Is Pop-Punk Coming Back?

- Do you remember how inescapable pop punk was in the early 2000's?

blink-182 was all over MTV.

The band's drummer, Travis Barker, even had a reality TV show.

Pete Wentz, of Fall Out Boy, was frequently on the cover of J-14.

Simple Plan even made a cameo in an Olsen twins movie.

Eventually, fans and bands grew up and pop punk faded from the limelight in the early 2010s.

- Fast forward to today, pop punk is back and Gen Z is reviving the scene.

Musicians like Willow, Meet Me @ The Altar, Pinkshift, And Kenny Hoopla have taken the torch.

Even Gen Z artists outside the genre like Olivia Rodrigo and The Kid Laroi are borrowing from pop punk, resulting in viral chart toppers.

- In this video, we're gonna dig into just how Gen Z is leading a pop punk revival and make sure you stay till the end, where we try to create our own pop punk inspired tune.

(pop punk inspired music) - Okay.

So what does pop punk even mean?

Well, it's basically an offshoot of punk that drifts away from the heavy and aggressive to a melodic and pop sound.

Some say The Ramones were the first pop punk band, but the Descendants became the blueprint for pop punk in 1982, with their LP, Milo Goes To College.

("Suburban Home" by Descendents) Descendants' drummer Bill Stevenson cited his influences as the Kinks, The Seeds, The Ramones, and the early Beatles.

Without The Descendants, bands like blink-182, who pushed pop punk into the mainstream, may have never existed.

In 2016, Mark Hoppus of blink-182 said, "The first song of The Descendants I heard was "Silly Girl", and it blew my mind.

That just changed the trajectory of my life forever."

- When pop punk first emerged in the late 80's it wasn't an immediate commercial success.

Then in 1994, that changed when Green Day became an overnight sensation with their album Dookie, which went on to win a Grammy in 1995.

("Basket Case" by Green Day) - Following Green Day, bands like blink-182, Newfound Glory, and Sum 41 began to take over the radio.

blink-182 became one of pop punk's biggest names after the success of their 1999 album "Enema of the State".

The songs had a coming of age feel, fast and driving drums were paired with a mix of goofy, but melancholic lyrics.

("All the Small Things" by blink-182) ♪ All the small things ♪ - Yeah?

- I was kind of like a closeted fan of pop punk, for sure.

- When I was a teenager, pop punk was like the cool music to listen to.

As the mid 2000's approached, mainstream radio started to shift from rock and pop toward R&B and hip hop, with artists like Kanye and Rihanna.

("SOS" by Rihanna) - During this shift, a new generation of pop punk bands found an audience with the youth.

Artists like Paramore, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, and Panic!

at the Disco.

These bands signaled a shift in the sound of pop punk as they took influence from the emo and scene subcultures.

Their new moodier version of the genre started to blur the lines defining pop punk.

Were these bands were pop punk?

Were they emo pop?

While there's some debate on where these bands fit in, these artists use characteristics from both genres in their music.

("crushcrushcrush" by Paramore) - During this time, many of these successful pop punk and emo pop bands performed at the Vans Warped Tour.

Warped Tour began in 1995 and started as a skate punk music tour with lots of third wave Ska musicians featured in the lineup.

The tour soon morphed into a predominantly pop punk and metal core focused tour.

During the 2010s, pop punk's popularity began to fade, possibly because mainstream radio began to favor hip hop, possibly because the teens that listened to the genre began to grow up.

Or maybe the bands found it difficult to adapt to the times.

Hayley Williams said the scene during the early 2000s was "A lot of internalized sexism, and even when you were lucky enough to meet other bands who were kind and respectful, there was other that wasn't."

The genre had a diversity problem.

Black artists and women musicians were rare in the scene.

Travie McCoy, the front man of Gym Class Heroes, said he struggled with finding acceptance within the pop punk community.

"I was definitely a sore thumb at a lot of shows in the early days."

Fefe Dobson, a pop punk singer, said she dealt with companies attempting to rebrand her as an R&B artist, which she refused.

Dobson showed young black girls that they can be angsty, angry, and alternative too.

("Take Me Away" by Fefe Dobson) - What was that experience like?

Just going back a little bit, how did you feel that the label tried to mold you?

- The one thing that actually was the red flag, was, I think they thought it was a compliment but, they coined me as Brandy Spears.

And that really bothered me, because first of all, I'm not, you know I love Brandy, love Brandy, but I'm not, I'm not them.

So basically it's like, well, she's Brandy because she's black but she has got a poppy white voice, so she's Britney.

And that's how they were selling me so that as young as I was, I was about 15.

I knew that felt weird.

That felt weird to already be put in a box and put in a category and coined with a different name right off the bat.

- Especially a box that is just so not representative of yourself.

Do you feel that pop rock and pop punk, needed to be reinvented?

- I'm happy pop punk is back or pop rock.

I would say both genres, but I would also say that like, hell yeah.

Why not?

You know, I think that we also went through a crazy time in the last few years.

We need young people and, and anybody to come out and be honest and shout how they feel and and be unapologetic because we've gone through too much.

And we were hit with so much in the last three years that you know, we had to come back musically.

