Information about Punk Pop

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Pop punk
Stylistic origins:	Punk rock - Pop music - Power pop - Bubblegum pop - Garage rock - Frat rock - Beat music - Pub rock - Glam rock - Protopunk - Surf rock
Cultural origins:	mid-1970s United States, United Kingdom, Canada & other countries
Typical instruments:	Vocals - Guitar - Bass - Drums - occasional use of other instruments (such as keyboards)
Mainstream popularity:	Various degrees of commercial success since the late 1970s; massive international commercial success in the 1990s.
Derivative forms:	indie pop - cuddlecore - New wave - Britpop
Other topics
List of pop punk bands - New Wave music - Post-punk - Skate punk - Ska punk - Alternative rock - Emo - Indie rock

Pop punk (also known as punk pop and other names) is a fusion genre that combines elements of punk rock with pop music, to varying degrees. ^[1]

It is not clear when the term pop punk was first used, but pop-influenced punk rock had been around since the 1970s; performed by bands such as the Ramones, Buzzcocks, The Jam and The Undertones.^{[2][3][4] [5] [6][7]} In the mid 1990s, California-based pop punk bands achieved worldwide commercial success, and the genre's association with Southern California has led some to call it the SoCal sound. Two examples of breakthrough pop punk records are the 1994 multi-platinum albums Dookie by Green Day and Smash by The Offspring.^[8]

From the mid-1990s onwards, some bands associated with the genre have been derogatively described as faux-punk, mall punk, pseudo-punk, and bubblegum punk.^[9][10] The terms "mall punk" and "Hot Topic punk" point out the genre's later connection to businesses such as Hot Topic and other stores in shopping malls. Labeling someone a mall punk suggests they are associated with a mainstream corporate version of punk, and that they do not support traditional DIY punk ideologies. The terms softcore and easycore denote pop punk's differences from hardcore punk.

History

Origins (1974-1980s)

See also:

The pop punk style emerged at the onset of punk rock around 1974, with the Ramones, however it was not considered a separate subgenre until later. The Ramones' loud and fast melodic minimalism differentiated them from other bands in New York City's budding art rock scene. Additionally, protopunk bands and power pop bands such as Cheap Trick, The Knack and The Raspberries helped lay the groundwork for pop punk. An early use of the term pop punk appeared in a 1977 New York Times article, Cabaret: Tom Petty's Pop Punk Rock Evokes Sounds of 60's.^[11] By 1977 in the United Kingdom, punk rock had already become a much more active and concentrated movement than in New York City. The Undertones, Buzzcocks, The Jam, The Rezillos and The Shapes featured catchy melodies and lyrics that sometimes dealt with relatively light themes such as teenage romance. On the somewhat harder-edged side of pop-influenced punk, there were bands such as 999, The Vibrators and The Lurkers. Many mod revival bands displayed pop punk leanings, particularly The Chords and Purple Hearts.

By 1981, hardcore punk had emerged in the United States, with louder, faster music and more politically motivated lyrics than the songs played by punk bands. Vocal harmony, melodic instrumentation and 4/4 drumming were replaced with shouting, discordant instrumentation, and experimental rhythms. A few bands began to combine hardcore with pop music to create a new, faster pop punk sound, such as Descendents and The Vandals. Their positive, yet sarcastic approach began to separate them from the more serious hardcore scene. The term pop punk was used in the 1980s, in publications such as Maximum RocknRoll, to describe bands similar to Social Distortion and TSOL.^[12]

Underground pop punk (early 1990s and later)

Many pop punk artists rejected mainstream record labels in favor of running their own labels or releasing albums on small independent labels, such as Lookout! Records. Many of these bands, built large cult followings in the early 1990s such as The Queers, Mr. T Experience, and Screeching Weasel. These bands were musically influenced by the Ramones' short song style and lyrical themes; such as boredom, dissatisfaction and growing older, and in-turn continue to influence non-commercial pop punk bands that exist today.

Popular acceptance (1994-1997)

In February 1994, Green Day released the pop punk album Dookie, the band's first on a major label. The first single, "Longview", instantly became a hit on MTV and modern rock stations across America. Following the success of their first single, Green Day released "Basket Case", which became an even bigger hit and made the band a household name across the world. Other hits were released from the album, including the extremely popular "When I Come Around" (which, like "Basket Case" became the biggest single to be released at that point), "Welcome to Paradise", and "She". Dookie sold 10 million copies in the US, 20 million copies worldwide. Green Day gained enough popularity that year to be performers at Woodstock '94, where the band and spectators engaged in a friendly mudfight that is now considered legendary. The band appeared on Saturday Night Live, the covers of Spin and Rolling Stone, and won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.

