Billie Joe Armstrong’s favourite punk song of all time: “The guitar playing is unreal”
I was once interviewing the producer Jonathan Snipes about noise rock, and he made a very interesting point about the evolution of the genre.
For those of you who might not be too clued up on the history of noise rock, it was essentially used by artists in a bid to represent their frustration with the outside world without specifically talking about it. The inaccessibility of noise was supposed to represent the inaccessibility of the world around the musician / the listener. You didn’t like the sound of it? Good, you weren’t supposed to.
However, as is the case with all art, that changed over time. You suddenly had these rebellious music lovers buying record collections of noise music, and subsequently developing taste in it. The point of noise was that it was supposed to be awful and jarring, but then you had people with hundreds of albums, each of which triggered a different response in them. Some noise music made them happy, some made them sad, and then other albums danced around all feelings in between.
It means that now, you can still get noise artists who adhere to the genre’s classic values, but you have some other artists who make it in a bid to evoke a specific emotion. Additionally, you have some artists who combine it with other genres in a bid to add more atmosphere. The aforementioned Jonathan Snipes uses it in the group Clipping, which is a hip hop trio who blend genres together.
Why am I telling you this? Why am I prefacing an article about Billie Joe Armstrong with a brief history of noise music? Well, it’s because before we go any further, I need to wholeheartedly confirm that no matter who some punk traditionalists might think, Billie Joe Armstrong, and the rest of his Green Day cohort, for that matter, and well and truly punk rockers.
The band often find themselves on the receiving end of criticism because of how their punk music gives off a bit more of a pop-infused feel than a lot of your original punk bands, but this simply represents the evolution of the genre, it doesn’t dwindle it. Punk started out as a pillow that frustrated people could scream into. It was a release of frustration and anger. This was loved by many, and those who loved it then morphed the genre into something that had more layers, so you now have different iterations of punk rather than just that one original meaning.
When Billie Joe Armstrong and Co make punk music, they do so invoking the spirit of those who were doing it before them, and while it might take a slightly different shape, it’s still extremely relevant. As such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to readers when Billie Joe Armstrong was talking about his favourite punk bands, he spoke highly of those who channelled the spirit of original punk. His favourite song within the genre is one that he feels is the best representation of Britain in the ‘70s, i.e. the birthplace of the punk movement.
“‘Wild Youth’ by Generation X is so freaking catchy,” said Armstrong when discussing his favourite punk track, “And it’s all about, like, being a punk and rebellion in England, 1977. The guitar playing is unreal, and Billy [Idol’s] voice sounds amazing. It’s one of my favourite punk songs of all time.”
