10 Perfect Rock And Roll Protest Songs

The beginning of the '00s was a very tense time to be living in the United States. In the aftermath of 9/11, the Bush administration had the itch to take any terrorist to task, declaring war on Iraq for flimsy reasons and footage from the frontlines only getting worse with each passing day. The Chicks may have gotten blackballed out of the music industry for speaking out of turn here, but Billie Joe Armstrong was going to stick his neck out on the line no matter what.

Going into Green Day's next record, American Idiot became the mission statement of what the band should be aiming for, being influenced by Bush's reputation in the media and Billie Joe not willing to conform to the same kind of stupidity that he was seeing on the news every day, calling out Bush's Southern roots directly by claiming to not be part of a redneck agenda. As much as this might have been a serious song, it didn't forget the reckless abandon of all good rock and roll, creating an almost cartoonish version of the nation where everything is controlled by the media and paranoia soaring to an all time high.

The era of Dookie may have been a long time ago, but Billie Joe wasn't looking to write the same bratty pop punk anymore. There were real problems going on, and if no one else was going to throw their hat into the ring, than Billie was willing to lay his career on the line for his freedom of speech.