Music
People are really mad that Green Day is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
by Mark Teo
December 16, 2014
Did the band who named their breakthrough LP after poop deserve to be inducted? These "Nimrods" don't think so!
In case you haven’t heard, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame announced their 2015 selections, adding Lou Reed, Joan Jett, and Green Day to their Jack Daniels-swillin’ canon. Joan Jett and Lou Reed have made significant contributions to the genre—and Reed is already in the hall with the Velvet Underground—while Green Day, thanks to Dookie and the Bush-hating not-my-president opus American Idiot, are one of the most popular contemporary rock acts. Right? Well, not so fast.
While Reed and Jett were hardly controversial picks, the conversation has turned against Billie Joe, Mike Dirnt, and the very cool Tre Cool. Sure, they’re a popular band—but did Green Day, a band who named their breakthrough LP after poop, deserve their spot?
To many, the answer is a clear, resounding no. For example, Warren Kinsella—a renowned lawyer, political strategist, and member of first-wave Calgary punk band the Hot Nasties—was horrified to hear of the news. Occasional AUX contributor John Semley, meanwhile, seemed miffed that Tre Cool is part of the same cultural conversation as Lou Reed.
Others, meanwhile, were dismayed that Green Day beat out other prominent competitors. Namely, the Smiths and N.W.A.
The sentiment was echoed by Exclaim! senior editor Stephen Carlick, who brought Kraftwerk into the mix.
Others claimed that Green Day fandom is like the almighty straight edge: If you’re not now, you never were.
Like a baby monkey going backwards on a pig, others assumed that the world has gone insane. So insane, in fact, that even the very insane Olsen Twins think the world has gone insane.
Others felt existential anguish. Being old, after all, means staring disease, sickness, and death right in the maw. Everybody dies, baby, that’s a fact.
Still, there’s a fate worse than death: Being culturally irrelevant. When some Green Day fans realized that Dookie was the same age as One Direction, they were dismayed about being outside of Mountain Dew’s target age demographic. We’d be sad, too, except we’re not old as fuck. (OR ARE WE.)
Others were surprised that Green Day was popping up on classic-rock radio, taking away valuable airtime from, like, Boston.
But feeling old didn’t bum everyone out. Some embraced their advancing years—and told those damn punk kids to get off their lawn. Soon, the dude below will be sending you religious chain emails, anti-Obama conspiracies and openly racist Sun editorials. We can’t wait.
