Thoughts on growing out of pop punk music from the early 2000s.
I Hope Youâve Had The Time of Your Life
Iâve always felt like Green Day has been trying to re-capture the magic of American Idiot for almost 20 years now.
Their newest single The American Dream Is Killing Me doesnât do much to convince me otherwise.
The most egregious attempt at trying to make the American Idiot lightning strike twice was 21st Century Breakdown.  And to be clear, this isnât a slight against the album at all. In many ways itâs actually a much better album that American Idiot.
But you canât cross the same river twice. There will never be another American Idiot. Not just for Green Day, but for anyone. The influence a piece of art has, and the impact it makes, has as much to do with the work itself as it does with the time it was released.
(Not) Feeling This
Though out of all the pop-punk bands in the world, the band that I think I may be most disappointed with is Blink-182.
Mark and Tom are still mediocre at their instruments. And I know how elitist and judgemental it sounds, but if youâve been playing for over thirty years you’d think you’d want to try something besides power chords and root note bass lines. It just blows my mind that people can spend that much time doing something and never be curious enough to try anything new.
Though the most disappointing thing is that they actually ventured out and wrote new and more challenging music when blink was broken up. Whether or not you enjoyed Angels and Airwaves, at least Tom was doing something different. Boxcar racer, while still very clearly a blink-esque band, at least went places blink wasnât going to go. (If it’s not already obvious, I didn’t think much of blink-lite +44).
Also maybe at a certain point the jerk off humour gets a little stale?