Green Day

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

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• prolific
• slacker
• power chords
• find one's voice

• smooth sailing
• follow-up
• star is fading
• concept album

• cut off
• got it

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

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For any child of the 90s, it’s hard to believe that Green Day has been around for more than twenty years. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Billy Joe and his band mates. After helping punk rock go mainstream in the early 90s with their hugely successful album Dookie, Green Day’s follow-up efforts produced fewer hits and were considered less innovative. In the early aughts, the band’s star seemed to be fading.

But Green Day showed they still had it when their album American Idiot won a Grammy in 2005. Now the band is back again with 21st Century Breakdown, a concept album that combines Green Day’s punk roots with more of a classic rock influence. Find out what Marni and Jason think of Green Day’s latest.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Marni

Jason

Marni:  So you know what I did on New Year’s Eve?

Jason:  What?

Marni:  I watched Carson Daly’s “Rockin New Year’s Eve,” and I watched Green Day perform.

Jason:  Woah.

Marni:  Yeah, and I have to say, they still got it.

Jason:  Rockin’ into their third decade of punk.

Marni:  Yeah, exactly! I was thinking back to when I first heard them in the early 90s and how I never would’ve thought that in 2010 I’d still be listening to them. And yet here they are just as important and prolific.

Jason:  I think that was justifiable for you to think they wouldn’t be around forever. I mean, their songs were about being a slacker and just like hanging out.

Marni:  Yeah, just playing power chords...catchy, poppy punk. And it didn’t really seem like it had that much substance. But I think like a lot of good bands, they’ve sort of matured and found their voice. They were very outspoken about George Bush.

Jason:  Totally and, I mean, have you heard their new album 21st Century Breakdown?

Marni:  I have, and they played some songs off that. And the crowd was into it. I was into it. It’s good.

Jason:  It seems like in that album they’re kind of taking a step toward becoming a classic rock band.

Marni:  Absolutely, I feel the same way.

Jason:  Which is cool, because you sort of think of classic rock ending in the 80s or something, right? Like no more, sorry.

Marni:  Right, like that’s the cut off. But no, I think that Green Day are showing us that the classic rock…that it could be any genre of music.

 

Grammar Point

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Lesson MP3

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