This album is nearly 14 years old, the same age as its ideal listenership
This album is nearly 14 years old, the same age as its ideal listenership

One good thing about the United Kingdom, aside from its surprisingly strong showing at this year's World Cup, is that they still care about pop charts there. Every so often, a percentage of the British population bands together to ensure that some album or song gets to number one by a particular date. The last one I remember was in 2008, when a campaign to make a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" number one the week of Christmas resulted in three versions of the song landing in the top 40 (including the numbers one and two slots).

The latest iteration of this culture jamming impulse has a slightly more caustic aim. A Facebook group is campaigning to make Green Day's 2014 single "American Idiot" number one in the charts during the time when US President Donald Trump is in the country for a "working visit." According to CNN, the effort is working, and it's only one of several art-based anti-Trump protests gaining momentum.

The nearly 14-year-old song is currently sitting at number 18 with just over a week to go. And here I thought life under George W. Bush was the only condition stultifying enough to make that song and album feel like bold political gestures...