21st Century Breakdown

21st Century Breakdown is the eighth studio album by the American punk rock band Green Day. It is the band's secondrock opera, following American Idiot, and their first album to be produced by Butch Vig. Green Day commenced work on the record in January 2006 and forty-five songs were written by vocalist/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong by October 2007, but the band members did not enter studio work until January 2008.[1] [2]

The album was released May 15, 2009 through Reprise Records. Armstrong has described the album as a "snapshot of the era in which we live as we question and try to make sense of the selfish manipulation going on around us, whether it be the government, religion, media or frankly any form of authority".[3]  The singles "Know Your Enemy" and "21 Guns" exemplify the themes of alienation and politically motivated anger present in the record.

Critical response to 21st Century Breakdown was generally positive. The record achieved Green Day's best chart performance to date by reaching number one on the album charts of various countries, including the United StatesBillboard 200, the European Top 100 Albums, and the United Kingdom Albums Chart. It was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album at the 52nd Grammy Awards held on January 31, 2010. As of December 2010, 21st Century Breakdown has sold 1,005,000 copies in the United States[4]  and more than 4 million worldwide.



Contents
[hide]  *1 Writing and recording 
 * 2 Themes and composition
 * 3 Promotion and release
 * 4 Critical reception
 * 4.1 Accolades
 * 4.2 Album awards
 * 5 Track listing
 * 5.1 Bonus tracks
 * 6 Personnel
 * 7 Release history
 * 8 Chart performance
 * 9 Certifications
 * 10 Notes
 * 11 References

Writing and recording
Green Day began to write new songs for what would become 21st Century Breakdown in January 2006 after touring extensively in 2005 in support of their seventh studio album American Idiot.[5]  At the time, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong stated, "We'll start with silence, and that's how we'll be able to find the inspiration to find another record."[6]  The band did not release any details of the writing and recording process until October 2007, when Armstrong said in an interview withRolling Stone that he had written "something like 45 songs".[1] [2]  The band members worked on the primitive conceptual stages of the album at their rehearsal studio in Oakland, California. Little was revealed on the themes or musical style of the album, but Armstrong pointed out, "I want to dig into who I am and what I'm feeling at this moment – which is middle-aged." He added that many of the 45 songs were written on piano rather than guitar.[1]

Green Day began the recording process for 21st Century Breakdown in January 2008.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[7]  Later that year, it was confirmed that the band worked with producer Butch Vig.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[8]  The album was recorded with Vig throughout 2008 and into early 2009 at four locations in California: Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood, Studio 880 in Oakland, Jel Studios in Newport Beach, and Costa Mesa Studios in Costa Mesa.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[9]  While recording in Hollywood, the band members bought cheap turntables from Amoeba Music and listened to many vinyl records for inspiration, including albums by The Beat and The Plimsouls.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10]  Armstrong cited as inspiration the music of The Kinks' Ray Davies, The Pretty Things' S.F. Sorrow, The Doors' The Doors and Strange Days, and Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10]  Drummer Tré Cool noted the influence of Eddie Cochran and The Creation on Armstrong's writing.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">While writing at his home studio, Armstrong worked on a cover of The Who's 1966 mini-opera "A Quick One, While He's Away"; Green Day recorded a full-band version of the song during the album sessions.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[11]  Vig noted that frustrations would sometimes cause delays in the recording process for 21st Century Breakdown.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_48_2-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[2]  Armstrong kept his lyrics closely guarded and intentionally mixed his demos so that the vocals were low in the mix and thus unintelligible to the other band members.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-3" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10]  It was not until late 2008 that he chose to share his words with Cool, Vig, and bassist Mike Dirnt by sitting down with them and reading the entire album's lyrics aloud in order.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-4" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10] The band members made the finishing touches on the album in early April 2009 and claimed that its release would lead to a "kind of... post-partum depression".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[12]

Themes and composition
<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">I look at Christian and Gloria, and it's me. Gloria is one side: this person trying to hold on to this sense of belief, still trying to do good. Whereas Christian is deep into his own demons and victimizing himself over that.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-5" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:9.60000038146973px;">[10]