Shortly after the release of Dookie, the hardcore-influenced pop punk band The Offspring released Smash on Epitaph. The first single Come Out and Play, with a pop sound that differed radically from any of their earlier work, became popular first on radio and then on MTV. Other singles Self Esteem and Gotta Get Away sold well. The album sold over 14 million copies worldwide, setting a record for most albums sold on an independent label. While the popularity of Dookie and Smash swelled, attention spilled over to similar bands such as Rancid, NOFX, MxPx, Pennywise, Jawbreaker, Smoking Popes, Lagwagon and Anti-Flag. Of these, Rancid received the most attention with the two hits, "Ruby Soho" and "Time Bomb", from their album ...And Out Come The Wolves, which eventually went platinum. However, other punk and pop punk bands saw growing sales and increased interest surrounding their music. Pop punk's sarcastic "brattiness" provided an effective contrast to the moody, nihilism offered by many grunge, hardcore and earlier punk rock bands. By the end of the year, Dookie and Smash had sold millions of copies,^[13] and pop punk had become a prominent musical style.

During this surge in interest, some bands became associated with the pop punk genre even though they didn't consider themselves part of it. Weezer, a California power pop band, played a raw, power chord-driven, melodic pop sound that was similar to that of pop punk. Their Blue Album (1994) and hit single Buddy Holly influenced many future pop punk bands. Seattle trio The Presidents of the United States of America had two hit songs in 1995, Lump and Peaches. Their sound combined grungy guitars with upbeat pop melodies and fun lyrics, creating sound similar to pop-punk. Northern Ireland rockers Ash's hit song Kung Fu's bouncy, fun, simple power chord-driven sound was more energetic and punk-inspired than fellow Britpop bands such as Oasis and Blur. In the mid 1990s, a ska punk revival was taking place, led by bands such as Sublime, and even Rancid (who included ex-members of the ska punk band Operation Ivy in their lineup). Ska punk shares many characteristic of pop punk such as its upbeat sound and distance from grunge and hardcore. Some ska punk bands borrowed less from pop punk, while others such as Goldfinger and Less Than Jake have elements of pop punk in their music. By 1997, pop punk's audience had expanded significantly. Green Day's song "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", from their album Nimrod, brought pop punk to new levels of acceptance. Not a traditional pop punk song, it featured Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong playing acoustic guitar and singing heartfelt lyrics, backed by violins. The song was used in the final episode of Seinfeld in 1998, exposing Green Day's music to an even wider audience.

Bands such as Teenage Fanclub and Jellyfish, although deriving more from 70s power pop than punk rock, also experimented with "pop riffs". Songs like Jellyfish's "Joining A Fanclub" and Teenage Fanclub's "What You Do To Me" have a melodic yet gritty style, something that was later exhibited by bands like Blink 182.

Continued mainstream ascent (1998-2003)

In 1998, The Offspring released the album, Americana. This period of The Offspring's career is generally seen as their mainstream peak. The band released their next album Conspiracy of One (2000) on Napster before they released it on Columbia Records, sacrificing album sales so their fans could enjoy their music for free. Americana went platinum many times over, and produced hit singles and videos such as; "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)", "Why Don't You Get A Job?", and "The Kids Aren't Alright".

In 1999, trio blink-182 released Enema of the State, which sold over 11 million copies worldwide. The album had three hit singles, including the #1 Single "All The Small Things" and the #2 singles "What's My Age Again?", and "Adam's Song". Like Green Day five years before them, blink-182 inspired teens to jam out catchy, fun, four-chord pop punk tunes. In 2001, their album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket was released and debuted at #1 on the Billboard album charts. The album produced the modern rock and TRL hits "The Rock Show", "First Date", and "Stay Together For The Kids". In 2002, blink-182 co-headlined one of the biggest tours in pop-punk history: the successful Pop Disaster Tour with Green Day.

In 2001, Canadian pop punksters Sum 41 released All Killer No Filler. It was a huge success on radio and MTV, with hit singles such as "Fat Lip" and "In Too Deep". Sum 41 were often viewed during this year as the counterparts to blink-182. In 2002 Sum 41 released their pop-punk/metal hybrid album, Does This Look Infected? with hits such as "The Hell Song", "Over My Head (Better Off Dead)" and "Still Waiting". New Found Glory released their breakthrough album Sticks and Stones in 2002, which include the MTV and modern rock hits "My Friends Over You" and "Head On Collision".

