It’s been five years since Green Day’s American Idiot took the world by storm, capitalizing on anti-Bush, anti-American sentiment to sell over 5 million records. Their newest effort, 21st Century Breakdown, follows American Idiot both in form and content. It is a concept album of massive proportions (18 songs!) preaching a Marxist gospel of despair and revolution. But instead of directing his anger at America, Billie Joe Armstrong has set his sights upon modern Western culture in general.
Musically, 21st Century Breakdown generally covers territory previously explored in their past albums: echoes of Dookie, Insomniac, Nimrod, and Warning can all be heard throughout. Yet 21st Century Breakdown ingeniously blends all these together to produce an anthology of punk that equals, if not surpasses, the brilliance of American Idiot.
But the real heart of 21st Century Breakdown are its consistent apocalyptic-themed lyrics. The rock opera loosely follows the story of two young punks on the brink of the end of world and dawn of a new age. What is this world that is ending? It is a world marked by: economic imbalance -“Coca Cola execution”, war – “She wears an overcoat for the coming of the nuclear winter”, political oppression – 
“Praise, Liberty, the freedom to obey- it’s a song that strangles me”, and religious belief “I threw my crutches in ‘the river of a shadow of doubt'”. The old world is coming to an end and Green Day calls all to arms, to “fight fire with a riot”.
Green Day does not strictly speak of corporate despair, but of also personal loss and desperation. In the song, Restless Heart Syndrome, Armstrong admits “I’ve got a really bad disease. It’s got me begging on my hands and knees. Take me to emergency ’cause something seems to be missing.” The song Before the Lobotomy speaks of hearts “washed in misery, drenched in gasoline,” rain that “had washed away all these scatter dreams,” and laments that “when the sky is falling down it burned your dreams into the ground.”
But what separates 21st Century Breakdown from your run-of-the-mill punk angst is the hope for love in the midst of despair. In Last Night on Earth Billie Joe surprisingly sings “My beating heart belongs to you. I walked for miles ’till I found you. I’m here to honor you. If I lose everything in the fire, I’m sending all my love to you.” This refrain of love is found interspersed between the fits of rage and revolution. The end of the world will bring love and hope. As the theme song says:
“Sing us a song of the century, That sings like American eulogy. The dawn of my love and conspiracy, Of forgotten hope and the class of ’13. Tell me a story into that Goodnight. Sing us a song for me”
What strikes me most clearly about this album is how freely the lyrics associate Christianity with the corruption of the powers-that-be. When he speaks of “missionary politicians” or “blasphemy, war and peace” it’s almost intentionally ambiguous whether he’s speaking of a political Christian leaders or Christian politicians. The offense of Christianity for him is not the Savior of the world and giver of an unmerited love, but it is Christianity’s marriage to a cultural ideology which he sees as destructive. Armstrong’s target is not Christianity, per se, but rather its popular expression in the public square.
The irony of 21st Century Breakdown is, for all its explicitly anti-Christian sentiment, there is much that Christianity can glean from this album. For starters, despite its self-righteous tone, it speaks honestly about the tragedy of life: “Like refugees, We’re lost like refugees. The brutality of reality is the freedom that keeps me from…Dreaming.” Billie Joe sees this tragedy both externally (western civilization) and internally (“I am my own worst enemy”). He hopes for a time when the ills of the world will be purged – a notably Christian concept. Most importantly, in the midst of social and personal upheaval Billie Joe sees genuine love as the only hope. Love is found in the midst of the ruins of life. Billie Joe hopes to replace a world of corruption, deceit and violence with one of love.
COMMENTS
15 responses to “Green Day: Prophets of Despair… and Hope? A "21st Century Breakdown" Review”
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amazing review, Todd. can’t wait to listen! i’ve had “homecoming” off American Idiot on repeat all day…
The positive aspects you mention seem to require a lot of searching and digging. I tried, but I couldn’t see any Good in this album.
At some point, the question of “is this music beneficial to my Christian life?” has to be answered no.
