Um, you do realize they were pretty big through out most of their career. Anyway I think it's real blatant that they were pop punk through out their early days and their last album was overproduced underwritten alternative rock. Well, it's obvious to me.

To pan:

I think most genres of music are a bit defensive as to what is classified as belonging to their genre. Metal for example is pretty big on it "Death to false metal" etc. Post in the electronic section of this forum that radiohead are great electronic muscians and you will probably get burned. Like wise is you proposed that matchbox20 is kick ass hard rock. Punk is probably the worst due to 2 reasons (1) Punk fans can become pretty obsessed with their music (2) Punk rock like many other genres is used for commercial gains (and why shouldn't it be) and this goes against the original idea of what punk is. I'm pretty sure this is not new news for you.
I don't think this thread is too "this is punk and that is not" I only really got involved because I found it interesting that old mate dislike fugazi because it is "frat rock" but he digs greenday.

yeah i kind of flipped out that morning hehe. i also agree when you say all styles are pretty defensive when it comes to defining itself. i just find the vast majority of punks i meet in real life are so self involved they don't see their own hypocrisy when they go off about freedom of expression while they keep refining (and limiting) their idiom. same goes for people complaining about the misappropriation of the word 'alternative' to describe 90s rock, or 'indie' to describe current rock bands.

it's seems to me that holding onto a label for dear life limits the growth of an idividual far more than it preserves anything worthwhile.

I totally agree. A name for names sake is worth very little.

In my opinion they are a punk band, with pop-punk influences

A Decade ago, maybe. Wasn't that why Billy wrote "time of your life" since he thought his band was no longer punk anymore? I dunno...

LeeBerreth says it well.

Punk rock, to me and most others, means anti-establishment rock music.

So, by that definition, I would not consider Green Day punk rock.

Maybe they have taken some surface details of what is considered the "punk rock sound," but that's about it. They were always a mainstream band.

Pop-punk is one of them there oxymorons.

They're a pop-rock band with watered down elements of Punk.

punk rock is such an obsolete concept today that Green Day might as well be Rennaisance Fayre-ing minstrels or whatever. Seriously, what they do is exactly what Ian Astbury and the 'New Doors' are doing elsewhere. Oh, and since when is having a constructive political agenda a 'punk' move? So are Northwestern liberal soccer-moms the new punk vanguard? I really can't see how there can be any controversy over this matter; I'm beside myself. Really.

It's about time you showed up! How have you been?