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Insomniac (Green Day album)

Insomniac is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Green Day, released on October 10, 1995, by Reprise Records. It was recorded at Hyde Street in San Francisco, and the band prioritized high-energy takes during the recording sessions. Released as the follow-up to the band's multi-platinum breakthrough Dookie, Insomniac featured a heavier, hardcore punk sound, with bleaker lyrics than its predecessor. Lyrically, the album discusses themes such as alienation, anxiety, boredom, and drug use. Insomniac also served as a reaction to many early fans who had turned their backs on the band after it achieved mainstream success with Dookie.

The album received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the singer Billie Joe Armstrong's songwriting and sarcastic sense of humor. Three songs were released as singles, "Geek Stink Breath", "Stuck with Me", and "Brain Stew / Jaded". Though it peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified 2× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1996, Insomniac did not have the sales endurance of its predecessor Dookie, largely due to its slightly darker lyrical tone and its heavier and more abrasive sound. Insomniac has sold over 2.1 million copies in the United States as of 2012. The album was reissued on vinyl on May 12, 2009. In 2021, a deluxe version of the album was released for its 25th anniversary, including previously unreleased live tracks.

Background
Green Day's previous album Dookie (1994), their first for a major label, was approaching the ten-million sales mark by the time of recording Insomniac, and the band's success saw them rejected by the punk circles in which the group got their start. The group also began performing at large venues such as coliseums and hockey arenas. The singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong was stung by criticisms of being a "sell out", telling an interviewer: "I think I was just lost. I couldn't find the strength to convince myself that what I was doing was a good thing. I was in a band that was huge because it was supposed to be huge, because our songs were that good. But I couldn't even feel that I was doing the right thing, because it felt like I was making so many people angry."

The band's state of discombobulation inspired them to prove themselves with Insomniac. The bassist Mike Dirnt later said: "I felt at the time that there was a real urgency to what we were doing. There was a real urgency to stake our claim and say, 'No, we belong here.' It was really important to us to make sure people knew that we weren’t just a flash in the pan." During this period the band members also underwent changes in their personal lives; Armstrong married and had a son, while the drummer Tré Cool and his wife had a daughter. For Armstrong, reaching all these milestones was a surreal experience and he struggled to process these sudden changes, noting that "what I really wanted to do was keep working, and keep writing songs...I didn't really stop and smell the roses".

Recording
Much of the album was written and rehearsed in a small, Cape Cod-style home in East Oakland, California. The band decorated the walls with notes underneath song titles jokingly providing instructions for achieving the intended tempo for each track; these included "Must pop Valium for this one" and "Must take crank for this one". After the birth of Cool and his wife's first child, and Cool noted that "I can hit the drums harder than I ever thought I could. Having a kid is trying – you have to watch your temper all the time – but it enhances the experience of playing in the band."

Eschewing the typical punk rock ethos of creating cheap, low-quality recordings, the band strove to perfect its sound on the record, drawing inspiration from bands such as the Beatles and Cheap Trick. Cool experimented with different cymbal sounds on nearly every song on the album, while Armstrong and producer Rob Cavallo developed the ritual of lining up several guitar amps and testing each one to achieve the desired sound. Much of Insomniac was recorded in short, high-energy bursts. Before takes, the group would drink excessive amounts of coffee, "squeeze every last drop of energy" into the recordings, and then rest immediately afterward. Bob Bradshaw of Custom Audio Electronics was employed to apply a thicker guitar sound to the songs.

Musical style
David Browne of Entertainment Weekly described Insomniac as "14 slices of hearty anarchy, played with a follow-the-bouncing-spitball compactness and vigor." Ian Winwood of Kerrang! wrote of the album's "master class in buzzsaw efficiency, the songs are so economical, not to mention harsh, that the removal of even a single chord would cause each composition to collapse in on itself," calling it "the album on which its creators lost their baby teeth." The album features bleaker, more pessimistic lyrics than those of Dookie. However, Rolling Stone noted that the lyrics exemplify "cold-eyed realism, not trendy nihilism or bleak despair." Armstrong's vocal delivery on the album has been described as an "adenoidal vocal whine."

