10 Albums That Defined Rock And Roll

Rock and roll has never really been about making things complex. While there have always been the veins of prog rock like Pink Floyd and Yes coming down the pipeline, the core ethos of rock was always in taking the barebones of pop music and twisting them into something a lot more gritty than they were before. Though many would argue that the '90s equivalent of rock perfection is Nirvana's Nevermind, it's about time that a case is made for Green Day's Dookie as well.

It's not like this thing hasn't been talked about to high heaven though, with songs like Welcome to Paradise and She still getting radio play on rock stations to this day. Taking the skeletal formulas of something like the Ramones, Billie Joe Armstrong took a handful of chords and made some of the most enduring melodies of his generation, from the amazing self awareness of Basket Case to the mellow groove behind something like Longview.

Even though this could be considered a detractor, the main thing working in Dookie's favor is just how bratty it sounds. Somewhere in between the musical arrangements and singing, Green Day were able to capture something that sounded like adolescence, with millions of kids being convinced to pick up guitars and write songs of their own from this album. Subsequent acts like Simple Plan may have drilled this sound into the ground, but there's a reason why this album hasn't lost its appeal almost 30 years later.