Music speaks for its generation. Albums and songs consciously and subconsciously echo the emotions, events, and experiences of audiences at large.
Over twenty years into a storied career, Good Charlotte consistently amplify the voice of their era. Similar to how they spoke for a restless post-Y2K zeitgeist at the turn-of-the-century, the iconic multiplatinum modern rock mavericks—brothers Joel and Benji Madden , Billy Martin , Paul Thomas , and Dean Butterworth —pick up the mantle for a world anesthetized and numbed by quick chemical fixes, social media obsession, and pervasive tragedy on their seventh full-length, the appropriately titled Generation Rx . As always, they encode a hopeful message inside a capsule of D.I.Y. punk energy, expansive rock unpredictability, and widescreen orchestral scope.
It’s as if the quintet siphon the spirit of their formative years through a prism of wisdom gleamed from two decades in the game. “When we first started, there was this unconscious feeling,” explains Joel. “It’s like we were running our own race. I think we’ve been trying to find the doorway back for a long time. We’ve both learned so much through family and life that we managed to finally find the doorway. It took us fifteen years to get back there, but we did now.”
Following a six-year hiatus, they made a much-lauded return with their first independent offering Youth Authority during 2016. Everyone from N.E.R.D. and Three 6 Mafia to Avenged Sevenfold and Tonight Alive jumped at the chance to collaborate. By 2018, cumulative sales exceeded 11 million worldwide, while accolades encompassed everything from KERRANG! Awards to an MTV VMA. Along the way, they formed a full-service management firm and music company, MDDN, which looks after 21 clients and comprises a team of 16 forward-thinking creative minds.
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