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Pop punk


Pop punk is a term applied to a style of punk rock music that became commercially successfully during the 1990s with the band Green Day.

Contents

Origins

The origins of todays pop punk can be found in the music of 1970s New York band The Ramones. Loud, fast and technically primitive as it was, the music of The Ramones was also grounded in the bubblegum pop of The Beatles and the groundbreaking productions of Phil Spector. They were distinguished from other, artier CBGBs acts like Television and Patti Smith due to their focus on simple, catchy melodies and pop song structures. On top of this, the lyrics of Joey Ramone were less provocative and more upbeat than those of other CBGB mainstays such as Richard Hell and Talking Heads. For this reason, the New York New Wave music of The Ramones helped provide the blueprint for the pop punk movement that would follow a few years later.

Lookout! Records

In 1988, Lawrence Livermore started a record label called Lookout! Records. Based in California, the label initially specialised entirely in a sunny, upbeat take on punk rock that both strongly recalled the thrashy bubblegum pop of The Ramones and stood in oposition to the Hardcore punk movement that had ruled the North American punk scene in the early-mid 1980s. With the breakup of several notable hardcore bands and the rise of REM and college rock, many people in the punk scene were crying out for a more accessible, less violent take on punk rock music.

Lookout! Records were in a enviable position as they arrived at the right time to capitalize on this desire for catchy music with a hard edge and punky attitude. Some of the Lookout! bands broke through into the mainstream in the 1990s after the release of Nirvana's major label debut Nevermind in 1991 proved that punk rock bands could shift millions of units and get onto commercial radio and MTV.

Green Day and the First Wave of So-Cal Punk

By 1993, Green Day had sold 55,000 copies of each oftheir Lookout! albums. This level of sales was enough to attract the major labels and the band signed to Reprise Records with their major label debut Dookie being released the following year. The record was a huge commercial success, both in terms of sales and exposure on commercial radio and MTV. The Offspring's breakthrough album Smash arrived a couple of months later, selling more than 11 million copies and becoming one of the biggest selling releases of all time on an independent record label.

Though both these records appeared to come out of nowhere, both bands had been playing for many years, touring reguarly and releasing records. Their breakthrough albums were more or less what they had been doing for years in the underground punk scene. NOFX had been together even longer and also broke through into the mainstream in 1994. The style became known as So-Cal punk , a variant on The Ramones-style pop punk that incorporated different tempos, angsty teenage-minded lyrics and anthemic choruses. There was also more emphasis on humour, especially in the case of blink-182, though they were still obscure at the time.

blink-182 and the Second Wave of So-Cal Punk

In 1999, blink-182 released their breakthrough album Enema of the State. Whereaes Green Day and their contempories had not really altered their sound during the move from indie to major label, blink-182's breakthrough record boasted a radio friendly sound and slick production when compared to the more thrashy, trashy sound of their independently released recordings. The album disappointed some fans who accussed them of selling out, blatantly softening their sound in pursuit of major success and playing the major label game by the book.

Despite this, Enema of the State became the bands most commercially successful release to date, garnering much radio airplay and the mainstream exceptance of the bands pop-parody video for "All the Small Things". Their next album, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket continued their commercial success and was similar in style to Enema of the State, alternating thrashy choruses with chuggy verses and combining the catchy melodies and anthemic choruses of Green Day with American Pie style humour. Following the success of the album, major labels began signing pop punk bands left, right and center.

Bands such as Good Charlotte and Sum 41 had hits on both sides of the Atlantic following this mass signing of punk bands by major labels. These, as well as lesser known bands such as Bowling for Soup, became prime targets for criticism. They were perceived as adding little-to-nothing to the pop punk sound that already existed and were criticised from certain quarters that viewed them as pure careerists, apeing a sound that had reached its conclusion years ago purely to become rich and famous.

Pop Punk or Punk Pop?

In 2002, the debut album by Canadian singer/songwriter Avril Lavinge was released. Released on June 4, 2002 by a major label, Arista Records, it sold 4,000,000 copies within six months of its release. It topped the charts around the world and, at just 18 years old, she became the youngest female to top the charts in Britain. Though her punk rock credentials are debatable, Lavinge was aggressively marketed as a "skater chick", both because of her image and the hit song "Skater Boy".

For many people in the punk community, Avril Lavinge represented the final co-opting of punk rock by the major labels and the mainstream in general, a heavily diluted, highly radio friendly version of punk rock music with just enough fake angst to appeal to both pop kids and young kids just getting into punk rock. Some claimed she was just Britney Spears in punk rock clothing with marketing that was even more complex and highly controlled than Britney's and that her punky sound was a highly cynical marketing pose on behalf of her label and nothing more. Whatever the truth, longtime punk fans rejected Avril Lavinge wholesale, with some even starting anti-Avril Lavinge websites.

In Britain, Busted filled a similar role to that of Avril Lavinge. Their music appealed largely to young girls just entering their teenage years, though it was rejected or/and laughed at by everybody else, and their sound was very similar to that of Avril Lavinge. An indentikit band, McFly, became popular just after Busted's success and, with an identical sound and image, got to #1 on the British official album chart. Despite the fiendish marketing, the difference between pop punk and punk pop were obvious to anyone with any knowledge whatsoever of punk rock music and many of the bands associated with the pop punk label grew up, both musically and lyrically and went into the new millenium with a greater sense of maturity and sophistication. Thankfully for the future of pop punk, the fans grew with them.

Common Misconceptions about Pop Punk

Pop punk is sometimes associated with the label Emo. Emo is a form of Hardcore punk that places emphasis on emotion instead of the usual politics. Pop punk is associated with emo because of bands like the Jimmy Eat World & Get Up Kids who sing about emotional things and occasionally use odd time signatures and the like borrowed from the more hardcore origins of emo. This association is a very common misconception .

Another common misconception is that bands like Less Than Jake, Rancid, and Reel Big Fish are pop punk bands. They are originators of the ska punk genre, which is more influenced by English Two-Tone bands like Madness and The Specials.

Another misconception is that bands like Weezer and The Vines are Pop-Punk bands. They are actually Power-Pop bands.

A couple of Flemish pop punk bands are Nailpin , Silverene and Flatcat

Many Australian punk rock bands could also be considered pop punk, such as 28 Days, Area-7, Bodyjar, Frenzal Rhomb, Lash, The Living End, Motor Ace and One Dollar Short.


Notable pop punk artists/bands

Last updated: 05-07-2005 00:03:12
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04