Brace yourselves guys, because I'm going to get emotional up in here.
So ten years ago, the year was
2004. I was thirteen. Which is, arguably, a horrible age to be in. I wouldn't want to be thirteen again for the world. On September 14th, 2004 however, a band called
Green Day released their seventh studio album,
American Idiot. And it changed my life.
Oh I know exactly how stupid it sounds, to say
"uh this piece of music that will probably be forgotten over the course of another few decades" changed my life. But it did. I would not be sitting here today, harping about
The Rolling Stones and
David Bowie in my MA thesis, had it not been for the massive impact that
Green Day's American Idiot had on my adolescent life. We all start somewhere.
So let's go back again to 2004. I may not remember much about what happened ten years ago, but I know that the first song I ever heard of
Green Day was
Boulevard of Broken Dreams. I heard it on the radio, and I was so, so intrigued by it. The melody, the lyrics, it was just so beautiful to me. It certainly took some time for 13-year-old me to find out what the song was called and by whom it was, but I also remember buying the maxi single (yes, back when we still did that!) for the song soon after I first heard it. It also had
She's a Rebel on it, and soon I bought the whole album. I needed more of this music in my life. And man, did I fall in love with everything about this album that is
American Idiot.