Green Day Research Paper

Formed in 1987, Green Day is an American pop punk band from Oakland, California. The members include lead singer and guitarists Billie Joe Armstrong, Bassist and backing vocals Mike Dirnt (Mike Pritchard), and drummer Tre Cool. Childhood friends Billie Joe and Mike Dirnt formed a band called Sweet Children at the age of fifteen. In Vallejo, California Sweet Children’s first concert took place at Rod’s Hickory Pit, where Billie Joe’s mother was working at the time. In 1989, the band had changed their name to Green Day, due to their liking of marijuana and added former drummer John Kiffmeyer known as Al Sobrante, who also was working as their manager at the time. That same year the band released their first EP, 1,000 Hours, which they independently had released. Later that year Green Day’s first albums was released, 39/Smooth. After its release, John Kiftmeyer was replaced with Tre Cool (Frank Edwin Wright, III), the bands permanent drummer. …show more content…
Records. 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, a compilation of the both the 39/Smooth, Slappy, and 1,000 Hours was released in 1991. 1992’s Kerplunk was the bands second album, which led to their breakout success between 1994 and 1996 selling about 50,000 copies in just the United States alone. It also caught the attention of many other major record labels. In 1993 Green Day left Lookout! Records and signed with Reprise Records. Reprise Records released the band’s first major-label album, Dookie in 1994, which sold over 15 million copies worldwide. Green Day’s popularity began to fall, but in 2004 they struck a chord all over the world with their release of American Idiot. American Idiot was the band’s first album to ever to top the chart, it debated number one on the Billboard