Billie Joe Armstrong, on the link between the two main protagonists of21st Century Breakdown and himself<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">21st Century Breakdown continues the rock opera style of its predecessor, American Idiot.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[13]  The album is divided into three acts: "Heroes and Cons", "Charlatans and Saints", and "Horseshoes and Handgrenades" and is set inDetroit, Michigan.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[14]  Its loose narrative follows a young couple named Christian and Gloria through the challenges present in the U.S. following the presidency of George W. Bush.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[15]  Bassist Mike Dirnt has compared the relationships between the songs to those in Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, saying that the themes are not as tightly interwoven as in a concept album, but that they are still connected.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[16]  Many of the record's themes and lyrics are drawn from Armstrong's personal life and he sings in the first-person narrative style about abandonment and vengeance in "Before the Lobotomy", "Christian's Inferno", and "Peacemaker".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-6" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10]  Rolling Stone noted that the album is "the most personal, emotionally convulsive record Armstrong has ever written".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-7" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">The title track's opening lyric "Born into Nixon, I was raised in hell" references Armstrong's birth year of 1972, while "We are the class of '13" references the fact that his eldest son, Joseph, will graduate from high school in 2013.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-8" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10] Dirnt has expressed his belief that "Last of the American Girls" was written about Armstrong's wife Adrienne, who he claimed is steadfast in her beliefs and assertively defends them.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-9" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10]  Armstrong has cited his "disconnected" childhood—he was raised by his five older siblings after their father's death, while their mother worked graveyard shifts as a waitress—as the roots of the discontent expressed on 21st Century Breakdown.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-10" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10]  "East Jesus Nowhere" rebukes fundamentalist religion and was written after Armstrong attended a church service where a friend's baby was baptized.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-11" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">Musically, 21st Century Breakdown is similar to the punk rock style of American Idiot,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-rollingstone2_17-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[17] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[18]  but many critics have claimed that Green Day's traditional sound has evolved in the five years since their last release to incorporate new influences such as heavier, louder pop rock and stadium rock on an epic scale.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[19] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-guardian_20-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[20]  Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone indicated that the album sports ballads that are Green Day's most polished; he claimed that the band "combine punk thrash with their newfound love of classic-rock grandiosity".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-rollingstone2_17-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[17]  MTV compared the material to that of classic rockers like The Who,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-21" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[21]  while Spin called the title track "Green Day's most epic song yet".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-22" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[22]  Cool has remarked, "It's important to us that we're still looked at as a punk band. It was our religion, our higher education", but has noted that Armstrong had delved into the past in writing 21st Century Breakdown by gleaning inspiration from the artists who shaped rock music.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-12" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10]  Armstrong himself has stated, "Ground zero for me is still punk rock. I like painting an ugly picture. I get something uplifting out of singing some of the most horrifying shit you can sing about. It's just my DNA."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_50_10-13" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10]

