“American Idiot” by Green Day

Green Day kicked off the American Idiot era in 2004 with its title track, the album's first single and a protest song with its target spelled out right there in the name. Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the words, the music is credited to the whole band, and it tears out of the gate like a garage band that just read the morning paper and snapped: buzzsaw power chords, a sprinting beat and a chorus built to be shouted back at the stage.

It's punk rock with pop-punk's instinct for a hook, and it sounds furious and wide awake. Rob Cavallo produced it with Green Day, Doug McKean engineered, and Chris Lord-Alge mixed it into a dense, blaring wall without dulling a single edge.

Critics liked it, and at the 2005 Grammys it was up for four awards, among them Record of the Year, Best Rock Song and Best Music Video. "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.