Green Day: "The choice is: get bigger or quit. And quitting is never an option." - Mike Dirnt

If the real definition of punk is doing whatever you want, then punk should not be able to be defined by a sound. Green Day has maintained their punkness, because they've done what they wanted and not stuck to the same music format since Dookie. They've reacted to what is going on in the world.

I recently watched this unauthorized Green Day doc where most of the people in it thought they sold out and said that they told Billie what a bad idea it was to sign to a major. And it really annoyed me! Not just the fact that I feel like the punks, journalist, and DJ's in the doc where mostly saying that to prove they knew Green Day way back when, and to show that they are true DIY or die, but to anyone that attacks Green Day for selling out, I want know if they want their favorite bands to be struggling forever? Do they not want them to be able to dedicate their whole life to their art and live comfortably? Do they not want their band to have the opportunity to spread their message and music to the masses? Do they selfishly want to keep bands as their little secret? I guess there is the issue of having to sacrifice artist integrity or control to become successful or when signing with a major label, but many bands, and especially a band like Green Day kept all of their artistic control. I really feel like they would not of had it any other way. If a band really has "It", and a label is pushing them in a way they don't want, they can probably not sign to that label. Another thing in the doc I though was crazy was when Billie Joe got ostracized, or "86'd" from 924 Gilman, a Bay Area DIY space, for signing to a label. If they really loved Green Day and supported punk, did the people in that community really want them to just play their for the rest of their lives? When it comes to the lives of the bands, I feel like punk communities can have little foresight.

Green Day uses their position of being one of the biggest bands in the world for good. We need people like Billie Joe Armstrong in positions of power to scream things like "NO RACISM, NO SEXISM, NO HOMOPHOBIA, NO NAZIS, and FUCK DONALD TRUMP". It is so important for Green Day to create a space that rejects the shitty government and pledges allegiance to the underworld.