Songs
The album begins with "Armatage Shanks", which explores disassociation and the lack of identity, with Armstrong feeling "Stranded / Lost inside myself." "When I wrote that song it was right before Dookie came out, and I was really at odds with myself," Armstrong said of it in an interview with Spin. "Brat" takes the perspective of a "snot-nosed slob without a job" waiting for his parents to die in order to receive his inheritance. "Stuck with Me", the second single of the album, talks about the band's experiences with fame and the "elite" after releasing Dookie. "I'm not part of your elite, I'm just alright". "Geek Stink Breath", the first single, discusses methamphetamine use, including side effects such as the formation of facial scabs and an accelerated pulse. "No Pride" talks about a narrator at the bottom of society, who doesn't mind being there, since he has no pride. The angst-ridden "Bab's Uvula Who?" begins with the lyric, "I've got a knack for fucking everything up," backed by a "brutal, unforgiving wall of sound." It is followed by "86", which discusses the rejection Green Day faced from the 924 Gilman Street music club in Berkeley after the band's rise to fame in 1994.

"Panic Song" exhibits a pessimistic view of the world, describing it as "a sick machine breeding a mass of shit." It begins with a "pummeling" instrumental introduction that has been compared to the Who, which lasts for roughly the first two minutes of the 3:36 long song. It was inspired by Armstrong's panic attacks caused by his anxiety issues and Dirnt's panic attacks, which were suffered as a result of being born with an enlarged mitral valve in his heart. Cool tore the calluses on his hand while recording the instrumental intro, and slumped against a wall between takes. Cavallo recalled the musician's hands resembled "a bloody mess". "Brain Stew", the third and biggest single off of Insomniac, talks about insomnia and is quickly followed by "Jaded". "Westbound Sign" is about Billie's wife, Adrienne, moving to California with him. "Tight Wad Hill" talks about how the activities teens once did (like getting high) are not fun anymore. The final track, "Walking Contradiction" was described as an anthem for "anyone who has chafed against the bounds of the demographically correct, computer-coded, image-conscious mid-'90s."

Title and artwork
Before the name Insomniac was decided on, the band considered naming the album Jesus Christ Supermarket and Tight Wad Hill. Insomniac was originally the working title song for "Brain Stew" on demo. After visiting collage artist Winston Smith for the album cover, Billie Joe Armstrong asked him how he managed to make such intricate pieces in such short times. Smith answered: "It's easy for me. I am an insomniac." Armstrong himself has said that the album title comes from his own insomnia, after having been woken up frequently during the night due to his son's screams. Armstrong also mentions his insomnia from the perspective of methamphetamine use in the song "Brain Stew".

The collage on the album cover was created by Smith and is called God Told Me to Skin You Alive, a reference to the Dead Kennedys song "I Kill Children". The cover art contains an image (the dentist) that was originally used in a collage featured in the inside cover art of Dead Kennedys' album Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982). Smith knew drummer Tré Cool from Green Day's time at Lookout! Records and told Cool that if he ever needed album artwork that he should call him. The cover art features several hidden images: a naked woman, three fairies, and several other ghostly faces in the flames. There are also three skulls on the entire album cover and back, one for each member of Green Day. One of the skulls requires the viewer to tilt the piece at an angle. The hidden skull is taken from Hans Holbein's 1533 painting The Ambassadors. Green Day's version, however, is slightly different from the original, with the woman holding Armstrong's iconic Sonic Blue Fernandes imitation Stratocaster rather than an acoustic guitar.

Promotion and commercial performance
Promotion for Insomniac was limited, with a "virtual press blackout". All of the album's singles contained the words "fuck" or "shit" and the music video for "Geek Stink Breath", showing a methamphetamine addict having his tooth removed, was removed from MTV playlists. This, combined with the God Told Me to Skin You Alive cover collage, led Winwood to comment that "everything about Insomniac was noticeably different from Dookie, yet fully informed by the vast shadow it cast." Larry Livermore, co-founder of the band's former label Lookout Records, found Insomniac to be "depressing", and recalls that he "was even a bit worried about them" upon hearing the single "Brain Stew". A staff writer for People compared the release of Insomniac to Nirvana's In Utero (1993), which featured a darker, less accessible sound in the wake of the success of the band's multi-platinum album Nevermind.

