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Good Charlotte Biography:
Good Charlotte is a huge punk-pop band who conquered the music industry with their powerful lyrics and their two CDs. Good Charlotte are punk-rockers who at first came from Waldorf, Maryland. The lead vocalist, Joel Madden, is twins to the guitar player and back up vocalist, Benji Madden. When young, their father left them on Christmas. He just took off and when Benji tried to contact him, he said he wanted to start a new life and never see him again. All the same, Benji and Joel grew angry at their father for leaving them without any money.
They struggled to remain alive while the twins took on many jobs such as Target, Acme Restaurant, etc. In their painful years of high school when they worked at their before and after school jobs, Benji and Joel Madden weren't popular at all. They didn’t care though because they had each other to depend upon. One unlikely experience that happened to Joel was; some football players tied Joel down in the locker room and rubbed Bengay on a place where the sun don't shine. Through the rough times, their mom was very loyal to them.
Soon, they discovered their passion for punk rock music and decided to start a band with two other members from school, Paul Thomas and Aaron. While first creating the band, the members practiced for hours on their part in the band. Joel, who had never even tried to sing before, was proclaimed the lead singer. Benji, who would soon learn from Billy Martin, was to play the guitar. Paul was directed to play the base and Aaron was to play the drums. Benji and Joel had no experience but luckily Paul and Aaron did. Soon, they spent time with Billy Martin initially from another band, and he joined the twins' band. They started doing small gigs here and there and tried to get someone to sign them. Throughout the times of hardship without a label, their mom lent them their only car to go to gigs and walked to work. Students from school would call their house and pretend to be with a label and wanted to sign them. It was very hurtful to the whole band but they kept following in the pursuit of their dreams.
Finally, after sending many demo tapes to labels, Epic Records decided to sign them. They made a self-titled CD with the label and, by then, were out of high school. The only singles were "Little Things", "Festival Song", "Motivation Proclamation", and "The Click". After making the CD though, Aaron left to join his brother's band, Wakefield. Meanwhile, they had to keep switching drummers for their shows. The brothers didn’t lose faith in making it big because their first CD wasn't well-known. After a period of time, they made another CD titled "The Young The Hopeless". This CD had a major impact on the world. It scorched other bands in its path to number 1 on the charts. There were several singles such as "Boys and Girls" "The Anthem" "Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous" and "The Young and The Hopeless". One of the hits was the anti-suicide song, Hold On for people who wanted to commit suicide. Altogether, they made 5 videos for that CD, beating the amount of videos on their last by 2. When the album was released, everyone knew about them.
They were on magazine covers, on the TV, and on interviews. Products began to be made such as shirts, pens, wristbands, calendars, posters, notebooks, folders, and many other things. People loved Good Charlotte and began to be liked by many different types of people. For instance, punk-rockers liked them, preps liked them, and even some Goths liked them! It was incredible for the whole band. They loved every minute of it. After their CD, the Maddens made their own record label, DC Flag for groups that wanted to break out just like they did a while back. They felt they should return the deed to other bands that knew their passion in life was to create music. So far, D.C. Flag has Lola Ray and Hazen Street under its label. Hazen Street is more likely the more successful group because at Hot Topic, they have a Hazen Street shirt.
Also, in Hot Topic, there are many Good Charlotte shirts because of their rising popularity. Speaking of clothing, The Madden Brothers have their own clothing line called MADE. MADE sells punk clothing for any size girls/women and boys/men and is about 18 a shirt. Likewise, band member Billy Martin has his own clothing line too called Level 27. In an interview Billy said he chose the name because he always wanted a shirt with his lucky number, 27, on it and could never find one. Also, the level in Level 27 is just a cool word that was inspired by video games. Even today after Good Charlotte has cooled down and is about to release their next albums in the October of 2005, fans still listen to Good Charlotte daily.
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