21st Century Breakdown Story...

[solongfromthestars]

you can't post that and not post them Anytime you feel like sharing it, please do.

I'd love to see the story, even if it's just one interpretation cleared up.

Well, okay, I guess.

I'd just better say that this is a totally personal analysis and doesn't reflect anything that Billie had in mind for the story. I was a few years younger when I wrote it as well so please excuse any cringiness/bad writing.

ACT I - HEROES AND CONS

21ST CENTURY BREAKDOWN

The scene is set and shows the confusion and mixed emotions that Christian and Gloria are feeling in their lives before they meet, and the general feeling in America.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

Know Your Enemy is a theme that runs through the entire album. Christian and Gloria's enemies are really themselves and they initially fail to realise that. It's a call to 'rally up the demons of your soul' and to simply 'know your enemy.'

¡VIVA LA GLORIA!

Christian has fallen in love with Gloria. He admires her for trying to hold the torch while all he can see or imagine is wanting to burn everything down. She's a positive and strong girl who has 'found a home in all her scars [from the past] and ammunition [for the future]' despite maybe a difficult childhood. Mystified by her, Christian believes that together 'we're gonna start a war' but is warning her that she shouldn't stand too close to the edge, that 'eternal youth is the landscape of a lie'. She's his light in the dark; he's hailing her and telling her to never burn out and not to look back on the past. She's unsure about her feelings and doesn't know if she really returns his 'undying love' - maybe he's more of a friend to her.

BEFORE THE LOBOTOMY

Christian and Gloria are growing closer but falling apart at the same time. Gloria has accepted his feelings and is beginning to return them, but isn't sure whether she's glad about that or not; she's dreaming about the 'life before the lobotomy'. At the same time the world around them is falling apart too. Christian's flaws are beginning to show through and Gloria's feelings contradict each other; I'm not stoned I'm just fucked up / I got so high I can't stand up / I'm not cursed 'cause I've been blessed / I'm not in love 'cause I'm a mess. She gives in and admits they're already 'lost like refugees.'

CHRISTIAN'S INFERNO

Everything's fucked up and Christian’s sick of it all, he hates everything. His demons are haunting him and maybe Gloria’s the 'chemical reaction', maybe she isn’t. He adores her and he hates her, why can’t she see? He’s all messed up.

LAST NIGHT ON EARTH

Gloria has finally realised how much she loves Christian. She wants him to know how she'll always feel this way even if he is a bit fucked up, he should never 'dare to second guess' because 'you can rest assured that all my love's for you.'

Despite his frustration and anger at everything, Christian still adores Gloria too. Nothing means he loves her any less and his most important duty is to honour her. He never meant to hurt her and even if he loses everything, he's still sending her all his love.

Their feelings are mutual now. This shows the beautiful side of their relationship, how they walked for miles in life till they found each other.

ACT II - CHARLATANS AND SAINTS

EAST JESUS NOWHERE

A while later, Christian and Gloria are beginning to start a life together. The world around them continues to crumble and they're surrounded by confusion in religion and politics and family. Neither of them are impressed by it and it all seems ironic and warped, it's all wrong. This song sets the scene for the troubles that begin to follow in this act.

PEACEMAKER

Maybe Christian left another girl for Gloria, and now he's living with her the other girl's furious; 'death to the girl at the end of the serenade'. Gloria reacts violently, she's no 'write-off, you better think again'. Christian's the only peacemaker and everything explodes into a mess of 'vendetta, sweet vendetta' like the 'neo-St. Valentine's massacre'.

LAST OF THE AMERICAN GIRLS

Cracks are beginning to appear in Christian and Gloria's relationship. She's a very intense person, still trying to hold the torch despite everything, and he's observing her, still in love but beginning to see her as a 'natural disaster', 'a hero for the lost cause.'

MURDER CITY

The cracks appearing in the relationship get bigger. They're beginning to grow apart and the outside world is becoming the Murder City. The laughter between them is empty now [this empty laughter has no reason] and they are beginning to feel like each other's poision [like a bottle of your favourite poison]. Gloria desperately clings onto her 'burning light', feeling that 'we've come so far / we've been so wasted' and that now it's taking its toll, 'raining down over our faces'. 'Christian's crying in the bathroom' and Gloria just wants to 'bum a cigarette'.