Insomniac debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, selling over 171,000 copies its first week of release. The first single released from Insomniac was "Geek Stink Breath". The song was successful on both Top 40 and rock radio stations and peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay. The second single, released exclusively in the United Kingdom, was "Stuck with Me". The song was moderately successful in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, but was not one of the group's bigger hits in the US. The third single from the album was "Brain Stew/Jaded". The two were separate songs (tracks 10 and 11 on Insomniac), but they were released together as a single and a music video. The song "Walking Contradiction" was released as a promotional single in August to promote the album, while "86" was only released as a promotional single in Spain and Germany.

Critical reception
Insomniac did not have the big sales or airplay as the singles from Dookie, but it was generally well received by critics. It earned three and a half out of five stars from Rolling Stone, which said "In punk the good stuff actually unfolds and gains meaning as you listen without sacrificing any of its electric, haywire immediacy. And Green Day are as good as this stuff gets". Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B with particular praise for Billie Joe Armstrong, stating that: "Fans needn't worry about Armstrong, a new father, rhapsodizing over the joys of changing diapers or whining about being a wealthy rock star. Once more, the songs relate the travails of a pathetic, self-loathing goofball whose sense of self-worth is continually reduced to rubble by sundry jerks, authority figures, and cultural elitists."

However, Green Day was slightly criticized for not progressing as much as their predecessors. Entertainment Weekly stated that: "Insomniac does make you wonder about Green Day's growth, though. Between albums one and four, The Clash, to take an old-school example, branched out from guitar crunch to reggae, dub, and Spectorized pop. By comparison, Green Day sound exactly the same as on their first album, albeit with crisper production and, ominously, a palpable degeneration in their sense of humor. The few hints of growth are fairly microscopic: a tougher metallic edge to a few of the songs ... and lyrics that are bleaker than Dookie's."

AllMusic similarly noted that "they kept their blueprint and made it a shade darker. Throughout Insomniac, there are vague references to the band's startling multi-platinum breakthrough, but the album is hardly a stark confessional on the level of Nirvana's In Utero. ... While nothing on the album is as immediate as "Basket Case" or "Longview," the band has gained a powerful sonic punch, which goes straight for the gut but sacrifices the raw edge they so desperately want to keep and makes the record slightly tame. Billie Joe hasn't lost much of his talent for simple, tuneful hooks, but after a series of songs that all sound pretty much the same, it becomes clear that he needs to push himself a little bit more if Green Day ever want to be something more than a good punk-pop band. As it is, they remain a good punk-pop band, and Insomniac is a good punk-pop record, but nothing more." Robert Christgau opined "[Armstrong's] songs conceptualize his natural whine with a musicality that undercuts his defeatism."

The album was included at number 8 on Rock Sound's "The 51 Most Essential Pop Punk Albums of All Time" list.

Aftermath and touring
Despite being considered a commercial disappointment, Armstrong noted, "Insomniac did a lot better than I thought it was going to do...From the sound of it, we knew it wasn't going to sell as much as Dookie." The group embarked on an extensive world tour to promote Insomniac in early 1996, which saw the band performing in sports arenas that contrasted with the small clubs the group was accustomed to playing. The members became increasingly uncomfortable with the level of stardom they had attained; Armstrong recalled, "We were becoming the things we hated, playing those big arenas. It was beginning to be not fun anymore."

Green Day also became homesick because touring forced the members to leave behind their families. The band eventually decided to cancel the late 1996 European leg of the Insomniac tour to take time off to spend at home. During this time, the band continued to write, and eventually completed over three dozen new songs by the beginning of 1997 for the upcoming album, Nimrod. Although the group's last effort with producer Rob Cavallo was considered a disappointment, the band did not contemplate choosing anyone else to work with on Nimrod, because the members viewed Cavallo as a "mentor".

