What Is A Rock Opera?

Cee R.
Aug 25, 2021

(Except for totally awesome, obviously)

Artistic image of Tre Cool (Green Day’s drummer) drumming. The drum contains an animation of Christian and Gloria (the main characters of 21st Century Breakdown) embracing as flames burn behind them
Via Giphy

Putting it simply, a rock opera is a studio album of rock music which tells a story.

It’s similar to a concept album, which is an album which centres around a theme or narrative.

So, a rock opera is a type of concept album — rock operas are all concept albums, but not all concept albums are rock operas.

Green Day’s rock operas (like the famous American Idiot,) are obvious — they’re clear narratives, with 21st Century Breakdown actually being split into a clear 3 act structure:

  1. Set-up/scenario
  2. Sh** hits the fan
  3. Resolution

Rock on!

Adapted from this post on Dora Reads

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Cee R.

Writer, poet, (book) blogger @ dorareads.co.uk , Queer, weird, & a tad peculiar. Bookish rebel. Welsh as a tractor on the M4. Buy me a coffee @ ko-fi.com/ceearr