10 Radio Friendly Songs About Dying

American Idiot was, without question, the catalyst that allowed Green Day to reinvent themselves not only as one of the biggest alternative acts on the planet, but also as a genuine stadium rock band with all the theatrics and spectacle to match.

The release was the Bay Area punks’ first forays into the realm of the concept album, and loosely told the story of a central protagonist and his struggles with drugs, disaffection, and ostracisation in a suburban hell-scape.

One song that seemed to buck that thematic trend a little, however, was Wake Me Up When September Ends. Predominantly autobiographical, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the song about his father, how died of oesophageal cancer in 1982 when the singer was just 10 years old.

For his part, Armstrong has openly spoken of how cathartic the songwriting experience was, but you can’t help feeling that the emotional gravitas behind the track must be diminished a little every September when he’s tagged in a barrage of memes telling him to set an alarm because October is just around the corner.