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

Production
 * Rob Cavallo; Green Day – producers
 * Kevin Army – engineer
 * Jerry Finn – mixing
 * Richard Huredia; Bernd Burgdorf – additional engineers
 * Bob Ludwig - mastering

Artwork
 * Winston Smith – cover art
 * Dirk Walter - art direction
 * David Harlan - typographic design

In popular culture

 * The song "Westbound Sign" was used in the teaser trailer for the 2006 Disney/Pixar film Cars.
 * The title "Bab's Uvula Who?" comes from a 1976 Saturday Night Live sketch with Gilda Radner and Chevy Chase.
 * "86" was featured in the 1996 MTV film Joe's Apartment.
 * The songs "Geek Stink Breath", "Brain Stew", and "Jaded" are featured in the music game Green Day: Rock Band.
 * A remix of the song "Brain Stew" was made for the soundtrack of the 1998 movie, Godzilla.

title: Insomniac (Green Day album)


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Talk:Insomniac (Green Day album)

Green Day - Insomniac
Green Day - Insomniac

This is Green Day's fourth LP.

1. Armatage Sharks 2. Brat 3. Stuck w/Me 4. Geek Stink Breath 5. No Pride 6. Bab's Uvula Who? 7. 86 8. Panic Song 9. Stuart And The Avenue 10. Brainstew 11. Jaded 12. Westbound Sign 13. Tight Wad Hill 14. Walking Contradiction

The whole LP was recorded in 1995 only.

The US/UK version was released in autumn 1995 on Reprise Records.

The video version of "Brain Stew" was merged to "Jaded." Well, that's it...

10-related 1995 albums to, Insomniac By Green Day: 1. Love Battery - Straight Freak Ticket 2. Primus - Tales From The Punchbowl 3. MxPx - Teenage Politics 4. Rancid - ...And Out Came The Wolves 5. Sonic Youth - Washing Machine 6. Presidents Of The USA - Presidents Of The USA 7. Red Hot Chili Peppers - One Hot Minute 8. NoFx - I Heard They Suck...Live! 9. Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie Infinite And The Sadness 10. Bad Religion - All Ages

Radiohead also has an Insomniac, which is, in my humble opinion, a much better album. At least a disambiguation ... Danny

 * Are you sure you're not thinking of Amnesiac? According to the All Music Guide, Radiohead never released an album called Insomniac, though I think there may be a song by Radiohead by that name Tokerboy 02:18 Oct 31, 2002 (UTC)

Whoops! Thats what happens when I am exhausted. sorry. Danny

Length of "I Want to be on T.V."
Before I change anything, I want some approval... The page lists the length of "I Want to be on T.V." as "2:48". I believe this to be a mistake. The length is listed as "1:17" on both Shenanigans and the B-Side of Geek Stink Breath. I think someone is confusing "I Want to be on T.V." with "Desensitized" (the only extra Japanese song on "Nimrod") because "Desensitized"s length is "2:48". But since I do not own the Japanese Version of the album I cannot prove anything. Does anyone actually own the album who can verify if this length is correct or (most likely) not. The actual length should be around 1:17...
 * That is incorrect, "I Want to be on T.V." is 1:17. I've changed it. It seems highly unlikely for the band to record a special 'long' version of the song just for a foreign bonus track.--Gen. Quon (talk) 16:46, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

Purpose of Talk pages
Article discussion (Talk) pages are for discussing the article, not for fan cruft, which has a place on fan forums, not on Wikipedia (re: user 68.212.202.77, edit reverted). Postings on article pages should be appended with four tildes ~ for automatic time-date stamp and user IP/ID. Hu 23:16, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Subjectivity
Some of this article seems to me to state subjective information, such as:

 * Insomniac didn't have the sales endurance of its predecessor, Dookie, largely due to its slightly darker lyrical tone and more abrasive sound. Though many consider Insomniac to be more consistent than Dookie, it did not feature a signature track akin to "Longview" or "Basket Case".

Noneus 23:32, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree. also, I wonder where the 7 Million sold in the US come from. since according to riaa.com it went only 2x Platinum, and while they probably have shipped some more since Feb 96, when it was last awarded, I really doubt that that makes 5 million units.

Is the "Fanfare" Part Necessary?
"Insomniac is a major failure, noted for not featuring a number one hit. Kerplunk!" and 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours each had three. Nimrod. also did not feature a number one hit, but featured arguably the band's biggest commercial hit, "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)."

