"I'm not part of the MAGA agenda..." Warning: This article contains language some people may find offensive.
ADVERTISEMENTIt’s going to be a big year for US punk-pop band Green Day, and they’ve kickstarted 2024 the only way they know how: with a controversial bang.
On top releasing of their upcoming 14th studio album ‘Saviors’ on 19 January, the band are celebrating both the 30th and 20th anniversary of their 'Dookie' debut (1994) and their critically lauded 'American Idiot' album (2004) this year.
And 20 years after the release of ‘American Idiot’ and its titular single, which originally features the lyrics "Well, maybe I’m the faggot, America/ I’m not a part of a redneck agenda/ Now everybody, do the propaganda/And sing along to the age of paranoia", the band have changed the lyrics to reflect the current political climate in the US.
They did so during their performance at Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, altering the lyrics to: "Well, maybe I’m the faggot, America/ I’m not a part of a MAGA agenda/ Now everybody, do the propaganda/ And sing along to the age of paranoia."
Watch the moment below:
The song was originally written about the Iraq War, the non-critical cable news coverage of the US invasion, and as a shot against George W. Bush; now Green Day have got Trump and his presidential rally slogan, “Make America Great Again” (MAGA), in their visor.
And what better time to take a few jabs at Trump, as the former president gears up for a second White House bid?
It’s not the first time they’ve hit out at Trump – most notably at the American Music Awards in 2016, during which they led a chant of “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA” in protest against the then-President electoral candidate. In 2018, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong told a crowd at a Cannes Lions performance: “I fucking hate Donald Trump so much. I used to scream ‘I hated George Bush.’ This one is a little different. This one is bad, it’s like acid gone bad.”
Rather perfectly, the band also released limited edition merchandise last year that included the former president’s mugshot and labeled him the "ultimate Nimrod" - a callback to the band's 1997 ‘Nimrod’ album.
Following the lyric change at Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, one person had something to say about it...
No, not Trump, but somebody equally as desperately keen to be heard, and with a similar sized ego.
You guessed it: Elon Musk had to weigh in.
Musk accused the band of going "from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it."
How droll.
Musk, who does not have a consistent history of supporting either the Republican or Democratic Party, has in recent years aligned more with conservative politics.
2023 was quite the year for Elon Musk, who curled out the new name X; saw the valuation for the platform formerly known as Twitter half during his tenure as owner; its ad revenue decrease by 89%; and cemented his status as the poster boy for online racists.
Indeed, last November, a new report from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a non-profit dedicated to countering online misinformation and hate speech, stated that X was falling short in its commitment to combat content "motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance", which has soared since Musk took over the social media platform.
Oh, and last year also saw Musk make it into the Guinness Book of Records for registering the single biggest loss of net worth in financial history, with around $200 billion.
