DOOKIE (1994)

PRIOR to signing with major label Reprise Records in 1994, Green Day released two mini-albums (1039 and Smoothed Out Slappy Hours) and the full-length Kerplunk and had toured the US five times in a mobile library-turned-tour van. The hard work had paved the way for Dookie by setting up a dedicated fan-base but no one could have expected what that little album did. Recorded in just three weeks and blasting through 15 songs in 39 minutes, Dookie went on to sell more than 15 million copies worldwide. It remains their biggest selling album ever, but it was a slowburn. The album gradually crept up the charts worldwide on the strength of five upbeat singles that perfectly blended pop and punk: Longview, Basketcase, She, When I Come Around and Welcome To Paradise (the latter of which previously appeared on Kerplunk). The other sales-booster were some memorable performances, among them their mud-fight-inducing set at Woodstock '94, a naked appearance at Madison Square Garden and a Boston gig that left 100 people injured and 45 arrested. Dookie struck a chord with many teens thanks to its lyrics about boredom, masturbation, drug-induced paranoia and sex - Musicology recalls a time as a teen where this was the most common album in people's collections after Nirvana's Nevermind.

< i>INSOMNIAC (1995)

WORKING again with producer Rob Cavallo (who would go on to produce the Vasco Era), Insomniac failed to sell anywhere near as many copies as Dookie - the start of a decline that wouldn't be arrested until American Idiot - but it still sold more than two million copies in the US alone. It received better reviews than Dookie because everyone had gotten over the idea that punk couldn't be commercial, thanks in no small part to Green Day paving the way for the likes of Rancid, The Offspring and Pennywise. Insomniac boasted a slightly harder edge to it - particularly on the staccato riffing of Brainstew - but elsewhere it was more of the winning formula from Dookie and another slew of great singles including Jaded, Walking Contradiction, Stuck With Me and Geek Stink Breath.

NIMR OD (1997)

AFTER burning out on the road, Green Day took a break. When they returned, they created Nimrod, their most diverse album to date. There were the usual fast punchy numbers, plus a surf tune (Last Ride In), a ska-punk track (King For A Day), and some slower songs. But it was the most un-Green Day-like piece that helped this album sell as many copies as Insomniac. Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) was helped to hit status after appearing on the final episode of Seinfeld and, despite being a kiss-off Billie Joe wrote to a former girlfriend, it's since become a popular song for weddings and graduations. It's the best-known song on the record but not the best - those honours go to the unashamedly poppy Redundant and the swingin' rock number Hitchin' A Ride.

WARNING (2000)

REMAINING relevant is a tough job for any band. Warning failed to sell a million copies in the US, despite receiving some of the best reviews of the band's career and yielding more top blasts of pop-punk. It seemed Green Day, which had once stood for snotty punk attitude, weren't such a hit with the kids now that they were writing more reflective songs and sounding like older, wiser dudes trying to pass on what they've learnt to younger dudes - Minority was about being yourself, Waiting was about patience, Church On Sunday was about saving a marriage, and Fashion Victim was about being yourself (again). Minority was still a hit but the nay-sayers and culture vultures had the knives out, waiting to write Green Day off completely on their next album.

AMERICAN IDIOT (2004)

IT seemed unlikely Green Day could hit the top again after the diminishing returns of their previous albums, but they did just that with their "punk-rock opera'' American Idiot. It was their first chart-topper in the US but came after a long and tortured birth. In 2003, Green Day were working on their Warning follow-up, then titled Cigarettes And Valentines, and had 20 songs in the can until someone stole the master-tapes. Rather than recreate the C&V sound, the trio started again from scratch and created their new millenium masterpiece American Idiot - a remarkable coming-of-age tale set against the backdrop of then US president George W. Bush's War-On-Everything America. The titular single showed the trio could still be snotty once they had somewhere to aim. The genius of the concept album is that it works as a whole but the songs also work individually as a collection of great Green Day songs, particularly the adventurous multi-part epics Jesus Of Suburbia and Homecoming.