Were Green Day originally a heavy metal band in the 80s?

there has been tthis rumour that Green Day started out as a heavy metal band back in the 80s. A mate of mine claims he's got a bootleg of them back in 1988 as a metal band

Possibly when they was called Sweet Children, but I never heard anything at that time, but when they changed the name over to Green Day, they were punk. They had some CD's before making it big in 94, but it was all punk, then after they made it big they were not even punk anymore but pop, and yet they still get labeled punk.

Well, I consider them to be pop/punk - but whatever.

Their very early stuff was punk.

I do not think they were ever 'metal'.

No

They were fairly Ramones-ish from what I remember. One of my friends had one of their pre-DOOKIE albums (I forget which) and when I heard it in his car one day I commented "Damn, these guys like the Ramones a whole hell of a lot don't they?"

No - they were punk before taking the pop-punk route on Dookie

thejokeriv wrote:

No - they were punk before taking the pop-punk route on Dookie

What he said.

I read in a biography that at one point in the late 80's before they had a musical direction they were doing Van Halen type hard rock and hair metal cover songs.

thejokeriv wrote:

No - they were punk before taking the pop-punk route on Dookie

I've always found this kind of comment weird. It's like there always has to be this sort of "pop" justification for why a band became popular.

Green Day has hardly changed at all from day one. They've been a pop-punk band the whole time. In fact, they didn't really try anything new until "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" on Nimrod. "Welcome to Paradise," a huge hit from Dookie, was first recorded for Kerplunk! It doesn't sound any different. Same band, same sound.

Either way, they were never a metal band.

Troublezone wrote:

I read in a biography that at one point in the late 80's before they had a musical direction they were doing Van Halen type hard rock and hair metal cover songs.

Not surprising, TZ, Nirvana used to do KISS and Led Zeppelin cover tunes before 'Nevermind' was released, and Kurt was a Black Sabbath fan, so I am not surprised Green Day used to do metal cover tunes.

Blind Melon started as a metal band or so I am told ...

Green Day Dookie era was far from Pop-punk to me. It was just punk rock music. They have some pretty raw rock tunes that used to be heavy to me.

MetalRob331 wrote:

Green Day Dookie era was far from Pop-punk to me. It was just punk rock music. They have some pretty raw rock tunes that used to be heavy to me.

Nah, they were pop punk, just like the Ramones were. Nothing wrong with the term.

Eyesore wrote:

MetalRob331 wrote:

Green Day Dookie era was far from Pop-punk to me. It was just punk rock music. They have some pretty raw rock tunes that used to be heavy to me.

Nah, they were pop punk, just like the Ramones were. Nothing wrong with the term.

IDK maybe I hear something else in there that makes me not like that term for these guys. Good Charlotte to me is Pop-Punk. Least we agree on the punk part..

This is about as metal as they'll ever get: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP0OptVY1cM

Deep down inside, I've always felt that Green Day somehow carried part of the blame for the whole emo era.

Punk is MDC,Blag Flag,Negative Approach,Cro-Mags, Bad Brains,Minor Threat etc. How does Green Day or Good Charlotte sound like those bands? They don't. They don't play punk-tour buses are not punk, making your own T-shirts is.

troublemagnet wrote:

Punk is MDC,Blag Flag,Negative Approach,Cro-Mags, Bad Brains,Minor Threat etc. How does Green Day or Good Charlotte sound like those bands? They don't. They don't play punk-tour buses are not punk, making your own T-shirts is.

Then I guess Social Distortion isn't punk.

Eyesore wrote:

troublemagnet wrote:

Punk is MDC,Blag Flag,Negative Approach,Cro-Mags, Bad Brains,Minor Threat etc. How does Green Day or Good Charlotte sound like those bands? They don't. They don't play punk-tour buses are not punk, making your own T-shirts is.

Then I guess Social Distortion isn't punk.

Rockabilly isn't punk.

troublemagnet wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

troublemagnet wrote:

Punk is MDC,Blag Flag,Negative Approach,Cro-Mags, Bad Brains,Minor Threat etc. How does Green Day or Good Charlotte sound like those bands? They don't. They don't play punk-tour buses are not punk, making your own T-shirts is.

Then I guess Social Distortion isn't punk.

Rockabilly isn't punk.

troublemagnet wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

troublemagnet wrote:

Punk is MDC,Blag Flag,Negative Approach,Cro-Mags, Bad Brains,Minor Threat etc. How does Green Day or Good Charlotte sound like those bands? They don't. They don't play punk-tour buses are not punk, making your own T-shirts is.

Then I guess Social Distortion isn't punk.

Rockabilly isn't punk.

I didn't realize Social D was a rockabilly band. Surely they've had some rockabilly moments in their songs, but they are a definitive punk band.

Social D is just straight up rock with elements of blues, country and rockabilly. Their first album was as punk as they would ever be.

Troublezone wrote:

Social D is just straight up rock with elements of blues, country and rockabilly. Their first album was as punk as they would ever be.

Gotta love genre nazis.

IMO, "punk" applies to bands like The Sex Pistols, The Damned, The UK Subs, The Germs, etc.

Punk-pop applies to bands like Green Day, The Ramones, Blink 182, etc.

So I guess I agree with Eyesore. Social D is one of those bands that defies categorization IMO.

Where would you genre nazis classify bands like Rocket From The Crypt or The Mighty Mighty Bosstones?

For the record, I gave up classifying bands a long time ago. I like what I like and when someone asks for recommendations, I simply compare known bands to unknown bands. This whole genre thing is completely out of control IMO.

Ska punk for the Bosstones is the standard, I believe. Haven't heard much RFTC, though.

I personally started labeling everything under the big genres—rock, metal, punk, hardcore, and so forth—a long time ago. I don't mind breaking things down for purposes of clarifying sounds, but whether it's pop punk, ska punk, punkabilly, or whatever, it's all still punk.