¿VIVA LA GLORIA? [LITTLE GIRL]

Gloria despairs more and more as everything goes more and more wrong. Everything around them can only drag their relationship further and further down into the mud. Christian’s ex won't leave Gloria alone. Her own family situation back home is in turmoil and she becomes more and more depressed and desolate. In desperation she turns to drugs. Instead of supporting her, self-destructive Christian is disgusted, he casts her away as a 'dirty liar / just a junkie preaching to the choir'. She's lost and alone, she feels she has no home with Christian anymore, she's 'a stray for the Salvation Army'. She wants to run away, but everyone around her seems to be screaming that she's only going to 'find yourself with your face in the gutter'. She doesn't know who the charlatans or the saints are anymore, her life is calling but she's become too messed up to do anything about it. She's abandoned work and education.

RESTLESS HEART SYNDROME

Christian and Gloria can't live with each other anymore but they can't live without each other either. Gloria's a mess but deep down Christian still adores her. He's hurt her beyond repair, but she still adores him too. The lyrics really speak for themselves in this song. They're both their own worst enemies. They're both messed up. They are both each other's disease, their Restless Heart Syndrome.

ACT III - HORSESHOES AND HANDGRENADES

HORSESHOES AND HANDGRENADES

Gloria has mostly gotten over her drug addiction, but she's come out of it a very different person. She won't take any more of Christian - or anybody else's - shit; 'so don't you fuck me around / because I'll shoot you down'. She's put up with his self-destructive nature through the entire relationship and he wasn't there for her in her darkest hours; she won't sit and be a victim of it anymore. No longer the naive young girl 'blasting her name in graffiti on the walls' in ¡Viva La Gloria!, she still carries a burning light but has become wary and cold.

In the meantime, she and Christian are barely even speaking. They lead almost separate lives now. Both becoming equally self-destructive and intensely, well - 'I'm not fucking around' - they're both as messed up as each other.

THE STATIC AGE

The world surrounding them continues to fall apart. Finally burning out, Christian comes to his senses and looks around at the world in frustration. Nothing's right anymore; Gloria's new 'I'm not fucking around' attitude combined with her intense personality is suffocating; Christian just wants to breathe. He's screaming at her, desperately trying to get through to her again, but she never seems to hear him anymore.

21 GUNS

Everything has gone wrong. Christian and Gloria are both burnt out, they're both as bad as each other. They've burnt everything down themselves. Finally they realise that all they have left in this fucked up world is each other, and nothing else matters. They're at the 'end of the road' and it's finally time for Gloria to lay down her torch and 'give up the fight'. They've hurt each other beyond repair but in the end, they're still as hopelessly in love as they ever were. All that's worth fighting for now is each other.

AMERICAN EULOGY: A. MASS HYSTERIA/B. MODERN WORLD

In the outside world that they're hiding away from, 'the neighbourhood's a loaded gun' and the city's rife with riots. 'Mass hysteria' is filling the country. The people Christian and Gloria had once been and the cause they had once fought for are the only hope.

'Vigilantes warning ya, calling Christian and Gloria.'

Christian feels no obligation to anyone or anything but Gloria anymore. They 'don't wanna live in the modern world'. Nobody has ever been there for them so why should they be there now? They're past the point of caring about any of it anymore. I wanna take a ride to the Great Divide / Beyond the ‘up to date’ and the neo-gentrified / The high definition for the low resident / Where the value of your mind is not held in contempt.

SEE THE LIGHT

The city's burning, the country's in hysteria and Christian and Gloria have run away. All they still have is each other, everything is at its worst and now they just want to get away and see the light again. They've both been messed up and are both haunted by their personal demons. On a desperate journey into the unknown, not knowing what's worth the fight, their ending is really up to the listener. The ever after is in the hands of fate.

I really think this could be made into a great story. It's been ages since I've looked at this but as a writer it still really speaks to me. Once upon a time I started trying to turn it into a novel but I never really found the time for it. Maybe one day I'll finish it, haha. My crappy song-by-song analysis really doesn't do it any justice.

Now I'm going to stfu before I start rambling. I could probably still talk about this for hours.

[pieterv]

You're awesome, thanks

I have a list something exactly like this about American Idiot's story and political message per song, mostly a compilation of the song meanings on geekstinkbreath.net that I've changed and completed to my liking. I always wanted one for 21CB as well but I just couldn't piece the story together well enough to.

I read through your list and I noticed why I struggled. I had a half-complete political story in my mind about 2 people understanding their own government is their enemy, protesting, riots, with a love story just mixed in here and there. Not something as personal as the story you drew from the song which now seem to make way more sense than what I was imagining.

(I read about 21CB being more personal than AI on here before but I was kind of locked up in my previous way of thinking about the songs, couldn't find other meanings)

I think i'll be listening to 21CB while reading it again tonight, should be a whole new listening experience.

