This song is Good Charlotte's anthem for all the kids like them who didn't conform. Instead of studying hard, going to college and getting sensible jobs, they went off the path and pursued their passion to make music. This comes with great risk, as the 9-5ers of the world will declare you losers and doubt you. Good Charlotte is there with this song to give you the confidence to do your own thing.
"The Anthem" was written by Good Charlotte's leaders, the twin brothers Joel and Benji Madden, along with John Feldmann from the group Goldfinger. The Madden twins were only 23 when the song was released, so adult ridicule was still fresh in their minds.
Joel Madden described "The Anthem" to Sorted magazine as "a song about not living the way that you're supposed to live. Like I guess that in America everybody kinda looks at, to be successful you gotta go to college, get a job, a house, two cars, a wife and some kids. That's the American Dream or whatever. It's like, well, I could never go to college or whatever. I'm kinda proud of being looked down on because we've made something happen. We didn't have the most opportunities growing up."
Guitarist Billy Martin added: "To us, it's a song saying that whatever goal you have, try and reach it."
A month before this song was released, it was used in the football video game Madden 2003. The game sold over 5 million copies and provided the exposure the song needed to become a hit. With songs becoming more difficult to get on radio and MTV, many artists began using non-traditional methods to get their songs heard. "The Anthem" proved that a video game could break a song.
"The Anthem" was the follow-up single to "
Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous," Good Charlotte's first hit. Both songs are from their breakthrough second album,
The Young And The Hopeless, which sold over 5 million copies in America. By the time they released their next album,
The Chronicles Of Life And Death in 2004, their pop-punk sound was falling out of favor and they didn't land any more big hits. The group took a break after releasing their 2010 album
Cardiology, but a few years later their sound came back into fashion with bands like 5 Seconds Of Summer citing them as an influence. Good Charlotte returned to action in 2016 with the album
Youth Authority.
This song was huge on MTV, particularly on the show TRL, where the band made frequent appearances. They didn't get any love from host Chris Rock at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, though. After they played "The Anthem," Chris Rock said, "Good Charlotte? More like mediocre Green Day."
After breaking through with "Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous" the band was indeed rich and famous, or at least well-off and notable. To show that it wasn't going to their heads, they made the video for "The Anthem" a party with their friends, showing them all hanging out with their cars and dogs. It showed that they were still just regular guys having a good time.
In a 2012 interview with Alter the Press, Joel Madden remembered the song's origin and its surprising success: "'The Anthem' was a special song. When I was 19, the first time we went out to LA I met one of my heroes, John Feldmann [producer], who is a really dear friend of mine and still is today. I remember the first time we met, he took me surfing. A movie was interested and had called asking that they needed a song. We were hanging with John at the time and said we should just do it. We went and wrote 'The Anthem' – me, Benj and John. It turned out the movie didn't even want it but we really liked the song and the fact we wrote with John made it extra special. We only went into the studio with one song and that was 'The Anthem.'
I honestly didn't think 'The Anthem' would even be a big song. It's weird how that even happened. I don't know, man, I really like that song and one of my favorite's to play live. It's one song I never really thought about or imagined to be a big hit. I don't even know if I actually grasped it was a big hit. I know that live it goes off live and is a fan favorite, but I don't know how much of a hit it is. I'm not one to know. We've never had a number one single but hits in a really weird way but I don't think we had number songs that had dominated the charts. I know we have recognizable songs, and we still feel lucky, but 'The Anthem' is a weird one, man. It's a special song. It's one of those songs that every time I hear it, it takes me back to a special time in my life."
Billy Martin on the album's theme: "A lot of the songs are about us when we were in high school, dealing with family problems, self issues, and depression. You get stressed out, and you feel like the whole world is falling apart. When you're in high school, if some kid makes fun of your shorts, you think it's the biggest thing in the world, and it drives you crazy. But for the most part, as soon as you get out of high school, you realize it's not that big of a deal. There are so many more important things in this world. The CD is supposed to just be a record to prove to you that we felt the same way you did in high school, and look where we are now! You just gotta hold on and make it through."