That doesn't seem to be very neutral to me, yo. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.73.226.30 (talk) 01:52, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Not only is it not neutral, but entirely inaccurate, thanks for removing it.--76.246.176.32 (talk) 02:59, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Carlin Cover Art Similarity??
"Complaints and Grievances, a 2001 album by comedian George Carlin, features cover artwork strikingly similar to that of Insomniac."

I don't agree with this. It's a subjective statement (unless you can find some kind of documentation to prove it, which I don't really expect). It's true they are both collages but that's where the similarity ends. The background colors are different, the Carlin album features Carlin himself in the middle, the fonts used for the titles are completely different, and the subject matter and orientation of the images does not match. Some kind of scientist (talk) 05:46, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Genre
Someone is adding alternative rock all the time after I delete it! Just because this album has one alternative rock song (Brain Stew) that doesn't make it Alternative Rock! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.71.91.63 (talk) 08:32, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

If any I don't know if "Brain Stew" even counts as one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.11.174.161 (talk) 07:44, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Genres and Rare Limited Edition Version
hey, i don't really agree with the genres of the current page, i don't really see how it's Post-Grunge or Pop Punk, and when i try to change it somebody always keeps re-adding them, just because that's what allmusic says doesn't mean that that's right, allmusic has those same genres listed for Dookie, but no one is adding those genres to Dookie, also, i don't think there was ever a rare limited edition version released, with all the b-sides from the Insomniac singles, plus there's no sources from where the person who added that got it, so i don't think that's true. --Chickenguy12 (talk) 05:17, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

I can't see how he could get those either I meen like punk and maybe some what metal but it's not post-grunge or pop punk. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.11.174.161 (talk) 07:50, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Red Day?
Why did someone change the name of the band to Red Day? obviously i removed it since it was vandilism. --Chickenguy13 (talk) 09:39, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Alternate cover art
Hello fellow Wikipedians and Green Day fans, I was wondering if somebody could add another image for the alternate cover art for the vinyl version. I would do it myself, but I have no idea how to, honestly.

Genres
I do not see how this album is pop-punk because it does not have any pop elements. Even the website getGenre.com, which is probably the most accurate genre analyzer shows only punk rock when the max accuracy is reached. --Arnel (talk) 13:01, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Insomniac (Green Day album)


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Mall of America

Mall of America (MoA) is a large shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota. Located within the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the mall lies southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River, and across the Interstate from the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. It opened in 1992, and is the largest mall in the United States, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, and the twelfth largest shopping mall in the world.

The mall is managed by the Triple Five Group (which in turn is owned by the Ghermezian family, along with the West Edmonton Mall and the American Dream). Approximately 40 million people visit the mall annually, 80% of whom are from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Illinois and Ohio.

History
The mall's concept was designed by the Triple Five Group in conjunction with global design firm DLR Group, owned by the Ghermezian brothers, who also own the second-largest shopping mall in North America, the West Edmonton Mall. The Mall of America is located on the site of the former Metropolitan Stadium, where the Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota Twins played until the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome opened in 1982. A plaque in the mall's amusement park commemorates the former location of home plate and one seat from Met Stadium was placed in Mall of America at the exact location it occupied in the stadium, commemorating a 520 ft home run hit by hall-of-famer Harmon Killebrew on June 3, 1967.

In 1986, the Bloomington Port Authority signed an agreement with the Ghermezian organization. Groundbreaking for the mall took place on June 14, 1989. Organizations involved include Melvin Simon and Associates, Teachers Insurance and Annuity, and the office of architect Jon Jerde.

Mall of America opened its doors to the public on August 11, 1992. Its anchors were Nordstrom, Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Sears. Even before opening, the mall had earned several nicknames, including "The Megamall", "Sprawl of America", "Hugedale" in reference to the four major "dale" shopping malls within the Twin Cities: Rosedale, Southdale, Ridgedale and the now-defunct Brookdale.

Mall of America became the largest shopping mall in total area and largest in total store vendors in the United States when it opened. The Mall of America's 42 million annual visitors equal roughly eight times the population of the state of Minnesota. , the mall employed over 11,000 workers year-round and 13,000 during peak seasons.

In early 2020, Mall of America closed for a period of twelve weeks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, closing on March 17, and reopening on June 10 with only 150 tenants open for business. The mall was originally scheduled to reopen on June 1, but civil unrest in the Twin Cities around this time caused the mall to postpone the reopening.

