10 Best Rock Albums Of The 2000s

Green Day were not in the best situation when the millennium began. After the lackluster sales of 2000's Warning and the band's spotlight quickly dwindling, the band went into the studio to record another punk rager only to have their masters stolen.

Starting again from scratch, the band decided to aim even bigger by turning their initial punk release into a full-blown punk rock opera. The band's experimentation with song formats on the epics "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Homecoming" are absolutely staggering with their ability to switch tones on a dime. This record also yielded some of the band's biggest hits from the title track to "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" to "Wake Me Up When September Ends."

Does this record have the most mind-blowing instrumentation? Hardly, but the power behind this record is far greater than just the ability to pull off sweeping solos. This record is what made millions of kids around the world identify with rock and roll and inspired them to pick up guitars of their own. Rock music may have seemed few and far between in the 2000's era, but American Idiot has the pure spirit of rock and roll pumping through its veins.