished the opportunity to see him live on Broadway. Of course, he was out on the night we went, because that’s just the kind of thing that happens to me.

American Idiot the musical expands on the story created on the album. The “Jesus of Suburbia” character, now named Johnny, has two best friends, Will and Tunny. The three of them decide to leave Jingletown, USA for the big city, but Will ends up staying home with his pregnant girlfriend and becoming a depressed pothead with no sense of direction. Tunny is overwhelmed by the city and joins the military, where he ends up losing a leg in the war. Johnny still meets Whatshername and ends up falling victim to St. Jimmy, who is now more clearly defined as Johnny’s id: “a figment of [his] father's rage and [his] mother's love.” It is performed without an intermission, so it reads more like an album in that sense, but it’s nothing but non-stop energy. I loved it.

The interesting thing about American Idiot as an album versus a musical comes down to one thing — when they were created. The album was written in the middle of G.W. Bush’s first term and felt desperate and necessary. But the musical was created and premiered during Barack Obama’s first term. We were finally recovering from the recession that rocked 2008 and 2009, and while we were still entangled in the Afghan war, it wasn’t as prominent on the front page as it was in 2004. The musical didn’t feel dated per se, but you could very clearly place when it was created, and already begin to think that we had moved so far past that time that we would never go back. Oh now naive we were. 

Thanks to the collective trauma of the last 10 years, I had truly forgotten about the collective trauma of the early aughts. There is a docuseries produced by Tom Hanks and CNN that focuses on each decade, starting with the 1960s. It’s cool in that it’s not linear, instead each episode focuses on a different theme. I have plans to write about the music and television episodes of the 90s and 00s sometime soon. I hadn’t watched the 2000s previously, so I watched the whole thing, and while watching the episodes about George W. Bush, there were so many things I had somehow blocked out. At one point, I called my dad and was like, “remember the ‘weapons of mass destruction?’ What a wild time to be alive.” If you didn’t live through it, you’d never believe it, which is something I learned when my 10-year-old decided to sit down and watch with me.

A few weeks ago, it was announced that there would be a new staging of American Idiot the musical here in LA. The Center Theater Group is pairing up with Deaf West for the production, in the same vein as the most recent productions of Spring Awakening (which was a contemporary of the original Broadway run of American Idiot) and Big River. The production will run in the fall, and I’m so excited/curious to see it. The musical is so specific to the time in which it was created, that I’m curious to see how they’re going to tweak it to make it more palatable to a 2024 audience. Revivals often take big swings, but I’m hoping they don’t with this one. Because of recent history, I feel like we really need something that perfectly encapsulates what was happening 20 years ago.