I'm personally not a fan in any way: I always feel that "Good Riddance" was a complete money-spinning hook to make as many people as possible feel that it applied to them. It's not really original, doesn't really say much since it tries to appeal to as many people as possible and I always find it a little bit insincere as a worn out anthem for leaving high school. If they went any deeper or attached any more meaning to the song, they would have worried about it halving their sales, which of course is not true, since there are many deep and thoughtful popular songs that have managed to be so without really compromising their appeal.
The band's musical prowess is also questionable, which seems to try and copy old school punk a little too much without actually capturing the wryness that the great punk and post punk bands had.

Anyway, that's just a personal dislike, if you love them, whatever floats your boat, I say.

^^yeah, I thought Vitamin C's Graduation was better for that type of thing

of course I'm a bookworm-ish type and not a fuck the Man in school type

Good Riddance is one song from a fantastic album, that perhaps was a victim of being overused and overplayed by many who felt they could relate.

However, I don't think you could deny that both that album; Nimrod and Dookie were excellent on the whole.

You talk about Greenday not being able to capture the essence of old-school punk. I'm not sure this was entirely what they were trying to do, but as I said the two albums I mentioned manage to be energetic, catchy and to-the-point with fine drumming and chord progression, which were traits prevalent in older punk records.

Possibly, I'm not claiming for a moment that punk in general has musical merit superior to Green Day, the Sex Pistols were proof of that.
As a band they never quite did it for me, I found their political songs well-meaning but shallow, but what's probably true is that if they were a decade older I'd probably be defending them right now.
Bit of a prejudiced bastard, I suppose.

I know of the songs you mean, off of the American Idiot and21st Century Breakdown albums but as with many pop-punk bands, I'd recommend checking out their earlier work.

They definitely lost their way a great deal when they switched to a more mainstream sound which I think truly first took fruition with their 2000 release, which for the life of me I can't remember the name of.

But, if you haven't already, I'd say listen to at least, Dookie.

^ That would be 'warning', which is a commercial alt rock sound that continued forward after that.

Classic Greenday did catch the essence and spirit of punk. From pre-Dookie to the late 90s. It was very successful, but quality wise it was legitimate pop punk that had all of the energy and attitude of the real stuff.

Warning and the following American Idiot were very well produced dreadful records.

Might be noteworthy that they’ve announce the beginning of studio work on their next album two days ago.

Anyone even catch any of the “secret show” audio that was streaming online months ago? Set lists of new songs, and from what I’ve heard, if you liked “Cigarettes & Valentines”, you might find these worth a listen when/if they are recorded for the new record.

November 17, 2011 at Red 7 in Austin TX. Attached a picture of the set list from that show. The audio quality was poor, but an enjoyable show.

I just got tickets to see the American Idiot musical for my girlfriend's birthday. I hope it's good. I normally don't like musicals all that much, but maybe since this is a "punk musical" it will be good.

I'm sure it'll be great. **** the haters, American Idiot is a great rock opera

great... I would not go that far.

Now I will start by saying I am a Green Day fan.... I do not hate them... but I still think American Idiot is mediocre at best. It is not an awful album, it has it's certain charm, but it is still far from being a great album.

Green Day will always be a band that is fun when they do not take themselves overtly seriously... Dookie was great because it had a good poppy sound, and kinda charmily simple lyrics... as was "Kerplunk" (my favorite Green Day album)...

but as they went on, and started going more serious they lost their charm and became ever more trivial and out of touch.

I think American Idiot is a good album in it's own right, but not a great one.