The dawn of a new year might be a cause for hope and a time for new beginnings, but for many Americans, the first day of 2024 is the first of ten months of election anxiety. Though the contentious 2020 race is in the rearview mirror, it’s hard to forget the weeks of post-election chaos that followed. After all, we’re just five days away from the third anniversary of the January 6 insurrection.
It seems as though Green Day took the stage of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest with all of that in mind. The punk-pop group—who are as famous for their decades of political activism as they are for their music—used their slot in the ABC network special to insert some extra advocacy, taking advantage of the opportunity to turn their performance of “American Idiot” into 2024’s first major bit of mainstream political activism.
During the song—which was originally released in 2004 and written about the media’s depiction of the Iraq war—the group’s frontman, Billie Joe Armstrong, swapped out the lyrics of the first verse to knock Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan and supporters. Armstrong changed the lyric from, “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” to, “I’m not a part of a MAGA agenda.” The crowd in the audience seemed noticeably riled up, cheering loud enough to briefly drown out the sound of Armstrong’s electric guitar.
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While some were quick to praise the lyrical switch, it drew ire from others just as fast. The blue check crowd on X jumped in to disparage Armstrong and the group, saying, “Green Day is a woke joke,” and asserting that the band “hadn’t been relevant for decades.” One would think that a major slot to perform in one of the most well-known, primetime American television specials would be a sufficient argument otherwise, but that didn’t stop tech billionaire Elon Musk from adding to the conversation.
“Green Day goes from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it,” Musk said, using a made-up word followed by two cry-laughing emojis. Other users on X echoed Musk's sentiments, calling to boycott Seacrest entirely—a lofty task, considering Seacrest’s ever-growing share of the American media empire.
Still, it seems as though Green Day got exactly the reaction that they were hoping for, igniting the first of many public conversations to come ahead of the 2024 election. Judging by the ensuing response, it’s going to be a long, argumentative road to November.
