21st Century Breakdown

This article is about the album. For the song, see 21st Century Breakdown (song).

21st Century Breakdown
The album's cover shows a piece of stencil graffiti art on a brick wall depicting a man and a woman in a passionate embrace.
Studio album by
Green Day
ReleasedMay 15, 2009 (2009-05-15)
RecordedJanuary 2008 – April 2009
StudioOcean Way Recording, Hollywood; Studio 880, Oakland, California; Jel Studios, Newport Beach, California; Costa Mesa Studios, Costa Mesa, California
Genre
Length69:17
LabelReprise
Producer
Green Day chronology
Bullet in a Bible
(2005) 		21st Century Breakdown
(2009) 		Last Night on Earth: Live in Tokyo
(2009)
Singles from 21st Century Breakdown
  1. "Know Your Enemy"
    Released: April 16, 2009
  2. "21 Guns"
    Released: May 25, 2009
  3. "East Jesus Nowhere"
    Released: October 19, 2009
  4. "21st Century Breakdown"
    Released: December 21, 2009
  5. "Last of the American Girls"
    Released: March 22, 2010

21st Century Breakdown is the eighth studio album by the American rock band Green Day, released on May 15, 2009, through Reprise Records. Green Day commenced work on the record in January 2006 and forty-five songs were written by vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong by October 2007, but the band members did not enter studio work until January 2008.[1][2]

21st Century Breakdown is a concept album/rock opera much like their previous album American Idiot (2004). According to the band, the album is a rumination of "the era in which we live as we question and try to make sense of the selfish manipulation going on around us".[3] The singles "Know Your Enemy" and "21 Guns" exemplify the themes of alienation and politically motivated anger present in the record.

To handle the record, they turned to producer Butch Vig, best known for producing Nirvana's Nevermind (1991). Critical response to 21st Century Breakdown was generally positive. The record achieved Green Day's best chart performance to date, reaching number one on the album charts of various countries, including the United States Billboard 200, the European Top 100 Albums, and the United Kingdom Albums Chart. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album at the 52nd Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010. As of December 2010, 21st Century Breakdown has sold 1,050,000 copies in the United States[4] and more than 4 million worldwide.

  1. ^ "Green Day break studio silence on new album". NME. October 8, 2007. Archived from the original on April 26, 2009. Retrieved May 31, 2009.
  2. ^ Fricke, p. 48
  3. ^ Riley, Jack (May 15, 2009). "Caught in the Net: Gremlins Beset Russian Fairy". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on May 26, 2009. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  4. ^ Grein, Paul (December 22, 2010). "Week Ending Dec. 19, 2010: Michael Wouldn't Have Liked This". Yahoo! Music. Archived from the original on December 31, 2010. Retrieved February 3, 2011.