Green Day American Idiot Speech Analysis

“This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” declared Franklin D. Roosevelt during his first inauguration speech. Fear is powerful. Green Day’s music video for American Idiot proposes the idea that Americans are controlled by the media through fear. The idea is further incubated through tactics of chaos and mirroring. By utilizing such devices commonly wielded by the media, Green Day creates an ironic and powerful piece that will get the mind dancing with new ideas.

The lyrics are not cryptic in anyway about the message and agenda of this musical piece. The opening line explicitly associates being an idiot with the media: “Don’t wanna be an American idiot, don’t want a nation under the new media.” Later in the song, the line is repeated but ends with “one nation controlled by the media,” which further solidifies the song’s message. Since the song takes on a political nature inferred from terms like “propaganda,” the term “media” can be assumed to refer to the news. The rest of the lyrics dive into how the media is controlling the nation through fear, hidden agendas, and mob mentality. The song blames the media for creating a “new

They are exposing a flaw in today’s American Politics which is the unrestrained influence of the media on the American public through fear. Green Day wants people to be citizens with free thought who are aware of the vehicles that try to steal that freedom. The music video itself is a testimony to the powers of the media. American Idiot takes advantage of the same techniques as the mass media, like chaos and mirroring, to sell their ideas. In a world where ideas can travel at the speed of light, it is important for the American to develop their own strategy as to not be blinded by the sheer