The American Dream Is Killing Me

"The American Dream Is Killing Me" is a song by the American rock band Green Day, released on October 24, 2023 as the lead single from their fourteenth studio album, Saviors (2024). It was released alongside a music video through Reprise Records. It is the first Green Day single since 2013's "X-Kid" to be produced by Rob Cavallo.

Background and composition
On October 1, 2023, the band launched a new website with the name "The American Dream Is Killing Me" which teased a new song and showed October 24, 2023, circled on a calendar. The band released a number of teasers in the following weeks until October 24 when the song released alongside a music video. There was also a vinyl supplied to a limited number of people who entered their address into the new website which contained the song, and a second new song from the album called "Look Ma, No Brains!". The song was one of the last ones they recorded for the album.

"The American Dream Is Killing Me" is a punk rock and pop-punk song, with guitar riffs reminiscent of the band's 2004 album American Idiot and their 2009 album 21st Century Breakdown. Billie Joe Armstrong said of the song that it is "a look at the way the traditional American Dream doesn’t work for a lot of people—in fact, it's hurting a lot of people."

At around the one-minute mark of the song, the song samples the song “Marine Marchande” by Québécois folk/neo-trad band Les Cowboys Fringants, released in 2015. Green Day performed “The American Dream Is Killing Me” as part of their halftime show performance at the 110th Grey Cup in Hamilton, Ontario, which, coincidentally, featured a team from Quebec in it, the Montreal Alouettes, who would later go on to win the game. With the game taking place shortly after Les Cowboys Fringants’ lead singer Karl Tremblay passed away after a multi-year-long battle with prostate cancer, Green Day’s performance of “The American Dream Is Killing Me” at the Grey Cup was well-received by some people in Quebec as the band paying an indirect tribute to Tremblay.

Music video
The music video released alongside the single on October 24, 2023, after the band had released a number of teasers in the previous weeks. The video starts with a woman stuck in traffic listening to a news radio station before changing to a music station which starts playing the song before getting attacked by a zombie. The video depicts the band playing the song in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. The video was directed by Brendan Walter and Ryan Baxley.

Track listing
7-inch vinyl

Personnel
Green Day
 * Billie Joe Armstrong – lead vocals, guitar, production
 * Mike Dirnt – bass, backing vocals, production
 * Tré Cool – drums, percussion, production

Technical Personnel
 * Rob Cavallo – producer, string arrangements
 * David Campbell – string arrangements
 * Chris Lord-Alge – mixing
 * Butch Walker – additional engineering