# Green Day's American Idiot: The word "masterpiece" is offically devalued

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-days-american-idiot-the-word-masterpiece-is-offically-devalued/288977>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 8, 2005, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-days-american-idiot-the-word-masterpiece-is-offically-devalued/288977 "2005-02-08T12:55:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sleeepy2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@sleeepy2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeepy2)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2005, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-days-american-idiot-the-word-masterpiece-is-offically-devalued/288977/1 "2005-02-08T12:55:37Z")

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It’s a decent album with some catchy pop songs, but I keep reading about it referred to as a masterpiece. Entertainment Weekly’s cover this week has them on the cover with the blurb “Green Day Saves Rock”.  
I was thinking I’m missing something, so I read all the lyrics, and, well, “masterpiece” seems a bit hyperbolic. Billy Joe is all angsty, and that’s cool, but all the reviews had me expecting brilliance.  
Again, nice catchy pop music, somewhat obvious cliched nihilistic punk lyrics, but I don’t get all the hype.

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**Author:** ![JerH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@JerH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerH)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-days-american-idiot-the-word-masterpiece-is-offically-devalued/288977/2 "2005-02-08T15:00:04Z")

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Perhaps they were using the other definition of “masterpiece” - i.e., “an artist’s best work”, rather than the more common “any work of unusually high quality.” So they album might not be much good, but if it’s better than their other stuff then it would qualify as their masterpiece.

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**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2005, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-days-american-idiot-the-word-masterpiece-is-offically-devalued/288977/3 "2005-02-08T15:19:50Z")

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> [@sleeepy2](#):
>
> It’s a decent album with some catchy pop songs, but I keep reading about it referred to as a masterpiece. Entertainment Weekly’s cover this week has them on the cover with the blurb “Green Day Saves Rock”.  
> I was thinking I’m missing something, so **I read all the lyrics** , and, well, “masterpiece” seems a bit hyperbolic. Billy Joe is all angsty, and that’s cool, but all the reviews had me expecting brilliance.  
> Again, nice catchy pop music, somewhat obvious cliched nihilistic punk lyrics, but I don’t get all the hype.

That’s your problem.

Reading lyrics by rock 'n roll stars.

I don’t have the album, but if I’m looking for “genius” on a rock 'n roll album, the lyrics are the last place I go.

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**Author:** ![jfortun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2acd7d/32.png) [@jfortun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jfortun)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2005, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-days-american-idiot-the-word-masterpiece-is-offically-devalued/288977/4 "2005-02-08T15:34:29Z")

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I think American Idiot is a masterpiece of pop/post-punk genre. The 9 minutes song cycles work very well and the consistant theme and the quality throughout are pretty rare in that genre.

Outside that though the album is merely very good.