Green Day Top US Chart

Californian punk legends Green Day have smashed their way into the Billboard chart, racing to number one with their new album '21st Century Breakdown'.

Green Day are back. The political punks have been working on their new album '21st Century Breakdown' for five years, with the trio crafting an even more outspoken follow up to 'American Idiot' - a record that could hardly be said to have its lip buttoned.

New single 'Know Your Enemy' is already a fans favourite. At a recent 'secret' show in New York the band played the Bowery Hall in conjunction with MySpace, and amid delirious scenes retrieved a fan from the audience to sing 'Know Your Enemy'.

Despite only being released for a few weeks, the audience seemed to know the track backwards. A concept album split into three parts, '21st Century Breakdown' may well be the most ambitious thing Green Day have put their name to.

Attracting passionate advocates and critics alike, the album's political themes and musical drudgery have been criticised by some - click HERE to read our controversial view!

Not that Green Day need to worry about us. The band did battle with Bob Dylan in the British charts, eventually pushing Zimmerman to one side despite '21st Century Breakdown' only being released on Friday (May 15th).

Now the band have repeated that feat with Green Day racing to the top of the Billboard charts in the United States. Their eight studio album, '21st Century Breakdown' has sold a staggering 214,828 copies despite only being on general sale for three days.

In total the album sits at the top of the charts in a total of thirteen countries stretching from Japan to Mexico, Korea to Sweden.

Over the past twenty years British and American audiences had been thought to have diverged. Grunge and Britpop were relatively localised phenomena, failing to scale the charts on the other side of the pond.

However recently this has changed. Brits have scored a record breaking Grammy haul, with acts such as Coldplay able to bag pole position on both British and American charts.

Green Day are set to open a massive UK tour - including three dates at Wembley Stadium - later this year.