Billie Joe Armstrong

Mr. O'Connor recently published a post on our class blog about his hero, Pete Seeger. One of my favorite rockers is Billie Joe Armstrong, the lead singer and songwriter of Green Day. Billie Joe has been writing songs about what has been going on in America, and speaking, or rather singing out against the government when he disagrees with its actions. I can see many parallels between Billie Joe and Pete. Both men understand that music is an effective means of communication, and they both use their ability to write songs as a way of helping the public think about something the government has done. Billie Joe has said about Green Day: "We're not a political band. We don't want to tell people what to do or what to think. We just want to tell them to think." Billie Joe cannot stand ignorant people; yet he doesn't just sit around complaining about them, he tries to inspire them by writing songs like "American Idiot". In "American Idiot", he sings, "Don't want to be an American Idiot/ One nation controlled by the media". 

The Defiant One

I think that he is admirable because he takes a lot of risks writing about America's problems. Billie Joe does not sing about something he knows will bring in money, like a song about partying, but rather about a message he wants to get across. Few people are willing to risk a steady income even if they are fighting for causes that they are passionate about. Billie Joe is one of those few. 

On Wednesday, my American studies class took an excursion to see the play "Clybourne Park". The play is about racial tension and a family who is trying to sell their house in their white neighborhood.  However, the family trying to buy the house is black, and the community does not want a black family to move into their neighborhood (it is 1959). Although the family trying to sell the house was not at first in favor of a black family moving in, they later become insistent that the black family buys it and not anyone else. The family trying to sell the house wants to educate their neighbors about how ignorant they are about being unwilling to let a black family into their neighborhood.  However, the neighbors are unwilling to listen. But, just like Billie Joe, the white family's defiance of the status quo paid off, and in the end the black family was allowed to move into the neighborhood. When have you defied something that has ended up really paying off?