 21st Century Breakdown is the eighth studio album by the American punk rock band Green Day . It is the band 's second rock opera , following American Idiot ( 2004 ) , and their first album to be produced by Butch Vig . Green Day commenced work on the record in January 2006 and forty @-@ five songs were written by vocalist / guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong by October 2007 , but the band members did not enter studio work until January 2008 . 
