Get the latest gossip

Was Green Day’s 2005 the Greatest Pop Year for a 2000s Rock Band?

This Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast looks at 2005 Green Day, at the height of its career-peak 'American Idiot' run.

The legendary pop-punk trio had taken over rock music and MTV from 1994-95 with its RIAA diamond-certified debut album Dookie, and had fortified their status as alt-rock fixtures in the years since, but with a growing distance both from the mainstream and within the band itself. Then, in 2004, Mike Dirnt, Tré Cool and Billie Joe Armstrong decided to recommit to one another and go for the stadium rock brass ring with the most ambitious album of their career: American Idiot, which topped the Billboard 200, drew the band’s best reviews to date, and reasserted their rock stardom with its hard-charging, protest-minded title track. Along the way, we ask all the big questions about Green Day during this peak run: What made the trio such a central band to rock music in the era of emo and stadium indie?

Get the Android app