American Idiot By Billie Armstrong: Song Analysis

In 2004 the presidential election was occurring and soon after George Bush became the new president of America, and not long after followed the Iraq war. This war caused thousands of deaths within the United States leaving some people to become anxious. When writing the song American Idiot Billie Armstrong wrote it from a spectator point of view because he lived through it and watched it everyday on television. Throughout the song he voiced his own comments and concerns on wondering how society was going to be able to move forward and away from what society and Bush were doing to the country. Billie himself described the song as being “about a kid that is trying to find his beliefs and his ethics, coming from a broken home, being fed up with …show more content…
It was like they were just another story. The people of society got upset with the government and new stations because the people of New Orleans did not know they were being portrayed as they were because they were trying to survive and find their loved ones, not trying to find the news stations. The news captured the people suffering without food and homes to survive from, and they did not allow them to tell the world their side of the story, it could only be what the news wanted to show everyone. During hurricane Katrina Kanye West also stood up to and stated “I hate they way they portray us in the media, if you see a black family, it says they’re looting; if you see a white family it says they’re looking for food” (Lynskey, 2004). Kanye then went on and called Bush racist, others called him a gold digger who only liked people with money. Eminem himself even went as far as comparing Bush to a weapon on destruction in his song “Mosh.” All of these statements and song lyrics from other artists just prove that Green Days American Idiot was the perfect protest song for the anti-war, and anti-bush