Promotion and release
Green Day performing in a 21st Century Breakdown showcase concert at the Kesselhaus, Berlin, May 7, 2009<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">Green Day commenced work on the record in January 2006. The writing and recording process spanned three years and four California recording studios and was finished in April 2009. On February 9, 2009, Green Day announced the album title and that the record would be split into three acts: Heroes and Cons, Charlatans and Saints, and Horseshoes and Handgrenades.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[23]  On March 17, a teaser trailer for 21st Century Breakdown was posted on the band's website.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-24" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[24]  The international release date of May 15 was announced on March 25.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-25" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[25]  In early April 2009, Green Day premiered Know Your Enemy on television; a portion of the song was used as introductory music to the 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Championship game.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-26" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[26]  The band first performed 21st Century Breakdown in full during a string of California club shows in April 2009.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-livedaily_27-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[27] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke_28-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[28]  At each show, concertgoers were given programs containing all of the album's lyrics.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke_28-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[28]  The first single, Know Your Enemy, was released on April 16, 2009,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-29" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[29] and soon after the world premiere of the song's music video occurred on April 24 on the MTV UK website.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-30" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[30]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">21st Century Breakdown was released internationally on May 15, 2009, through Reprise Records.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-31" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[31]  The special edition vinylversion was limited to 3,000 copies and consisted of three 10" records, one for each of the album's "acts", a CD copy of the album, a 60-page art booklet, and a code for the digital download of the full album.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-32" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[32] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-33" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[33]  The album artwork process was led by Chris Bilheimer and is based on a work from artist Sixten, who confirmed that the couple on the cover were "just friends of a friend at a party in Eskilstuna, Sweden" and explained that a mutual friend snapped a picture of the pair kissing.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-SIX_34-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[34]  He added, "I love their passion, and just had to make a stencil out of it to spread the love."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-SIX_34-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[34] The cover art was noted for a marked similarity with that of Blur's 2003 album Think Tank, itself a stencil by artist Banksy.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-35" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[35]  Green Day showcased a collection of similarly themed art, called "The Art of Rock", at an art exhibition in London between October 23 and November 1, 2009.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-36" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[36]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">The record reached number one on the Billboard 200 in the U.S., where it sold 215,000 copies in its first week, which was a shortened three days.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Green_Day_rule_37-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[37]  The album remained at number one on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart for three weeks.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-38" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[38]  In Canada, the album debuted at #1 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 30,000 copies in its first week.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-39" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[39]  The album debuted at the top of sales charts in twenty four total countries,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Green_Day_rule_37-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[37]  including a peak of number one on the European Top 100 Albums.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-billboardbiz_40-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[40]  21st Century Breakdown was only released in a Parental Advisory version containing explicit lyrics and content; Wal-Mart refuses to sell albums with a Parental Advisory sticker and requested that Green Day release a censored edition. The band members responded by stating, "There's nothing dirty about our record... They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there. We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-41" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[41]  The second single, "21 Guns", was released to radio stations on May 25.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-42" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[42]  The band embarked on a world tour in July 2009; the North American leg lasted through September and the European leg ended in November.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-livedaily_27-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[27]  "East Jesus Nowhere" was released as the album's third single on October 19, 2009.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-43" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[43] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-44" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[44]

Critical reception
<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">Reception to 21st Century Breakdown has been generally favorable, according to aggregating website Metacritic, which reported a rating of 70/100 based on 30 critical reviews.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Metacritic_45-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[45]  Dan Silver of The Observer awarded the record four stars out of five and likened it to both Bruce Springsteen's music and the avant-garde writing of Chuck Palahniuk.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-observer_51-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[51]  Rolling Stone'sDavid Fricke called 21st Century Breakdown "a compound bomb of classic-rock ecstasy, no-mercy punk assault and pop-song wiles; it's like The Clash's London Calling, The Who's Quadrophenia and Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade all compressed into 18 songs".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Fricke.2C_48_2-3" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[2]  Dan Cairns of The Times concluded, "Lyrically, it may succeed in capturing the contradictions, vulnerabilities and longing for harmony that thrum through Armstrong, Dirnt and Cool, their country, and humanity as a whole. But its real triumph, in an age of trimming, of market testing, of self-censorship and lowest common denominators, is not simply to aim insanely high, but to make it to the summit."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-55" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[55]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">Criticism centered on the concept of the record; BBC's Chris Jones said that it is "griping vaguely against 'authority' " and that "too many buzz words obscure incisive meaning".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-56" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[56]  Steve Kandell of Spin wrote that the humor of American Idiotwas "sorely missed" and that the energy of the album seemed "directionless".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-spin_54-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[54]  The Guardian's Alexis Petridis indicated that "the storyline becomes impossible to follow".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-guardian_20-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[20]  Adam Downer of Sputnikmusic was the most critical professional reviewer of the album and questioned the clarity of the lyrics by calling 21st Century Breakdown "more conceptually vague/ridiculous than American Idiot"; he went on to say that it "spirals out of control in its own heroic glory and never regains focus, thus ending with a product that Green Day couldn’t afford to produce: an average record".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-57" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[57]  Slant Magazine claims that "...an uncanny sense of familiarity hangs over too much of the album. The melodies of several tracks suggest ghosts of older Green Day songs."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Slant_53-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[53]

Track listing
<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">All lyrics written by Billie Joe Armstrong, all music composed by Green Day.

Bonus tracks
<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">All lyrics written by Billie Joe Armstrong, all music composed by Green Day, except where noted.