Green Day

1987–1993: Formation and Lookout! years

In 1987, guitarist friends Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, both 15 years old at the time, along with bassist Sean Hughes and drummer Raj Punjabi, a fellow student from Pinole Valley High School, formed the band Desecrated Youth and played together in Punjabi's house garage in Rodeo, California.

Musical style and influences

Green Day's sound is described as "often hard-driving and aggressive", and is often compared to first wave American and British punk rock bands such as the Ramones, Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Dickies, and Buzzcocks. The band is primarily known for its heavy use of power chords combined with "strong pop melodic sensibility". Several publications have characterized the band as punk rock, pop-punk, skate punk, melodic punk, alternative rock, and more controversially, power pop. The band has casually explored other musical styles, including post-punk and pop-rock with 21st Century Breakdown, and garage rock on ¡Dos! and Father of All... Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described Green Day as "punk revivalists who recharged the energy of...

Critical recognition and influence

Green Day is credited (alongside Bad Religion, the Offspring, NOFX, Social Distortion, and Rancid) with popularizing mainstream interest in punk rock in the United States, particularly with the album Dookie, which was cited by Fuse as the most important pop-punk album of all time, the best alternative album of 1994 by Rolling Stone, and as one of the best punk rock albums of all time by Rolling Stone, Kerrang!, Revolver, and LA Weekly. Diffuser.fm listed Dookie as the greatest album of the 90s. It was also placed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "Definitive 200" list of 200 classic albums. Both Dookie and American Idiot appeared on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Kerplunk was also listed in a 2007 ranking of...

Musical style and classification

Green Day has generated controversy over whether their musical style and major-label status constitutes "true punk". In reaction to both the style of music and the background of the band, John Lydon, former frontman of the 1970s punk band the Sex Pistols commented, "So there we are fending off all that and it pisses me off that years later a wank outfit like Green Day hop in and nick all that and attach it to themselves. They didn't earn their wings to do that and if they were true punk they wouldn't look anything like they do." However, others in the punk rock scene would come to the defense of the band on their punk status. Bad Religion lead guitarist and founder of the independent punk label Epitaph Records, Brett Gurewitz, would state,...

The Forgotten

"The Forgotten" is a song by the American rock band Green Day and is featured as the closing track on their eleventh studio album, ¡Tré! (2012). The song is also available on The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 soundtrack, which was released on November 13, 2012, and was released October 30, 2012.

It was recorded at Jingletown Studios from February 14 to June 26, 2012, and produced by Rob Cavallo and Green Day. It is the fifth overall single from the ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! & ¡Tré! trilogy.

Background

The track list for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 was revealed on October 4, 2012, this included "The Forgotten" by Green Day, which also would be in their eleventh studio album, ¡Tré!.

Music video

The music video was premiered on October 23, 2012, on MTV. The video features images from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 along with the band recording the song and the album as well as performing live on stage.

Reception

Rolling Stone magazine stated: "The strings return for ¡Tré!'s closing song, "The Forgotten," a five-minute piano ballad that unfolds like a lost track from the second side of Abbey Road. "Don't look away from the arms of love," Billie Joe Armstrong sings, as he brings the trilogy in for a sweet, soft landing." Entertainment Weekly said "The Forgotten" was the best song of the album.