GREEN DAY
AMERICAN
IDIOT
2004
American idiot is an album
released in 2004 by the punk-rock band Green Day. American Idiot follows
the story of ‘Jesus of Suburbia’, an adolescent anti-hero who is divided between "rage and love."
This is closely
depicted by the heart shaped grenade shown on the album cover. It is an ironic yet
influential statement presented by the band conveying the themes of love and
hate. This is visually represented by the red and white colours; red symbolises
the hate as red connotes with blood and death. White however, represents peace
and purity which is what the world is aiming for. This was Green Day’s aim when
releasing this album; with the artwork and lyrics: to advertise peace and
alliance.
The heart-shaped
grenade was influenced by the lyric "And she's holding on my heart like a
hand grenade" from "She's a Rebel" which features on the album.
This ‘theory of
colour’ is further reinforced as the band’s name is written in white and in a
larger font on the cover, yet the album name is written below it in red,
suggesting that the bands beliefs in peace and unity surpasses the principles
of hostility and conflict, (expressed by the title ‘American Idiot’.)
Also, the arm
holding the grenade is white demonstrating that humans are pure however the
weapons that we use (in this case, a grenade) are what makes us evil.
The themes of
this album were far more political too; the subject of their songs and image
was to express their dismay at the current wars in Iraq and the then-upcoming
election in the USA too.
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