During the 2024 New Year’s Rockin’ Eve performances, Green Day, a punk/rock band, performed their controversial song, “American Idiot,” but changed one of the lyrics from “redneck agenda,” to “MAGA agenda,” sparking controversy.
Green Days’ bashing of Donald Trump in the song caused outrage from many of his followers, after the lyric “MAGA,” was put in place of the original lyric. MAGA, which stands for “Make America Great Again,” was the slogan of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. This lyric change even caught the attention of Elon Musk, who stated the band went “from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it.”
Green Day responded in an interview, calling Elon Musk the machine himself. Mike Dirnt, a member of Green Day, said, “The song’s twenty years old, and we’re Green Day. What did you expect?” These comments clearly display the band’s strong attachment to their opinions that are solidly in place.
Initially, the changed lyric went unnoticed by the crowd, and only seemed to become a hot, controversial topic later. Some people claimed it was “unamerican,” or disrespectful to America to even perform the song “American Idiot,” while others argued they had every right to perform and say what they wanted.
While Ben Shi-Wang (12) stated that “they can do whatever they want with their song,” he also said that “they just wanted to have some clout.”
As the band continues to receive backlash, they stand by their opinions, overall appearing content with their decision, not allowing outside opinions to shift their own.