[GeekStinkMe]

I think you have to imagine your own story with some facts given. it shows the two sides of every human and it is the story of feelings everybody has.

[Sixtrix]

I have never seen 21cb as a story line album, but more as something like when you would watch back some old video tapes of when you were younger, like when you grew up in the 80's or 90's. And you pick up certain fragments of your life during that time that got recorded or are like dear memories in your mind.

To me, it feels like 21cb is like how a couple, Christian and Gloria, are described as separate persons but also shows their struggle together in a very confused world between 2000 and 2010. First chapter could be about how they got to meet, how they fell in love, 2nd chapter about what struggles they got to live with by being together and the last chapter about how they are working on a stronger and tighter relationship, determined to stay together no matter what happens to them or the outside world. And where it all will go from there is in the hands of fate.

[solongfromthestars]

You're awesome, thanks

I have a list something exactly like this about American Idiot's story and political message per song, mostly a compilation of the song meanings on geekstinkbreath.net that I've changed and completed to my liking. I always wanted one for 21CB as well but I just couldn't piece the story together well enough to.

I read through your list and I noticed why I struggled. I had a half-complete political story in my mind about 2 people understanding their own government is their enemy, protesting, riots, with a love story just mixed in here and there. Not something as personal as the story you drew from the song which now seem to make way more sense than what I was imagining.

(I read about 21CB being more personal than AI on here before but I was kind of locked up in my previous way of thinking about the songs, couldn't find other meanings)

I think i'll be listening to 21CB while reading it again tonight, should be a whole new listening experience.

No problem, glad you enjoyed it!

I think 21CB is a really great listening experience while thinking about it like that, especially if you incorporate some of the album art. When I originally wrote that analysis it was on paper and I copied a piece of album art for each song.

I always had the same problem with AI, haha. I could only kind of build this vague story around bits of drugs and love and politics. I started to understand it better after seeing the musical, but I'd love to read your song meanings if you feel like posting them some time!

[E!!i]

oh man I'm not good in understanding song meanings as well as you do, I just listen to the songs because they sound good

[pieterv]

I posted about my writing to see if you'd be interested, because I didn't really feel like just putting it up here either .

Also kind of off topic so I'll spoiler it

I don't really think of myself as a writer, so it's mostly based on/taken from geekstinkbreath.net, I remember I changed/completed some songs, some things I may have left exactly the same.

I tried to make it as complete as possible, so I tried to find both a political and an album story meaning for every song, that also made me keep in things that I thought are far fetched.

Since it's kind of long and the formatting as a list acts weird, i'll link to a pdf.

[Forever Now]

I think the album doesn't have much of a story like American Idiot did, and you can interpret most of the songs however you want.

[solongfromthestars]

I posted about my writing to see if you'd be interested, because I didn't really feel like just putting it up here either .

Also kind of off topic so I'll spoiler it

I don't really think of myself as a writer, so it's mostly based on/taken from geekstinkbreath.net, I remember I changed/completed some songs, some things I may have left exactly the same.

I tried to make it as complete as possible, so I tried to find both a political and an album story meaning for every song, that also made me keep in things that I thought are far fetched.

Since it's kind of long and the formatting as a list acts weird, i'll link to a pdf.

That's really cool! It's nice to see a perspective on AI now that isn't the story created for the musical. Whilst that was great for the stage I like this story a lot better to just read and listen to the album. Thanks for posting, I really enjoyed reading it!

[DannyDirnt]

The people who didnt like this album that much, and considers a fan, well i think that their fandom went straight to hell lol

I don't agree.This album is great,but nothing more.It can't be compared to American idiot or Nimrod,or Dookie.

[bjrules]

I posted about my writing to see if you'd be interested, because I didn't really feel like just putting it up here either .

I really enjoyed reading that interpretation, thanks for posting it I love reading different people's thoughts on American Idiot, every time I read a different person's interpretation, they always point out something that I never would've noticed before. Like, I never really thought that She's a Rebel was a very political song, but I really like that political link that you made.

[pieterv]

I really enjoyed reading that interpretation, thanks for posting it I love reading different people's thoughts on American Idiot, every time I read a different person's interpretation, they always point out something that I never would've noticed before. Like, I never really thought that She's a Rebel was a very political song, but I really like that political link that you made.

That's one of the more far fetched theories that I didn't come up with myself but found and included for completeness sake.

Glad you enjoyed reading it though!

