Rhino Factoids: Green Day Rules at the MTV Video Music Awards

It’s growing increasingly more difficult to take the MTV Video Music Awards seriously, what with how few videos the network actually shows anymore, but the ceremony still meant something back in 2005, when the centerpiece of Green Day’s concept album, American Idiot, helped the band take home six – count ‘em – six trophies… and that’s not even counting the Viewer’s Choice Award they earned for the song “American Idiot.”

When listening to American Idiot, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” arrives on the heels of “Holiday,” a musical two-fer which has been described by the band as being like a party that’s followed by a hangover. There are videos for both songs, but it’s “Boulevard,” directed by Samuel Bayer, that resulted in Green Day winning for Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Best Rock Video, Best Direction in a Video, Best Editing in a Video, and Best Cinematography in a Video, and Viewer’s Choice.

It would be another four years before Green Day managed to make any real impact with any of their other videos – “21 Guns” won them some plaudits in 2009 – but that’s okay: during those quieter years, it turns out that walking a lonely road is surprisingly easy when you’ve got half a dozen VMAs to keep you warm at night.