Legal battle
In 2003, after a protracted six-year legal battle between Simon Property Group, the managing general partner of the property, and the Ghermezian brothers/Triple Five Group, over majority ownership of the site, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the Ghermezians, effectively transferring control and planning authority of the mall back to the creator of the concept. The dispute stemmed from a 1999 purchase of Teacher's Insurance's 27.5% equity stake by Simon Properties, giving them majority ownership. The Ghermezians claimed they were never told of the deal and sued Simon, citing fiduciary responsibility. On November 3, 2006, the Ghermezians gained full control of Mall of America by spending US$1 billion.

Expansions
On May 18, 2008, the Mall of America received a tax break for a proposed $2 billion expansion. The bill gave the city of Bloomington the ability to increase taxes on sales, lodging and food and beverages to finance a parking ramp at the mall. On March 24, 2012, the Triple Five Group, partnered with architectural firm DLR Group, announced the start of a $200 million expansion that would build into the north parking lot of the mall. The plans called for an additional hotel and an additional 200000 sqft of retail space. The project broke ground in the fall of 2013 and began opening in stages in the summer of 2015. In March 2014, ground was broken on the mall's north side for the $104 million, 14-story JW Marriott hotel, owned and financed by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. In 2018, it was announced that MOA had proposed to build an indoor water park, with a cost between $150 and $200 million for the project. In March 2022, the plan was approved by the Bloomington City Council.

Architecture
The Mall of America has a gross area of 5600000 sqft or 129 acre, and 2869000 sqft of retail space. The mall is nearly symmetric, with a roughly rectangular floor plan. More than 500 stores are arranged along three levels of pedestrian walkways on the sides of the rectangle, with a 4th level on the east side. Four anchor department stores are located at the corners. The mall is organized into four different zones. Each of those zones had its own decorative style until a series of renovations from 2010 to 2015 led to a unified and more luxurious style, as well as to coincide with the mall's first major expansion. The mall's food court is on the 3rd floor.

Despite Minnesota's cold winters, only the mall's entrances and some below ground areas are heated. Heat is allowed in through skylights above the central amusement park area. The majority of the heat is produced by lighting fixtures, other electric devices and people in the mall. In fact, even during the winter, air conditioning systems may still be in use during peak hours to ensure a comfortable shopping environment. Although the common areas are unheated, the individual stores do have heating systems.

Two nearly identical seven-story parking ramps on the east and west sides of the mall provide 12,287 parking spaces. Overflow parking north of the building provides an additional 1,200–1,500 spaces and 1,407 spaces are provided by IKEA, which opened in July 2004.

Tenants
During its run as an all-encompassing entertainment and retail venue, certain aspects, particularly its bars, have come under scrutiny. In early 2000, a Mardi Gras-themed bar, Fat Tuesday, shut its doors due to indecent exposure and alcohol-related offenses. On November 29, 2011, Google announced indoor maps for Mall of America along with several other places like airports, parks, and public spaces. On January 3, 2012, Macy's Inc. announced it would close its Bloomingdale's location at the Mall of America after nearly two decades.

The Theatres at Mall of America opened three days after the grand opening of the mall. Initially, the cinema was run by General Cinema, but it was bought out then rebranded by AMC Theatres, and eventually operated by mall management. The cinema occupied the south side of the fourth floor through December 2016, when it closed permanently. It was replaced by Cinemex subsidiary CMX Cinemas in late 2017. Due to CMX Cinema's bankruptcy proceedings, CMX Mall of America closed down and replaced with B&B Theatres in 2021.

On December 28, 2018, it was announced that Sears (which had been at the Mall of America since its opening in 1992) would be closing as part of a plan to close 80 stores nationwide.

There are also junior anchors, including L.L. Bean, Barnes & Noble, DSW, and Marshalls. Former stores included Best Buy and American Girl, with the latter being replaced with a 24,000-square-foot M&M's retail store, which opened in late 2020.