With you know, just honest, raw emotion.

- During the pandemic, TikTok began introducing pop punk to a new generation and also brought nostalgia to the genre's long term fans.

Many 2000s pop punk classics from bands like All Time Low and Paramore went viral on the app with videos using their songs, getting up to 3 million likes ("Dear Maria, Count Me In" by All Time Low) - With its growing community, we're seeing more diversity and TikTokers are utilizing hashtags like #blackalt and #altPOC, which have gained millions of views.

These include bands like De'Wayne, Magnolia Park, Kenny Hoopla, Cherym, and Meet Me @ the Altar.

("Brighter Days (Are Before Us)" by Meet Me @ the Altar) - No one found out about us at all for like four or five years, because we were over here like putting our music on Spotify and all that.

We were kind of just like screaming, like, "Hey, we exist!"

But no one was hearing it.

So I'm definitely sure that there's other bands out there that are like that, which I'm glad our band getting recognition is gonna help them, like know that they have a space where they can reach out and people will actually hear them.

- All these bands are in their own little bubble of pop punk.

If you look from the outside, it's all these white guys talking about their girlfriends or ex-girlfriends or girlfriends they never got, whatever.

And then it's just all the same stuff.

And then all of these girls who are minorities are also in the bubble, but you don't see them because there's not very many of them.

It's a community that like, we can't really relate to sometimes.

So that's why we try to make our own and I think that's something that we do as a band.

- Ladies and ladies.

No gentlemen.

Show me what you got.

- Yeah, I think it's, it's awesome, but also frustrating to be in that position of being the first.

People are saying that Gen Z is reinventing pop punk.

And do you feel like that's the case?

- It's so strange to see how much, like pop punk's not dead, that playlist on Spotify, has changed, because originally that was only bands, only bands up there.

But now like more than half of it is solo artists who just have pop punk instrumentals behind it.

So it's like, it's definitely changing and it's so weird to see it change so drastically over the last couple years.

- What are some positive reinventions that you're seeing happen?

- I do like that some artists are starting to sound more like the early 2000s.

Like any Amanda Binds movie, like soundtrack.

- Yes!

- That, that kinda, that kinda sound is coming back which is always so nostalgic and sounds so good.

- Gen Z's Disney upbringing has also been a huge influence in the revival today.

They're influenced by Disney stars like Demi Levato and Miley Cyrus, who released pop rock albums early on in their careers.

("7 Things" by Miley Cyrus) - While pop rock isn't the same as pop punk, Disney pop rock was many young girls' first introduction to alternative rock.

And today we're seeing many young women involved in the revival of pop punk.

Can you name the songs that you wrote for these big Disney stars and how did Disney get their hands on the songs?

- For Miley it was "Start All Over".

For Selena, it was a song called "As a Blonde", "Round and Round" was another one.

- Such a good song.

- Well, I had an album called Sunday Love that I wrote in LA.

There were songs that were on that album, that are on the album, you could hear my version of them, that got picked up by these girls.

("Start All Over" by Miley Cyrus) - That Disney influence still exists today.

Ex Disney star Olivia Rodrigo released a pop punk inspired single that dominated charts in 2021.

("Good 4 U" by Olivia Rodrigo) - Another young star in the pop punk revival is Willow, who released her dance track "Whip My Hair" back in 2010.

("Whip My Hair" by Willow) - Willow's newest track, Transparent Soul, has blown up on TikTok and features a heavy pop punk aesthetic.

("Transparent Soul" by Willow feat.

Travis Barker) Pop punk has also influenced many of today's rap stars.

Artists like Lil Uzi Vert and Juice Wrld have cited pop punk bands as major inspirations.

Gen Z has shown the industry that they still want their pop punk loud and catchy, but for the leaders of the scene to reflect the diverse society we live in.

Okay.

So wait, our, the song.

- Yes.

Let's talk about the song - I peep the guitar progression is very typical of pop punk.

- Yeah.

I chose a very hooky like very basic chord progression and it was fun.

Nice.

Okay.

- I'm going to play bass on it.

I gotta record some drums on it and it's gonna be such a, it's gonna be a real small kick.

- When you sing, just let yourself go.

Like, you know, all that angst that you have, channel that and belt.

♪ You're never growing up at all ♪ ♪ In a sad way, you're absurd ♪ ♪ It's pathetic, you're the worst ♪ ♪ You're never growing up at all ♪ - The concept I'm working with is calling out the hypocrisy of people, of society.

♪ You are lying to yourself ♪ ♪ Never find your way out of this ♪ - As always, thanks for watching.

We want to hear what your favorite pop punk tracks are.

If you'd like you can submit a video of you telling us your favorite songs at the link in our description.

Here are your submissions from our last video, where we asked you what your favorite backing vocals in a song are.

- One of the best backing vocals, that have been a very very big inspiration to me, has been the D'Angelo Voodoo album.

Really anything on that album.

- Oh, we need to talk about Lala Lala and more specifically their song, "Color of the Pool".

- Janet Jackson "LUV" from her Feedback Album.

- "The Whaler" by a band called Thrice.

(fast paced drums)