at 14:31 on May 21, 2009, EDT.
By Nekesa Mumbi Moody, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK - Green Day has the most popular CD in the United States, but it's not for sale there at Wal-Mart.

The band says the giant superstore chain refused to stock its latest CD, "21st Century Breakdown," because Wal-Mart wanted the album edited for language and content, and they refused.

"Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won't carry our record because they wanted us to censor it," frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a recent interview. (A spokesperson for Wal-Mart Canada said the CD is being sold in this country.)

While Wal-Mart sells CDs from acts known for raunchy content, including Eminem's latest, they offer customers the "clean" version of those CDs, which are edited for content that may be objectionable. But in Armstrong's view, "There's nothing dirty about our record."

"They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there," he said. "We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."

"21st Century Breakdown" contains curses and some references considered adult.

Wal-Mart said that it's the company's long-standing policy not to stock any CD with a parental advisory sticker.

"As with all music, it is up to the artist or label to decide if they want to market different variations of an album to sell, including a version that would remove a PA rating," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien said. "The label and artist in this case have decided not to do so, so we unfortunately can not offer the CD."

But bassist Mike Dirnt said: "As the biggest record store in the America, they should probably have an obligation to sell people the correct art."

Not being sold at Wal-Mart didn't stop the band - which kicks off a U.S. tour summer tour in Seattle on July 3 - from landing at the top of the album charts this week. "21st Century Breakdown" sold about 215,000 copies since it's debut on Friday.

The album is the followup to their multiplatinum, Grammy-winning CD "American Idiot," and like that album, deals with weighty topics. While "American Idiot" spoke to the frustration over the presidency of George W. Bush and the Iraq War, this CD speaks to the loss of innocence and confusion in today's society.

While Armstrong, Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool are still top-sellers without Wal-Mart, Armstrong said the store's policy is disappointing, considering it has become the dominant seller of CDs with the decline of traditional music stores.

"If you think about bands that are struggling or smaller than Green Day ... to think that to get your record out in places like that, but they won't carry it because of the content and you have to censor yourself," he said. "I mean, what does that say to a young kid who's trying to speak his mind making a record for the first time? It's like a game that you have to play. You have to refuse to play it."

-

On the Net:

http://www.greenday.com


©The Canadian Press, 2009

good for green day. they were in a place where it wouldn't have hurt their sales anyway, so they could afford to take a stand.

They stood up for their rights. Good, because there's too many slaves in this fucked-up industry.

This is not the first time Wal-Mart has pulled these shenanigans; I'm glad Green Day stood it's ground.

http://www.pbs.org/newsho...mpact.html
[Edited 5/21/09 20:15pm]

TD3 said:

nirvana (in)famously caved to their demands. of course, this was well before the internet became as formidable as it is today.

Who controls Wal-Mart policy?? Disney??

Do they sell movies? If so do they censor the content of those before selling them? I doubt it...

Who are they to decide what we should be able to hear? All the voilence & sex in this world and they want to stop us hearing a few "naughty" words? Whatever happened to freedom of speech?

pacey68 said:

i'd like to see what video games they're selling.

Green Day should do a Wal-Mart tour. Park their tour bus in the parking lot of Wal-Marts around the country. Park, perform a couple trax and sell their our cds, right their outside a local Wal-Mart. That would be hot!!

jthad1129 said:

I think that would spell trouble for them

jthad1129 said:

well, maybe across the road from wal-mart.

jthad1129 said:

Yeah right!

They're still doing this shit at Wal*Mart? I mean, I remember reading about Zack & Miri Make A Porno, but that was just about the title, nothing about the content.

Rogue588 said:

Fuck Wal-Mart, they're only good for CD-Rs.

Anxiety said:

That would be a PERFECT idea.

fuck Wall Mart.....can't stand them or their stores

airplane hangar type warehouses full of junk food

meanwhile, Green Day is one of the best live acts I have ever seen and gonna try to snag tickets to a surprise live show here in Japan next week at a small 1,500 seat venue

pacey68 said:

I've never understood this either. If a CD has "fuck" in it they censor it, but they sell the Goodfellas or Casino movies that must have the word fuck in them 300 times. It makes no sense.

its not just the word "Fuck" that they censor. They have these small shows that artists do sometimes called "Walmart Sounchecks" and what happens with these shows is they usually go to the website for download and the artists site for download, the video of it also. The interesting thing is that when PCD peformed and they were singing "Buttons" and the line was "Im the Sexy Mama" the word Sexy was distorted. So dont just think its "cursing" that is removed from music.

Green Day rock!

Their new cd is great. They don't need Walmart for sales.

Timmy84 said:

too funny. that's the only reason I ever go to Wal-Mart, too.

Green Day's not really my style, but good for them for sticking up for their music.

Fuck Walmart. They shouldn't be selling music anyway.

vainandy said:

Their selection is shitty here.

luv4u said:

Nothing but Top 40 and crap compilations most of the time.

I haven't set foot in a Wal-Mart for almost a year. I don't miss it.

meow85 said:

I prefer HMV

All they have ever carried since they've been open, is the extremely popular music only.

luv4u said:

HMV's usually pretty decent.

My absolute favourite place to get music and movies though is this local place called Charlie's Music. If you're ever out in Vancouver you should look the place up.

Yeah, you can buy a gun at Wal-Mart, but God forbid if you put out a CD with a few cuss words.

Plus, you can purchase Rated R movies.

And I've heard stories of people buying Hentai at Wal-Mart.

Gotta love those Good Old-Fashioned American Values!!!

meow85 said:

Yup. It's bout time someone took a stand and told the people at Wally's World - don't pass Go, don't collection 2 hundred dollars, and go straight to hell!