Green Day’s Dookie

Green Day emits a very revolutionary sound in their album, Dookie. While the punk scene had flourished earlier in musical history, Green Day was able to revamp this classic rebellious sound. When they released Dookie, Green Day became the father of the first real punk crossover album. They incorporate so many different aspects into their hit singles off the album that every moment of the music is interesting and lively. I love how they manipulate the instrumentals in order to create a dynamic pattern to their songs. While it has its high points of excitement and building of suspense to these climactic points, they are also able to sound energetic in the low points. This diversity of pacing throughout the songs provide a fun and ecstatic vibe that constantly oozes out of the guitar and bass sounds of this album. They are able to effectively mix a strong classic punk countermelody with effective vocals and lyrics.

While Green Day does tend to mix in profanity into their lyrics, I feel that the majority of their lyrics are able to convey a lyrical poem that emits powerful and unique messages. Once again, I cherish the 90s decade because they were able to revamp the lyrical capacity of the music world while also incorporating the wildly appealing rock countermelodies. They really grabbed the old punk style and seemed to make it in ‘HD’ while refining its sound through powerful vocals as well. While some of the earlier punk bands such as the Ramones didn’t have nearly the same vocal or lyrical capacity as Green Day, Dookie illustrates that it TRULY IS possible to be universally strong. While I don’t think I would attend a choir concert if Armstrong was the lead, I feel that his voice is fused perfectly with the musical fabric of their hit singles and is able to really do justice to the rebellious tone of Green Day’s music. Additionally, I am impressed by the lyrics that they are able to compose. On the surface, this type of music wouldn’t seem to have a deeper meaning but when I actually can look at the lyrics on paper, I can really understand the deeper messages.

Musically speaking, I was also rather impressed that this trio of artists could really fill up space with their sound. This album is also rather influential because it permanently molded and changed the musical scene of modern music. While it is almost two decades old, Dookie has many catchy pop-like singles that make it seem more modern and hip. While Dookie was much bigger and a lot more successful than all of the punk bands of the 70s, they are not breaking any new ground in rock and roll. The key to Green Day’s success is that they were performing this punk style of music, which hadn’t seen the mainstream music scene in a while, very well.  The thing that they had going for them majorly was that they had some very strong relatable lyrics and attached them to this earlier style of music. This is a great example of how society slowly changes and adapts to musical styles that emerge over time.  The culture needed to grow into accepting this type of music. I feel like the 70s acted like a manner of shocking the audience initially while people responded better later on when Green Day rolled out with Dookie.

Overall, this album had a lot going for it. Green Day was able to mix together catchy rhythms, pop-like bass lines, and strong vocals/lyrics. They were able to fuse together this old cultural style of punk with new, revolutionary sounds/lyrics. I feel that Dookie was more successful because of the time period in which it was released as well as musical aspects including stronger vocals. With all of this put together into one album, it makes a very enjoyable piece of art.

Check out some of their songs below: