Dookie by Green Day

Skateboarding was born of surfboarding.  In 1962, Val Surf opened its first location at 4810 Whitsett Avenue in “The Valley” and, with skate wheels from Chicago Roller Skate Company, began making and selling skateboards.  Intended for surfing practice during unfavorable wave conditions, those who rode them were said to be “sidewalk surfing.” 

In 1964, the musical duo Jan and Dean performed their song “Sidewalk Surfing” on American Bandstand.  During their spot, Dean even did a little sidewalk surfing for the audience.  (The year before, the band recorded the popular “Surf City,” written by then-“Beach Boy” Brian Wilson.)  Demand for skateboards soared, and, the following year, Surfer Publications published the first national skateboarding magazine, Skateboarder.

Skateboarding experienced a significant decline in popularity by 1980, and persevering sidewalk surfers morphed into deviant bad asses.  Basically.  They embraced hardcore punk music and built their own ramps.  

Around this time, pop punk (“skate punk”) music – a fusion of hardcore and pop – was developing.  The bad ass do-it-yourself skate culture connected with the high-energy do-it-yourself pop punk scene by the early 1990s.      

And then Green Day signed up with a major label (for which they were labeled “sellouts” by the boys of 924 Gilman Street), and released Dookie in 1994.  The success of the album (heightened by the band’s Woodstock ’94 and Lollapalooza performances) pushed Green Day, pop punk and skateboarding into the mainstream.  “Longview,” the album’s first single, incorporated old-school surf rock and new-school skate rock guitar riffs (written by bassist Mike Dirnt while “frying on acid so hard”) and chant-like drum cadences (executed by Tré Cool), resulting in a pop punk anthem about channel-surfing, being bored, unmotivated and frequently high.  (And masturbation.  That was the kicker.)

After separating musically for decades, surfboarding and skateboarding had come together to redefine popular music.  (And, of course, made Billie Joe Armstrong a name to know.)  “Welcome to Paradise” (originally released on Kerplunk; re-recorded for Dookie), “Basket Case,” “When I Come Around” and “She” were also released as singles.  Armstrong boldly addressed his bisexuality in “Coming Clean,” and “Burnout” (much like “Longview”) “articulated the popular rage” of Generation X.  

In 1995, the New York Times described the album’s tone as passionately apathetic.  I can do no better than that.