Other

 * JW Marriott Minneapolis Mall of America
 * Radisson Blu Hotel

Attractions

Nickelodeon Universe, formerly Camp Snoopy, is an indoor theme park in the center of the mall. The park features roller coasters, among numerous other rides and attractions, including many not related to Nickelodeon, and is the largest indoor theme park in the United States. Unlike many indoor amusement parks, Nickelodeon Universe has a great deal of natural foliage in and about the park, and its floor has a wide variance in height – the highest ground level in the park is 15 ft above the lowest. The rides include the roller coasters SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge, Fairly Odd Coaster, Back at the Barnyard Hayride and Avatar Airbender, and a thrill ride called BrainSurge. It also has a miniature golfing section called Moose Mountain. This miniature golf course features eighteen holes and a relatively fast astroturf surface.

At the Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium, guests travel through a 300 ft curved tunnel through 14 ft of water to view over 4,500 sea creatures including sharks, turtles, stingrays and many more. Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium offers special events such as sleepovers, scuba diving, snorkeling and birthday parties.

Nostalgic artifacts and memorials

 * A stadium seat commemorating the longest home run at Metropolitan Stadium, hit by Minnesota Twins player Harmon Killebrew on June 3, 1967. The seat is painted red and bolted to a wall to mark the exact height and position at which the ball landed in the upper-deck seats.
 * A plaque embedded in the floor of Nickelodeon Universe, marking the exact spot of home plate at Metropolitan Stadium. metplate.jpg
 * A second plaque was added to the floor of Nickelodeon Universe in 2018, marking the spot on the 50-yard line at Metropolitan Stadium that was used for the coin toss before every Minnesota Vikings home game played there.
 * The United Airlines Flight 93 memorial, in honor of those who died aboard that flight during the September 11 attacks. A bust of Tom Burnett (who was born and raised in Bloomington) stands on the west side of the first floor, next to the fountain in front of Nordstrom.

Transit
In the lower level of the eastern parking ramp is the Mall of America station, the busiest transit hub in Minnesota with services to and from many destinations in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. The Transit Station contains two stops on the Metro Network: the southern terminus of the METRO Blue Line (light rail) to Downtown Minneapolis via MSP Airport and Hiawatha Avenue (operated by Metro Transit), and the northern terminus of the METRO Red Line (bus rapid transit) to Apple Valley. The indoor waiting area at Mall of America Transit Station is open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Metro Transit and the MVTA also operate many local bus services to the Transit Station and many area hotels along with the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel offer free shuttles to their establishments.

The mall is not a park and ride facility, and overnight parking is banned to prevent passengers taking the train to the airport. Commuters are required to use the nearby 30th Avenue station's parking ramp. The station underwent a $25 million upgrade which was completed in October 2019.

Security personnel
Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs) are trained extensively in Israel, each one going through at least 240 hours of training that includes communication techniques, first aid, defensive tactics, crisis intervention, terrorism awareness and rapid response. As Doug Reynolds, the former Security Director at the mall noted in a congressional testimony in 2008, BDOs are taught to "look for intent, rather than means. The objective is to focus on suspicious indicators in three categories: People, vehicles, and unattended items like backpacks, shopping bags, and suitcases." This methodology has prepared the mall for a variety of threats, both from terrorists and everyday criminals.

In 2010, it was noted that mall security officials were instructed to question or detain individuals exhibiting what they deemed "suspicious behavior". Signs of suspicious behavior included photographing air-conditioning ducts, or signs that a shopper was hiding something. At the time, some officials within the Bloomington Police Department worried that the mall's security methods may infringe on citizens' rights.

In 2011, NPR's All Things Considered and Morning Edition and PBS's NewsHour both aired programs documenting security abuses by the mall's security personnel. On December 31, 2013, members from the First Nations protest movement Idle No More attempted to repeat a successful Native-American round dance held at the mall in 2012, but failed after being stopped by mall security. Organizers of the dance, Patricia Shepard and Reyna Crow from Duluth were arrested on site for trespassing.

In January 2023, a man wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan Jesus saves was ordered to either take it off or leave the mall, security telling him, "Jesus is associated with religion and it is offending people. People have been offended."

Militant threat
In February 2015, the al-Shabaab militant group also released a propaganda video calling for attacks on the Mall of America and other Western shopping centers. Although the group had never launched attacks in North America, security at the mall was tightened in response and the Department of Homeland Security issued a one-day alert to shoppers to remain vigilant.

