10 Perfect Rock Songs Of The 2000s

Before American Idiot, Green Day were actually dangerously close to being considered has beens of the pop punk genre. Though they managed to kick the door down for this sound all the way back in the '90s with the record Dookie, it was getting a lot harder to sustain that moment when you reached adulthood, with their last few records not selling all that well. Once the Iraq War got underway though, Billie Joe Armstrong decided to tap into something a bit stronger than just normal rock and roll.

Looking to paint the picture of what suburban life was like for a kid around this time, Jesus of Suburbia was the jumping off point of the entire record, spanning 9 minutes and weaving together different pieces of pop punk glory at every turn. Every one of these little snippets like Dearly Beloved or Tales From Another Broken Home may work just as well on their own, but bringing them together just gives another layer of weight to the story, as if you're seeing bite sized events that culminate in this guy wanting to leave home for the big city.

And it ends up working perfectly for the pop punk formula as well, giving you a different hook every couple of minutes and working as a musical equivalent of channel surfing through your day to day life. Pop punk was definitely growing, but this is where Billie Joe really threw the gauntlet down. After this song, acts like Good Charlotte and Simple Plan were definitely going to need to step up their game.