10 Perfect Anti Rock Star Songs

For most punk rockers, there's a certain price that comes with being famous. Even though you might have more money and fans than you ever dreamed of having, you sometimes lose your old fans in the process by becoming sellouts. It's a decision that everyone has to take eventually in the music industry, and Billie Joe Armstrong was still feeling salty about it when he reached Insomniac.

Being a much darker companion to Dookie, a lot of tracks on this album are a response to their fanbase back at their native Gilman Street, who had banned them for signing with a major label and going pop. While songs like Brat might have been a parody of what a real poser might look like, 86 is a genuine account of what went down when Green Day returned to their old stomping grounds, being ostracized and not even being let back into their home club again.

Writing from the perspective of one of the jaded fans, this is the kind of kiss off that Green Day had been dealing with for months, as everyone treated them differently and leaving their punk community thinking that they only used them as a stepping stone. Things did come around though, and Gilman eventually let Green Day back into the club years after the fact. You can hold onto your legit punk ideals all you want, but there comes a point where we all have to grow up, and you can't fault Green Day for wanting to take that kind of gamble.