Protests
On December 21, 2014, thousands of protesters attended an unauthorized demonstration organized by Black Lives Matter in the mall's rotunda. The demonstration was in response to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and the then recent jury decision not to prosecute the white officer in that case, as well as the death of Eric Garner of New York. In response to the demonstration, the Mall of America closed the areas of the mall around the rotunda. Police arrested 25 demonstrators. The Bloomington City Attorney, Sandra Johnson, pursued charges against the organizers, and the city is sought compensatory damages from some of the organizers for out-of-pocket costs the city incurred while paying overtime for additional security. In response to these charges, demonstrators have called for a boycott of the mall.

Plans for another Black Lives Matter demonstration at the Mall of America on December 23, 2015, prompted mall officials to file a restraining order against the movement's activists. Eight individual activists were sued in Hennepin County District Court. The mall's lawsuit would prohibit the defendants from demonstrating and require them to delete all of their posts to social media pertaining to the demonstration. The lawsuit additionally asked that the court jail Black Lives Matter activists unless they publicly announce that the demonstration is cancelled on their social media accounts. The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota called the mall's lawsuit an "improper prior restraint on speech" and an unconstitutional overreach.

Notable criminal incidents
On April 12, 2019, a five-year-old boy was thrown from the third-story balcony by 24-year-old Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda of Minneapolis, outside the Rainforest Cafe and he landed near the Michael Kors store. The boy was in the hospital for over five months and eventually recovered. Aranda was sentenced to 19 years in prison in June of that year with the possibility for parole after 12 years served.

On December 31, 2021, a single gunshot was fired on the north side of the third floor of the mall. A patrolling Bloomington Police Department officer who heard the shot immediately notified mall security, who activated the mall's lockdown alarm. Responding officers found a man who had been shot in the leg when they arrived at the scene and later another injured person was found who appeared to have been grazed by the bullet. The first victim was transported to the hospital while the second was treated on the scene by paramedics and released. According to a statement by Deputy Chief Kim Clausen, she recommended that there was an "altercation" between two men that resulted in one shooting the other. After a thorough search of the mall by police and security officers, the lockdown was lifted approximately 40 minutes after it started and the mall closed for the rest of the day shortly thereafter.

On January 3, 2022, an 18-year-old Roseville man was identified as they left the scene of the shooting with the shooter was arrested for aiding and abetting first-degree assault, and on January 4, police arrested the suspect on assault charges and in a subsequent search of the house found a gun.

On August 4, 2022, the mall was put under lockdown after two men fired gunshots during an altercation at the Nike store, then fled. Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch was in the mall with his family at the time; they were unharmed. The two alleged shooters were apprehended a week later in Chicago. They were detained shortly after stepping out of a barbershop. Three people were also arrested for allegedly aiding the shooters as they fled the scene and hid from authorities at a nearby Best Western hotel. Two of the suspects originated from Minneapolis, while the other three originated from Burnsville, all between the ages of 21 and 23.

On December 23, 2022, the mall was placed under lockdown after a "long-standing feud" led to the fatal shooting of a 19-year old male inside the Nordstrom department store. A bullet grazed a bystander's clothing resulting in only minor injuries.

In media
The Mall of America was used as a filming location for various movies and television shows, including:
 * D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994)
 * D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996)
 * Hosted the first episode of WCW Monday Nitro on September 4, 1995.
 * Jingle All the Way (1996)
 * You're Invited to Mary-Kate & Ashley's Mall Party (1997)
 * Mall Masters (2001)
 * Viva la Bam (2003–2006)
 * Mall Cops: Mall of America (2010)
 * The End of the Tour (2015)

The mall was referenced in the series How I Met Your Mother during the episode "Slap Bet" as the reason why native Minnesotan Marshall Eriksen believed that Robin Scherbatsky would have been married in a mall; this is a reference to the Chapel of Love in the mall. The mall was the location of the premiere of Digimon: The Movie (2000). The mall was also referenced in the series Reginald the Vampire in the episode "Reginald Andres Beyond Thunderdome" by the character Ashley who was quoted as saying "I was born on the day they broke ground for the largest shopping mall in America."

title: Mall of America