Boaz–very interesting. The question I want to ask here is: What is “my Christian life” and how do we understand “beneficial”? On the first point, is “Christian life” merely personal piety (like the Byrds sing in the song “I Like the Christian Life” from _Sweethearts of the Rodeo_?) Is “Christian Life” just more thought control and all that? Or is it simultaneous awareness of our sin (and the world’s depravity) and a consciousness of God’s grace to me? (Which, by the way, I think, leads to the fruitful Christian life–but by the Spirit, and not by effort.) “Beneficial” and “good” are slippery terms in light of the New Testament. Christianity is full of “bad” things God calls good (tax collectors, prostitutes, and a Messiah crucified as a lawbreaker), and “good” things (at least as the world sees them) that God calls bad (like religious leader, pious zealots, and material comfort). That’s why an album with ideas like 21st Century Breakdown might be good: It reveals the real badness of the world–which is a very biblical thing to do. And it causes Christians to ask themselves why would someone so desperate for love, like Billy Joe, not find it in Christianity as he has seen it portrayed in our culture?
Aaron Zimmerman just nailed it.
NAILED it!
Aaron
Great response to Boaz. I stumbled across this website a week ago and love the fact that the idea is not be afraid of our culture but to use good sound gospel thinking to redeem it and put it to good use.
I don’t know much about Green Day but your response could be applied to any number of records, movies or books.
Looked up your profile and saw you’re in Sewicley. My aunt and cousins are from Moon Township and I grew up down in Washington County. Heading back next week to see the folks.
Peace
Jeff
Jeff, great to know that you have family in the area. Stop by St. Stephen’s anytime! (And so glad you found Mockingbird!)
Jeff: here is the blog for the ministry I run at St. Stephen’s. You can see the kind of stuff we do. http://anchoryou.blogspot.com/
Really enjoyed that post, Todd.
Todd-
what are the best songs on the record from a purely musical standpoint? i.e. which ones should i download first?
dz
Todd, great post! I am continuously impressed by mockingbird’s uncanny ability to flesh out what we can find of the Gospel in modern music, movies, etc. Although I am not too much of a Green Day fan, I was blessed by this review and can see how Green Day is penetrating into some of our woes and yearnings for hope in this “21st Century Breakdown.” Thanks again.
Dave,
If you liked “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” then “21 guns” is really good. I like “Last of the American Girls” as a head bobbing pop song. “Last night on Earth” is a pure love ballad if you’re up for that. “East Jesus of Nowhere” is probably one of my favorites, its an edgy/hard songs. “Know Your Enemy” is the current single- it’s a catchy, but repetitive, stadium anthem. “Horseshoes and Handgrenades” is garage rock- not totally my thing, but it’s new territory and they do it well. I like “Before the Lobotomy” – it has a heart-felt acoustic beginning, followed by a true punk song in alternating 4/4, 3/4 time signatures.
who do u think has brought destruction n agonu the most ????christianity or is it some other extreme fanatics of some other religion.channel ur anger to the real cause.
jebastin, I'm not sure what you're getting at, could you clarify? I don't think that fanaticism is to blame, inasmuch as fanaticism admirably seeks for religion to engage the whole of reality.
Problem: Billy Joe is rooting for communism as though in the few short years of its misbegotten life, Marxism were not responsible for geometrically greater numbers of victims of ideological slaughter than Christianity has managed over 2 thousand years.
If you don’t like Christianity because some Christian heads of state ordered mass killing and war, then that’s just fine. But to then go running into the arms of the most murderous philosophy ever unleashed on humanity kind of puts the lie to all the crap he talks about Christianity. Marxists, wherever they gain power, murder Christians and anybody else that disagrees with them. The moment someone tells me he’s a Marxist, I discount every ethical complaint he spews about Christianity because he’s embraced an ideology that’s orders of magnitude worse.
I wouldn’t give one penny to Green Day.
Thanks for the awsome review, it really helped me to better comprehend the theme of the album. There’s just one thing I’d like to ask you: when you say “Marxist gospel of despair and revolution” what specific relevance do you mean between the album’s message and Marxism? Can you give me a brief explanation?