Pop-punk
Pop-punk (also punk-pop, alternatively spelled without the hyphen) is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined by its fast-paced, energetic tempos, and emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti-suburbia themes. It is distinguished from other punk-variant genres by drawing more heavily from 1960s bands such as the Beatles, the Kinks, and the Beach Boys. The genre has evolved throughout its history, absorbing elements from new wave, college rock, ska, rap, emo, boy band pop and even hardcore punk. It is sometimes considered interchangeable with power pop and skate punk.
Pop-punk emerged in the late 1970s with groups such as the Ramones, the Undertones, and the Buzzcocks setting the genre's groundwork. 1980s punk bands like Bad Religion, Descendents and the Misfits, while not necessarily pop-punk in and of themselves, were influential to pop-punk, and it expanded in the late 1980s and early 1990s by a host of bands signed to Lookout! Records, including Screeching Weasel, the Queers, and the Mr. T Experience. In the mid-1990s, the genre saw a widespread popularity increase and entered the mainstream with bands like Green Day and the Offspring. The genre experienced another wave popularized during the late 1990s and early 2000s led by Blink-182, and in their wake followed contemporary acts like Sum 41, New Found Glory, Good Charlotte, and Avril Lavigne, while the Warped Tour played a crucial role in being a platform to showcase up-and-coming pop-punk artists, becoming responsible for launching countless acts into success.[2]
Pop-punk's mainstream popularity continued in the mid-to-late 2000s, with artists such as Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, and Paramore achieving high levels of commercial success. By this point, pop-punk acts were largely indistinguishable from artists tagged as "emo", to the extent that emo crossover acts such as Fall Out Boy and Paramore popularized a pop-punk-influenced style dubbed emo pop. By the 2010s, pop-punk's mainstream popularity had waned, with rock bands and guitar-centric music becoming rare on dance-focused pop radio. During this period, however, a wave of underground artists defined a rawer and more emotional take on the genre, namely the Story so Far, the Wonder Years and Neck Deep. In the early 2020s, a new crop of pop-punk music began experiencing mainstream resurgence with various new acts such as Machine Gun Kelly, KennyHoopla and Yungblud.
Criticism[edit]
The punk rock music community often perceived pop-punk to be, according to Iain Ellis of PopMatters, "too soft, too fake, too derivative, and too corporate".[157] In a 2003 interview, Buzzcocks guitarist Steve Diggle would suggest that punk had become a "huge umbrella", stating, "And fair play to bands like Green Day and stuff, you know, they've been inspired when they were really young by us and the Clash and things, but it comes from a different well. When we started, punk to me was the Clash, the [Sex] Pistols, and the Buzzcocks over here [the United Kingdom], and in the [United] States it was the Dolls, Iggy, and the Ramones. We invented our style, just like the Clash did and the Ramones did. But the bands that have come later, some of them you see tend to just ape what went on before, where I'd rather them do their own thing a bit more with it."[158]
Green Day were accused of selling out since the release of Dookie for signing to a major label and becoming mainstream.[159] John Lydon of the 1970s punk band the Sex Pistols criticized Green Day and said that Green Day are not a punk band. Lydon said: "Don't try and tell me Green Day are punk. They're not, they're plonk and they're bandwagoning on something they didn't come up with themselves. I think they are phony."[160] Green Day guitarist and lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong said: "Sometimes I think we've become redundant because we're this big band now; we've made a lot of money—we're not punk rock anymore. But then I think about it and just say, 'You can take us out of a punk rock environment, but you can't take the punk rock out of us.'"[159]
Blink-182 also received a lot of criticism from punk rock fans, being accused of selling out for their pop-music-inspired style of pop-punk. Lydon called Blink-182 "bunch of silly boys ... an imitation of a comedy act."[161] Blink-182 guitarist and singer Tom DeLonge responded to criticism, saying: "I love all those criticisms, because fuck all those magazines! I hate with a passion Maximumrocknroll and all those zines that think they know what punk is supposed to be. I think it's so much more punk to piss people off than to conform to all those veganistic views."[162]
In a November 2004 interview, Sum 41 rhythm guitarist and lead singer Deryck Whibley said: "We don't even consider ourselves punk. We're just a rock band. We want to do something different. We want to do our own thing. That's how music has always been to us."[163] Sum 41's lead guitarist Dave Baksh reiterated Whibley's claims, stating "We just call ourselves rock... It's easier to say than punk, especially around all these fuckin' kids that think they know what punk is. Something that was based on not having any rules has probably been one of the strictest fucking rule books in the world."[164]
Music critic for Treblezine Jeff Terich argued that the debate regarded the ethics of "pop-punk" is redundant, saying that there is "no discussion of the genre that doesn't eventually devolve into the black-mold-like growth of Disney-approved mallrats, but the irony of it is that all punk is pop. The Ramones? Pop. The Clash? Pop. And The Buzzcocks? Damn right they're pop."[165]