21 Best Punk Albums Of The 21st Century
2. Green Day - American Idiot
Coming into this list, most readers would have had a relatively strong idea of who would be named #1... most of those readers are evidently wrong. Even though 'American Idiot' is by far the most commerically successful punk album of the 21st century and one of the most well-recongised punk releases ever, it still misses out on our top spot by a fine margain.
Originally forming in 1987 under the name Sweet Children, Green Day became 90s punk posterboys through records such as 'Dookie' and 'Nimrod'. Heading into the new century though, the trio's popularity was wavering and they needed something drastic to recapture old form. While recording their seventh studio album, the master tapes were stolen from the studio and the missing album wasn't recovered until 2016. Instead of re-recording the lost songs, Green Day decided on a clean slate and recorded a fresh album, 'American Idiot', in 2004. The rest is history.
'American Idiot' is now one of the best selling punk albums of all time, topping album charts in the UK, America, Sweden, Australia, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada and more. The album has sold 16 million physical copies worldwide, and has accumulated over 2 billion online streams across various platforms.