Good Charlotte released the album The Young and the Hopeless, which went 3 times platinum in the United States, thanks to singles such as "Lifestyles of The Rich & Famous", "The Anthem", "Girls & Boys", and "Hold On". Simple Plan, another Canadian pop punk band, had success on the charts and MTV in 2002 with the album No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls. It featured the hits "I'd Do Anything" (featuring Mark Hoppus of blink-182 and +44), "Addicted", and "Perfect".

Bowling for Soup had success with the song "Girl All The Bad Guys Want", which earned the group a Grammy nomination for best performance by a duo or group. The band later had success with the songs "1985" and "Almost". 2002 saw the release of Canadian rock singer Avril Lavigne's first album, Let Go, which featured Lavigne as a skater punk/rebel figure, although her music was closer to a indie pop/rock sound. Although Lavigne later shed her punky image, she is still called a "pop-punk princess" in by the mainstream media. Her album The Best Damn Thing has a punk-pop influence with the help of Deryck Whibley of Sum 41, who produced, played guitar and bass on, and co-wrote the music for some of the more punk-oriented songs.^[14]. Travis Barker (ex-Blink 182 and +44) performed the drums on that album.

In Britain, a different type of pop punk that combined pop punk music with the image and vocal harmonies of boy bands, create a more radio-friendly sound than US pop punk bands. Busted, a trio of teenagers who were influenced by blink-182 and Michael Jackson had hits such as "What I Go To School For", "Year 3000", "You Said No", "Crashed The Wedding", and "Thunderbirds Are Go". They never broke into the US market, despite having an MTV2 reality show based on their attempts at breaking into the American market. Another UK band, McFly, also fused elements of surf music into their sound, but did not manage to break into the US, despite appearing in the movie Just My Luck and playing on the soundtrack.

Contemporary pop punk (2003 and later)

In 2003, blink-182 released an untitled album, which garnered the band several hits such as "Feeling This" and "I Miss You." The band went on hiatus in 2005, with Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker founding the pop punk band +44 and Tom Delonge starting the alternative rock band Angels and Airwaves. Other pop punk bands also started playing a more emotional style of music, sometimes described as emo. In 2003 Florida pop punk band Yellowcard released the album Ocean Avenue and the hit singles "Ocean Avenue" and "Only One." New Found Glory released Catalyst in 2004, which included the hit, "All Downhill from Here." While some songs on the album expanded on the band's hardcore influences, other songs added synthesizers and keyboards. Good Charlotte released their album The Chronicles of Life and Death in 2004. The album was less commercially successful than their previous effort, but it produced the hit singles Predictable and I Just Wanna Live.

On October 2004, Sum 41 released the album Chuck, which mixed pop punk with several other genres, including thrash metal, alternative rock, hardcore and more slow-paced music. Their first single, "We're All To Blame," reached #10 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks charts, and the single "Pieces" topped the charts in Canada. Also in 2004, Green Day released the politically-driven rock opera album American Idiot, a reference to US President George Bush. The singles "American Idiot," "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," "Holiday," and "Wake Me Up When September Ends" received international airplay and MTV video rotation. Christian rockers Relient K also scored a mainstream breakthrough in 2005 with the album Mmhmm and its singles "Be My Escape" and "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been." In July 2007, Sum 41 released Underclass Hero, which had more of a feel of their album All Killer No Filler, rather than their heavier albums such as Chuck. 2005 saw the release of Fall Out Boy's major label debut, From Under The Cork Tree; with hit single "Sugar, We're Goin' Down", followed by "Dance, Dance" in 2006. 2007 saw the emergence of Paramore as a popular pop punk group with their album Riot! which eventually rocketed back onto the Billboard 200 after falling off quickly 3 months before, and the inbetween classification as "Ones to Watch", by Rolling Stone.[1]

See also

• List of pop punk bands
• Pop rock
• Power pop

Footnotes

External links

• Buzzpop.org - news blog on everything buzzpop/pop punk/punk rock/hardcore and pop culture
• The Mod Pop Punk Archives - includes information about early pop punk bands
• Poppunk.com - news and information about contemporary pop punk bands
• Punk pop - article about pop punk music
• The Buzzcocks, Founders of Pop Punk -article about the Buzzcock's role in developing pop punk genre

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