Green Day

Boundless love for '60s pop and '70s punk, combined with a wealth of lyrical irreverence and aggression, helped elevate Green Day from the Southern California alt/punk scene to one of the most popular and critically acclaimed rock bands in the world. Green Day began when Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, a pair of teenaged Operation Ivy fans based in Vallejo, California, launched their own group, Sweet Children, in 1986. They caught the attention of Lookout! Records owner Larry Livermore, who signed them to his label in 1988; now named Green Day to avoid confusion with another, similarly named local group (and to pay tribute to their fondness for marijuana), the band issued a handful of EPs before releasing their debut LP, 39/Smooth (1990).

Drummer Tre Cool completed the band's core lineup that same year, and Green Day commenced two solid years of touring and recording, which led to a faithful and sizable audience on both sides of the Atlantic, and a recording contract with Reprise Records. The band's first major label record, Dookie (1994) and its three singles - "Longview," "Basket Case" and "When I Come Around" - shot to the top of the Modern Rock charts thanks to constant rotation on college radio and MTV, which in turn fueled the album's Grammy win for Best Alternative Album.

Two more albums followed in rapid succession: Insomniac (1995), which fared slightly less well than its predecessor, and Nimrod (1997), which flirted with a variety of genres, from ska to the hit acoustic track "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)." Both critical and audience interest appeared to wane with the release of their sixth album, Warning, but the band roared back to prominence with their next studio LP, American Idiot (2004). The album, which followed a rock opera format, took aim at the presidency of George W. Bush and its impact on American life; its ferocious assault on politics and culture boosted the record to No. 1 and earned Green Day its second Grammy Award.

American Idiot was adapted into a Tony- and Grammy-winning stage musical in 2009, the same year the band issued its seventh album, 21st Century Breakdown. Two solid years of touring and songwriting preceded the band's next effort, a trio of albums titled ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tre! (all 2012), each following a different sonic format from garage-rock to pop-punk and featuring new band member Jason White on guitar. A slew of special projects, from documentaries on "American Idiot" to the demo compilation Demolicious (2014), preceded Green Day's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the following year.