Green Day certainly does. This band has become one of the most important and lucid voices remaining in what used to be proudly known as rock music. Unfortunately, popular music has largely lost its bite and rock, its relevance. One of the biggest exceptions is the Berkeley band Green Day. Their previous album, American Idiot, was one of the most cogent rebukes of Bush-era doctrine and dogma in any form of popular artistic expression. Songs like "American Idiot" and "Holiday" were solid anthems of frustration and anger about the dominant culture in the US and the position of its youth within this disintegrating scheme.
Given this boldness and the band's courage to stand for something, it is no surprise that they now find themselves taking a stand against censorship. Wal-Mart refuses to sell Green Day's new CD, 21st Century Breakdown, without removing content that includes foul language and adult themes. So, the band said "No thanks." And still, despite its absence from the virtual and in-store shelves of the biggest music retailer in the world, Green Day's album debuted at number one on the charts. So far, the band has refused to compromise.
Green Day has achieved a significance and popularity that, I'm pretty sure, surprises even the members of the band themselves. Any artist with anything important enough to say to a broad audience should follow the band's example. There is a place in life for compromise. Truth, art, and integrity are not the place for this compromise.
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