corny. He eventually decided against this, as he hoped for the album to be "about being 15 and rocking out in front of a mirror." The song's format and cadence was influenced by the Midnight Oil song "US Forces", which Armstrong was introduced to through his wife. Release Released in 2004, the single peaked at number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Green Day's first Billboard Hot 100 chart entry. All of Green Day's other hits had only managed to chart on the Hot 100 Airplay chart or the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. However, the appearance of "American Idiot" on the US singles charts occurred just prior to Billboard's inclusion of Internet download purchases into their Billboard Hot 100 chart data, which would have made a significant difference in the song's peak had it benefited from the new chart tabulation system. "American Idiot" became Green Day's first top-five single in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 3, and it debuted at number 1 in Canada. In Australia, the song reached number 7 was ranked number 22 on Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2004. Green Day performed the song at the 2005 Grammy Awards. "American Idiot" has sold 1,371,000 copies as of July 2010. Ian Winwood of Kerrang! said that "Green Day did for their generation, and their country, what the Sex Pistols did for the United Kingdom in 1977, for a nation sick with love for a parasitical royal family." Music video The music video for "American Idiot" shows the band playing in a warehouse against a green American flag (a reference to the name of the band), which only has 48 stars. In the middle of the video, the band is seen playing at different speeds (fast, slow-motion, and normal speed). During the bridge, the stripes of the flag melt onto the floor. The band is then sprayed by a green liquid from amplifiers next to the flag. At the end, the band drop their instruments and leave. The song's video was directed by Samuel Bayer. The video won the Viewer's Choice Award and also nominated as Best Art Direction. Live version Green Day's 2011 live album Awesome as Fuck contained a live rendition of the song, featuring an extended guitar solo, recorded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on the 21st Century Breakdown World Tour. It was also featured in their 2005 live album Bullet in a Bible,