Green Day vs Wal-Mart: Who will have the last word?

Looks like Wal-Mart is having the ultimate “21st Century Breakdown.” In keeping with longtime sales policies, the retail mega-chain has decided not to carry the brand new album by Green Day because it includes explicit lyrics — and of course bears the usual “Parental Advisory” sticker. 

Because Wal-Mart is one of the most popular places to buy music (it’s the #2 music seller in the country behind iTunes), most artists create alternate, clean versions of their albums so that they can get their tunes on the chain’s shelves. But Green Day decided to break from the usual practice and refused to release a clean version of 21^st Century Breakdown.

As front man Billie Joe Armstrong told the Associated Press, “They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there. We just said no. We’ve never done it before. You feel like you’re in 1953 or something.” 

Could this refusal set a trend? Wal-Mart isn’t too concerned. Melissa O’Brien, a spokeswoman for the corporation, says, “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.” For now, the store has no plan to revise its current policy. 

Maybe Wal-Mart should reconsider. The album, quite appropriately entitled 21st Century Breakdown has already sold an impressive 215,000 copies since last Friday—without the help of the giant retailer. Of course, this is Wal-mart we’re talking about, and the loss of Green Day’s album hardly wreaks financial havoc, but if other artists follow in the band’s footsteps… it might.  

Green Day’s noncompliance with Wal-Mart guidelines may portend a future era of digital music domination. Sure, iTunes has replaced the standard record store, but will the tangible CD also become extinct in years to come?  

Not so fast. Green Day is one of the only artists brave enough to jump off the Wal-Mart bandwagon. While Sheryl Crow famously refused to alter her lyrics "Watch our children as they kill each other with a gun they bought at Wal-Mart discount stores" to meet Wal-mart demands, other artists like Nirvana have accepted censorship requirements, most notably changing their song “Rape Me” to “Waif Me.” Similarly, the clean version of Eminem’s album “Relapse,” which dropped earlier this week, is already on Wal-Mart shelves. 

As for Green Day, the band’s Wal-Mart stance certainly seems to reflect the ethos of 21^st Century Breakdown, which Armstrong describes as a “snapshot of the era in which we live as we question and try to make sense of the selfish manipulation going on around us, whether it be the government, religion, media or frankly any form of authority." 

We’re guessing he counts Wal-mart as one of those forms. But in the face of censorship scrutiny, will Wal-Mart’s influence on pop culture come to an end? And how much is Green Day risking by refusing to play along?