Green Day Cd 21st Century Breakdown Views

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21st Century Breakdown is the eighth studio album by the American punk rock band Green Day. It is the band's second rock opera, following American Idiot, and their first album to be produced by Butch Vig. Green Day commenced work on the record in January 2006. Forty-five songs were written by singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong by October 2007, but the band members did not enter studio work with Vig until January 2008. The writing and recording process spanned three years and four California recording studios and was finished in April 2009.

Critical response to 21st Century Breakdown was generally positive. Critics praising the album considered the composition and Armstrong's lyrics a success; skeptical reviewers were critical of the album's concept, describing it as vague and directionless. The record achieved Green Day's best chart performance to date by reaching number one on the album charts of various countries, including the United States Billboard 200, the European Top 100 Albums, and the United Kingdom Albums Chart. It was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album at the 52nd Grammy Awards held on January 31, 2010. As of December, 2010 21st Century Breakdown has sold 1,005,000 copies in the United States[2] and more than 3.5 million worldwide.

Green Day began to write new songs for what would become 21st Century Breakdown in January 2006 after touring extensively in 2005 in support of their seventh studio album American Idiot.[3] At the time, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong stated, We'll start with silence, and that's how we'll be able to find the inspiration to find another record. [4] The band did not release any details of the writing and recording process until October 2007, when Armstrong said in an interview with Rolling Stone that he had written something like 45 songs .[5][6] The band members worked on the primitive conceptual stages of the album at their rehearsal studio in Oakland, California. Little was revealed on the themes or musical style of the album, but Armstrong pointed out, I want to dig into who I am and what I'm feeling at this moment – which is middle-aged. He added that many of the 45 songs were written on piano rather than guitar.[5]

While writing at his home studio, Armstrong worked on a cover of The Who's 1966 mini-opera A Quick One, While He's Away ; Green Day recorded a full-band version of the song during the album sessions.[11] Vig noted that frustrations would sometimes cause delays in the recording process for 21st Century Breakdown.[6] Armstrong kept his lyrics closely guarded and intentionally mixed his demos so that the vocals were low in the mix and thus unintelligible to the other band members.[10] It was not until late 2008 that he chose to share his words with Cool, Vig, and bassist Mike Dirnt by sitting down with them and reading the entire album's lyrics aloud in order.[10] The band members made the finishing touches on the album in early April 2009 and claimed that its release would lead to a kind of... post-partum depression .[12]