Many bands re-master their albums to improve sound quality, optimize for new formats, and sell the same album again.
Green Day has done the opposite for their groundbreaking 1994 album “Dookie.”
Rather than re-mastering, they have de-mastered their album, releasing all fifteen songs into 15 “obscure, obsolete, and inconvenient” formats:
- Player piano roll
- Floppy disc
- Teddy Ruxpin
- Doorbell
- Game Boy cartridge
- Toothbrush
- Big Mouth Billie Bass
- Hit clip
- 8-track
- Wax cylinder
- X-ray record
- Answering machine
- Minidisc
- Fisher Price record
- Music box
The formats have already sold out, but you can listen to each online here.
The Dookie Demastered website warns that the re-release is “the way it was never meant to be heard” and that “extended listening could provoke rage-nausea in audiophiles.”
But Green Day has done something I am constantly coaching marketing teams and business leaders to do:
Stake out new ground.
Zig while others are zagging.
Find a battlefield where no one else is fighting and own it.
When we find a way to do something new, unorthodox, unexpected, and different, we garner attention for our products and services.
When we are smart, clever, and brave enough to surprise an audience, we can touch hearts and minds and become unforgettable.
This applies to teaching, too. Lessons that are new, unorthodox, unexpected, and different are always entertaining and unforgettable for students, too.
Admittedly, Green Day also launched a 30th-anniversary deluxe edition—something I would not have known had they not also de-mastered “Dookie” and grabbed my attention. It’s fantastic, too, complete with an enormous amount of bonus content.
I’ve listened to much of it already.
In releasing these de-mastered tracks, Green Day also strengthens its brand identity by appealing to elements like nostalgia, humor, and punk and nerd culture — all things Green Day fans are known to be.
They’ve also given themselves a chance to reach a new audience. This is the kind of thing people will want to share with friends and family, even if they’re not fans of Green Day.
In doing so, some might discover this album for the first time and fall in love.
How could you not? It’s brilliant.
Mostly, it’s just fun. Listening to a Green Day song play from a Teddy Ruxpin doll, a Big Mouth Billie Bass, and an answering machine is irresistible. Playing the songs makes you smile. It’s a signal that Green Day doesn’t take itself too seriously.
They want you to have a good time.
Brilliant marketing from a brilliant band performing brilliant music for a long time, yet still finding a way to make it feel new and special.