[Erika Fukes]

Well this is my question. So I've been in love with American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown ever since I've heard the whole thing. Okay so you know how in American Idiot, the Jesus of Suburbia and Whatsername don't have actual names? Well there's the St. Jimmy but he's pretty much the Jesus of Suburbia's alter ego, y'know? And in 21st Century Breakdown, the characters (Christian and Gloria, obviously) have actual names. So this is what I'm wondering: since the Jesus of Suburbia and Whatsername don't have actual names and Christian and Gloria do, is there a possibility that Christian and Gloria are actually the Jesus of Suburbia and Whatsername? If any of you are thinking I'm crazy, hear me out. In American Idiot, the Jesus of Suburbia and Whatsername are complete polar opposites, right? Whatsername is the rebel and the Jesus of Suburbia is caring and compassionate. Billie Joe Armstrong himself even said that Christian and Gloria are total opposites, Yin and Yang as he put it, stating that one is trying to calm the fire (or whatever) and the other one is trying to burn it down. We all know that Christian is the one trying to burn it down (hence Christian's inferno) and Gloria is the opposite. Maybe 21st Century Breakdown is the sequel to American Idiot, where the Jesus of Suburbia and Whatsername (or it could be that the names were changed to Christian and Gloria) have reunited and they've completely changed from how they used to be. They are complete opposites of their former selves. And 21st Century Breakdown describes their relationship from where they left off. As for the Peacemaker, it could be the St. Jimmy, as Christian's alter ego, also changed. As for the Class of '13, Billie Joe Armstrong said that he used that year because that was the graduating year of his son, Joseph. It could also be graduating class of Christian and Gloria as well, but who knows that for sure.

[IamTheJudge's-Daughter]

oh man I'm not good in understanding song meanings as well as you do, I just listen to the songs because they sound good

omg i was also at mönchengladbach

haha hab noch keinen gesehen der auch da war man hätte sich mal begegnen sollen :/

[IamTheJudge's-Daughter]

Well this is my question. So I've been in love with American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown ever since I've heard the whole thing. Okay so you know how in American Idiot, the Jesus of Suburbia and Whatsername don't have actual names? Well there's the St. Jimmy but he's pretty much the Jesus of Suburbia's alter ego, y'know? And in 21st Century Breakdown, the characters (Christian and Gloria, obviously) have actual names. So this is what I'm wondering: since the Jesus of Suburbia and Whatsername don't have actual names and Christian and Gloria do, is there a possibility that Christian and Gloria are actually the Jesus of Suburbia and Whatsername? If any of you are thinking I'm crazy, hear me out. In American Idiot, the Jesus of Suburbia and Whatsername are complete polar opposites, right? Whatsername is the rebel and the Jesus of Suburbia is caring and compassionate. Billie Joe Armstrong himself even said that Christian and Gloria are total opposites, Yin and Yang as he put it, stating that one is trying to calm the fire (or whatever) and the other one is trying to burn it down. We all know that Christian is the one trying to burn it down (hence Christian's inferno) and Gloria is the opposite. Maybe 21st Century Breakdown is the sequel to American Idiot, where the Jesus of Suburbia and Whatsername (or it could be that the names were changed to Christian and Gloria) have reunited and they've completely changed from how they used to be. They are complete opposites of their former selves. And 21st Century Breakdown describes their relationship from where they left off. As for the Peacemaker, it could be the St. Jimmy, as Christian's alter ego, also changed. As for the Class of '13, Billie Joe Armstrong said that he used that year because that was the graduating year of his son, Joseph. It could also be graduating class of Christian and Gloria as well, but who knows that for sure.

i really like your thoughts on that topic.. its very intersting

but im not that sure if i can agree.. for me whatsername was the rebel and JOS was an insecure and couldnt handle with his live so he created st. jimmy as sort of his alter ego. But in 21st century breakdown the whole boy / girl thing is the opposite than in american idiot.

and another big thing for me is that, the first act describes how they met. its in viva la gloria.. and that just doesnt match for me on how this is in american idiot.

i found another interesting point of view.. =) its on absolutepunk by chris fallon..

http://www.absolutepunk.net/journal.php?do=showentry&e=182342

main thing is, that for him its like gloria actually died in before the lobotomy. has anyone ever thought of that? for me, i can not say that i agree but its really some thought! what do you think?

[JOE THE X-KID]

I don't know much about the narrative but 21st century breakdown always reminds me of a post apocalypse and...Russia for some reason

[E!!i]

omg i was also at mönchengladbach

haha hab noch keinen gesehen der auch da war man hätte sich mal begegnen sollen :/

wirklich nicht? Also wenn ichs noch richtig im Kopf habe, hab ich mich dort mit einer Person von hier getroffen