Green Day lashes out at Wal-Mart policy

[meegbear]

Green Day has the most popular CD in the country, but you won't be able to find it at your local Wal-Mart.

The band says the giant superstore chain refused to stock its latest CD, "21st Century Breakdown," because Wal-Mart wanted the album edited for language and content, and they refused.

"Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won't carry our record because they wanted us to censor it," frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a recent interview.

While Wal-Mart sells CDs from acts known for raunchy content, including Eminem's latest, they offer customers the "clean" version of those CDs, which are edited for content that may be objectionable. But in Armstrong's view, "There's nothing dirty about our record."

"They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there," he said. "We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."

<snip>

http://www.comcast.net/articles/music/20090521/US.Music.Green.Day/

:thumbsup:

[ejpoeta]

1. at least there are other places to get it. the internet... other stores.

if they are the most popular cd in the country, then people are getting it regardless of walmart. walmart may be everywhere, but they are by no means the only store around.

[Romulox]

2. Green Day seems like decent guys, but DAMN they're genius marketers.

Who else can 30 something "punk rockers" rebel against? Wall Mart!

Well done.

[billyoc]

3. Good for them. I see they're giving a free concert in Central Park in NYC on May 22nd.

[sharp_stick]

4. Fantastic Album Too

I will happily buy an album from any band that tells Walmart to FOAD but this one was an easy purchase.

[endless october]

5. another great reason to unionize your local walmart.

they close the unionized locations. could do good things for your area.

[hfojvt]

6. what lyrics does Wal-mart find objectionable?

Armstrong says "there is nothing dirty about our record." Is he right?

[Echo In Light]

8. Given that a previous lp was titled "Idiot America," the want of censorship should be obvious

[Occam Bandage]

17. They say "fuck" a few times. I'd say a bigger problem would probably be the political content.

The lyrics to the title track:

Born into Nixon, I was raised in hell.
A welfare child where the teamsters dwell.
The last one born, the first one to run.
My town was blind from the refinery sun.

My generation is zero.
I never made it as a working class hero.
21st century breakdown.
I once was lost but never was found.
I think I'm losing what's left of my mind
To the 20th century deadline.

I was made of poison and blood.
Condemnation is what I understood.
From Mexico to the Berlin wall.
Homeland security could kill us all.

My generation is zero.
I never made it as a working class hero.
21st century breakdown.
I once was lost but never was found.
I think I'm losing what's left of my mind
To the 20th century deadline.

We are the cries of the class of thirteen.
Born in the era of humility.
We are the desperate and in the decline.
Raised by the bastards of 1969.

My name is 'no-one', the long lost son.
Born on the 4th of July.
Raising the bygones of heroes and cons.
Left me for dead or alive.
There is the war that's inside my head
That questions the results and lies.
While breaking my back til I'm damn near well dead.
When enough ain't enough to survive.

I am a nation, a worker, a pawn.
My debt to the status quo.
The scars on my hands are a means to an end.
It's all that I have to show.

Praise, Liberty
The freedom to obey
It's a song that strangles me
Well, don't cross the line

Oh dream, American dream.
I can't leave and see from rainstorms 'til dawn.
Oh scream, America scream.
Believe what you see from heroes and cons.

[Cha]

7. Fuck Walmart.

Makes me like Green Day even more.

[Wednesdays]

9. K&R

:kick:

[Froward69]

10. Badge of Honor

I remember when "explicit content" stickers became mandated... it became like beer. (get your 21yo brother to buy it for you.) Really bad albums (bad as in listened to once) shot to the top sellers simply for having those stickers.

[mod mom]

11. We're driving several hours to Pittsburgh to see them! Who shops at Wal Mart?

I would think it's not their target market.

[slay]

12. Yay for Green Day! F-walmart!

I fucking hate that place. Never shop there ever. They killed off so many mom & pop type stores it's fuckin sad.

[tuvor]

13. In Canada, Wal-Mart sells just the explicit version...

You couldn't buy a "clean" version of any CD at a Canadian Wal-Mart even if you wanted to.

[L0oniX]

14. Kick Out The Jams Mutha Fuckas ...one of the first censored albums of the 60's...

was released and then banned. I was proud to have owned a first issue MC5 original before the offending phrase was changed to "brothers and sisters".

[Echo In Light]

15. >

[Jkid]

16. If Wal-Mart Demands clean versions of CD only.

Why can't they ban R17+ films or M17+ films? It's puritanism.