Throughout the history of alternative rock music in particular, there have been two charts that have mattered: the Mainstream Rock chart, and the Modern Rock chart, which has now changed its name to Alternative Airplay for 2020 and beyond.  The two charts have been used to demonstrate the opposite sides of the coin over the last three decades, with Mainstream Rock highlighting more traditional rock and metal artists, and Modern Rock following the more unique styles of rock from shoegazing, Britpop, garage rock, and emo.  But they have also demonstrated how many styles of this genre have overlapped over the years.  Especially during the ages of grunge, pop punk, post-grunge, and nu metal, there have been numerous artists, including Nirvana, Bush, and The Offspring, who have excelled on both charts.

But beginning in the 2000s, the charts began to slowly drift apart from each other, as rock music declined in popularity and alternative music (plus music in general) became much more pop-oriented.  It has gotten to the point now where an artist performing well on both charts has become a rare event, with less and less crossover over time.  In 2020, some songs appeared in both charts, but did well on only one and not the other.  Both Weezer songs that made the Alternative year-end list made the Mainstream Rock charts, but both bottomed out at #19 before fading away.  “Shakin’ Off The Rust” by the Blue Stones was a well-made garage rock track that demonstrated crossover appeal for the alternative crowd… and it only peaked at #32 on the Alternative Airplay chart. 

So I have to ask… how was this the only song that appealed to both the Alternative and Mainstream Rock crowds this year?

“Oh Yeah!” – Green Day

Alternative
#1 peak (1 week, April 18^th, 2020)
#28 year-end

Rock
#1 peak (2 weeks, April 4^th – April 11^th, 2020)
#22 year-end

Before we start: I love Green Day.  American Idiot was one of the first albums I knew, front to back, when I started getting into music as a twelve year old, and Nimrod saved me a lot of stress when choosing album tracks to play on my radio show in college.  But it needs to be said: this band hasn’t really done well since American Idiot.  In 2009, five years after American Idiot, they finally came back with their epic rock opera 21^st Century Breakdown, a considerable step down from its predecessor with its more polished pop-friendly sound and its far more generic plotline.  And then in 2012, they released the even worse Uno! Dos! Tre!, a triple album that’s consistently rated as their worst.  Reason number one: tons of songs you forget as soon as you’ve heard them.  Reason number two: “Nightlife.”  Although they finally made their first good album since American Idiot in 2016 with Revolution Radio, it’s just that: “Good.”  The message was made clear: this is a band that is getting airplay less because their music is great and more because of the reasons acts like Paul McCartney or The Rolling Stones still had chart success in the 80s or why Michael Jackson had a hit in the 2000s: recognition and momentum from classic songs they made over a decade prior.

But after the success of their previous album, Green Day had a rough 2020.  Their album Father Of All Motherf**kers came out yet again to mixed reviews, and their massive Hella Mega tour with Weezer and Fall Out Boy was crushed by COVID-19.  And this was their hit song this year… and yeah, “Oh Yeah!” is not good.  No joke here: there were songs from Uno! Dos! Tre! that would have made better singles than this (“Stray Heart” and “X-Kid” come to mind).

To start off, the music on this song is too poppy for Green Day.  This has been a problem ever since 21^st Century Breakdown, where the guitar on the pop punk songs became more and more of an afterthought while the ballads became generic piano fluff.  Here, we have a new problem.  This song is said to have been inspired by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, but there is a key difference.  Joan Jett had attitude.  This song does not.  The only guitar playing of note on this song is a lame guitar riff that a first month guitar student could play.  That would be fine if the riff was good, but it’s repetitive and gets old fast.  Adding to that, the guitar itself has no punch.  There is no intensity or interesting effects from the guitar, and the rhythm is one you’ve heard in a million other songs before.  And that’s it as far as guitar goes.  The rhythm guitar is buried in the mix in the pre-chorus, and the chorus has no guitar.

But that being said, the pre-chorus has some promise.  It does feature a decent organ and the band does demonstrate their skills by having some build-up with the bass and drums.  As Billie Joe sings “Everybody is a star,” we get excited.  What are we gonna get for the chorus?  A powerful full band inclusion, just like on so many classics like “Basket Case” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”?  A fantastic riff like the ones on “When I Come Around” or “American Idiot”?  We scooch over to the edge of our seats in anticipation, and then…

Yeah, oh yeah!  Oh yeah!
(Do we want it?  Do, do we want it?)
Yeah, oh yeah!  Oh yeah!
(Do we want it?  Do, do we want it?)

Yeah.  Oh yeah.  That’s all we get.  Just a bunch of “Oh yeah’s” in the chorus.  Heck, even Major Lazer and Marcus Mumford at least remembered to make their repetitive phrase more than two words long.  To make matters worse, all the instruments except Tre Cool’s drums are cut abruptly when the chorus starts, providing us with so much more emphasis on the irritating repetition of “oh yeah.”  Now some will make the argument that the chorus is catchy, but that just makes it worse.  You get offended by how little it says, then you have it stuck in your head all day, with the chorus getting worse and worse with each time it plays.  And before you state the obvious to me that there are more words listed above than “oh yeah,” the “do we want it” lyrics are mixed horribly and indistinguishable, making it truly sound like “oh yeah!” is the only lyric here.  I swear it’s being done by a robot.

Green Day is better than this song.  It’s that simple.  They’ve made tons of great songs, and even their album cuts from records like Dookie and American Idiot dwarf this sorry excuse for a single.  Heck, even their weaker albums had more positives than this.  At least 21^st Century Breakdown had an ambitious storyline, and even Uno! Dos! Tre! was a daring attempt at reviving the double and triple album at a time when no one was making them.  My only hope is they cut this song from the playlist when the Hella Mega tour resumes in 2021.

IMAGE SOURCES

Father Of All Motherf**kers album cover from Wikimedia

Still from “Oh Yeah!” music video from Hidden Jams