The Young and the Hopeless is the second studio album by American rock band Good Charlotte, released on October 1, 2002, by Epic and Daylight Records.

Almost all of the songs on it were written by brothers Benji and Joel Madden; two of the tracks were co-written with Valentine and Goldfinger frontman John Feldmann.

The album was promoted with a support slot for No Doubt before the group embarked on their own headlining tour of the United States, with subsequent shows in Japan, Europe, Australia and New Zealand in the following months.

"The Anthem" was released as the second single in February 2003 prior to the band co-headlining the Honda Civic Tour with New Found Glory between April and June 2003.

The Young and the Hopeless received generally mixed reviews from music critics, who made comments about the songs' clichéd lyrics.

Despite the mixed critical reception, the album was a major commercial success, being certified three times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Outside the US, the album charted within the top 20 in New Zealand, Sweden, Australia, the UK, and Austria, and reached lower positions in Japan, Germany, Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands.

[13] Valentine and Ken Allardyce acted as engineers, while Jason Slater, Dave Cooley and Wes Seidman did additional editing.

According to Joel Madden, they adored the work of Danny Elfman and wanted to emulate his style, specifically in the vein of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).

[26] "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" features the drum motif of "Lust for Life" (1977) by Iggy Pop,[16] and is social commentary about the freedom celebrities have.

[30] "Hold On" is an anti-suicide song that talks about coping with life;[31] Joel Madden wrote it after receiving letters from fans, who said the band helped them through difficult periods of their lives.

[5] In July 2002, the group filmed a video for "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous";[12] it was directed by Bill Fishman and features appearances from 'NSYNC vocalist Chris Kirkpatrick, Tenacious D guitarist Kyle Gass, and Minutemen bassist Mike Watt.

[39] The music video for "The Anthem" premiered on MTV's Total Request Live on January 15, 2003;[12] it was directed by duo Smith N' Borin[40] and was filmed in Huntington Beach, California, in December 2002 over a 16-hour period.

[44] The CD single includes acoustic versions of "Riot Girl", "The Young & the Hopeless", and "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" as B-sides.

[48] The video includes short vignettes that display the personalities of each band member; Benji Madden acts as a playboy and oils a woman; guitarist Billy Martin plays video games; Wilson throws drinks; bassist Paul Thomas relaxes with two women who feed him pretzels; and Joel Madden does hip-hop dancing.

[49] The ending of the video shows an elderly woman offering Benji Madden a bowl of cereal; this was influenced by the film Happy Gilmore (1996).

[62] "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous", "The Anthem", "Girls & Boys", "The Young & the Hopeless" and "Hold On" were included on the band's Greatest Hits (2010) compilation.

[46][71] After a performance on Saturday Night Live,[72] they co-headlined the three-month long Honda Civic Tour with New Found Glory between April and June 2003.

[73] In mid-June 2003, the Madden brothers sung at KROQ Weenie Roast acoustically because Good Charlotte's guitarist Martin had to attend a wedding.

In his brief review, rock critic Robert Christgau summarised this aspect as: "honest pop band presents its songs punk, and that makes some people so mad".

[81] Mark Beaumont of NME wrote a positive review, saying that this was the "sudden extra fold of punk-pop's cerebral cortex, the evolutionary leap into an unexpected maturity".

[17] Kristina Feliciano of Entertainment Weekly deemed the record generic, writing; "These 14 tidily produced songs not only sound a lot like each other, they also resemble ones by someone else—namely, blink-182.

"[19] The staff at Uncut was slightly more positive, commenting that while the band came across as a lighter version of Green Day, "there are enough solid rock moments to keep their youthful following happy".

[21] Buffo Schnadelbach of Rock Hard noted that the "somewhat stereotypical mix of cheerfully upbeat catchy tunes, slightly melancholic anthems and almost pure pop numbers gives me a lot more amusement".

[82] Rolling Stone writer Greg Kot considered the group to be "much more persuasive when they let their vulnerability crack through the surface of these slightly overbaked songs, in which elaborate production touches mask the band's three-chord limitations".

AllMusic reviewer Tom Semioli called it "downright predictable" as it rejigs "worn clichés aplenty on each track".

[18] Begrand went further; when citing lyrics on the album that criticize reviews, he responded, "Maybe if the band dropped all the pretense of their supposed punk aesthetic, from the spiky hair to the piercings, and actually wrote and produced albums that contain good, honest, DIY substance, and not this corporate rock sodapop garbage, then perhaps they could find something a bit more pertinent to complain about".

countered this, stating that "unlike the usual dumb-ass punk pop japery peddled" by their peers, the band were able to do it with "substance, style, and an occasional deeper exploration of sociopolitical themes".

[71] Beaumont and Janet Foreyt of The Spokesman-Review backed this up, with the former adding that Good Charlotte "are actually Jimmy Eat World with something interesting to say", while the latter said that after "several listens [...] the surprisingly intelligent lyrics begin to shine".

[117] The album's singles lifted the band from modern rock to top 40 radio stations as "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous", "Girls & Boys", and "The Anthem" crossed over.