American Eulogy

Album: 21st Century Breakdown (2009)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is made up of two songs, "Mass Hysteria" and "Modern World." Vocalist and chief songwriter Billie Joe Armstrong explained to Q magazine May 2009: "It swirls all the information that's going on in the record around in an emotional blender. At the end it's going to sound like a wall of TV screens. It's sensory overload."
  • Green Day were recording the drums for this two-part song on election night in November 2009, when Barack Obama was elected president. Drummer Tré Cool recalled to Q magazine May 2009: "It was pretty insane. We were running in and telling Butch (Vig, producer), Yeah, we got another state!" Cool added that the song title is "kind of fitting, especially if Obama would have lost. We'd be busy trying to start a revolution if McCain had won."

Comments: 2

  • Cage from Ottawa, KsIt is possible that the verse structure for the first part could be based on the verse structure from Deadbeat Holiday from Warning.
  • Michael from Staten Island, NyAwesome song from an overall decent album, best part has to be the ending when the two songs 'collide'.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

La La Brooks of The Crystals

La La Brooks of The CrystalsSong Writing

The lead singer on "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me," La La explains how and why Phil Spector replaced The Crystals with Darlene Love on "He's A Rebel."

Macabre Mother Goose: The Dark Side of Children's Songs

Macabre Mother Goose: The Dark Side of Children's SongsSong Writing

"London Bridge," "Ring Around the Rosie" and "It's Raining, It's Pouring" are just a few examples of shockingly morbid children's songs.

Spooner Oldham

Spooner OldhamSongwriter Interviews

His keyboard work helped define the Muscle Shoals sound and make him an integral part of many Neil Young recordings. Spooner is also an accomplished songwriter, whose hits include "I'm Your Puppet" and "Cry Like A Baby."

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Penny Ford of Snap!

Penny Ford of Snap!Songwriter Interviews

The original voice of Snap! this story is filled with angry drag queens, video impersonators and Chaka Khan.

Did They Really Sing In That Movie?

Did They Really Sing In That Movie?Fact or Fiction

Bradley Cooper, Michael J. Fox, Rami Malek, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow and George Clooney: Which actors really sang in their movies?