Pop punk

Pop punk
Stylistic origins	Punk rock, pop, surf rock, power pop, garage rock, new wave
Cultural origins	Mid-1970s United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and other countries
Typical instruments	Vocals, electric guitar, bass, drums and occasional use of other instruments such as keyboards
Other topics
List of pop punk bands - Skate punk - Ska punk - Alternative rock - Melodic hardcore

Pop punk (or pop-punk) is a fusion music genre that combines elements of punk rock with pop music, to varying degrees. Allmusic describes the genre as a strand of alternative rock, which typically merges pop melodies with speedy punk tempos, chord changes and loud guitars. About.com has described contemporary pop punk bands as having "a radio friendly sheen to their music, but still maintaining much of the speed and attitude of classic punk rock".

It is not clear when the term pop punk was first used, but pop-influenced punk rock had been around since the mid- to late-1970s. 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 60s". In the mid-1990s, the California pop punk bands Green Day and The Offspring, who were later followed by Blink-182, New Found Glory and subsequently by Fall Out Boy, would all achieve worldwide commercial success. While some bands of the genre achieved massive international commercial success, most stayed in the underground music circuits or refused to co-operate with the mainstream music industry, and the genre saw a decline by the 2010s.

History

Origins (1974–1989)

Further information: Punk rock

Guttermouth - live in concert

Protopunk and power pop bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s helped lay the groundwork for the pop punk sound, which emerged at the onset of punk rock around 1974 with the Ramones. The Ramones' loud and fast melodic minimalism differentiated them from other bands in New York City's budding art rock scene, but pop punk was not considered a separate subgenre until later. The music of the Buzzcocks, Generation X, 999, The Jam, The Rezillos, The Lurkers, The Undertones, The Shapes, and Toy Dolls featured poppy melodies as well as lyrics that sometimes dealt with relatively light themes such as teenage romance. The US band Bad Religion, who formed in 1979, were another band that helped to lay the groundwork for contemporary pop punk. Many mod revival bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s also displayed pop punk leanings.

By 1981, hardcore punk had emerged in the United States, with louder, faster music than punk bands. Vocal harmony, melodic instrumentation and 4/4 drumming were replaced with shouting, discordant instrumentation, and experimental rhythms, although hardcore bands like Husker Du and Bad Brains fused these traits while retaining a melodic approach to their sound. A few bands, such as Descendents, Screeching Weasel, and The Vandals, began to combine hardcore with pop music to create a new, faster pop punk sound. Their positive yet sarcastic approach began to separate them from the more serious hardcore scene. In the 1980s, the term pop punk was used in publications such as Maximum RocknRoll for bands similar to Social Distortion, Agent Orange, and T.S.O.L..

Pop punk in the United States underwent a resurgence in the early- to mid-1990s, although the genre was not commercially viable at that time. Many pop punk bands retained a do it yourself (DIY) approach to their music, and a number of independent record labels emerged during that period, often run by band members who wanted to release their own music and that of their friends. The independent labels SST/Cruz Records, Lookout! Records, Fat Wreck Chords and Epitaph Records, who grew out of this movement, later went on to achieve commercial success.

Popular acceptance (1994–1998)

Further information: Punk rock in California

Green Day frontman Armstrong performing in 1994.

By 1994, pop-punk music was quickly growing in popularity and gaining mainstream acceptance. Many of these bands grew from the California punk scene of the 1980s, and several of those such bands — Green Day and The Offspring, who were followed by Blink-182 — helped revive interest in punk rock in the 1990s.

Green Day rose from the strident tradition of the San Francisco Bay Area and the 924 Gilman Street scene. After underground success, the band signed to Reprise Records and recorded their major-label debut, Dookie, which was released in 1994. The record produced several radio singles that would receive extensive MTV rotation - "Basket Case", "When I Come Around", and "Longview" - all of which peaked at number one on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and helped Dookie sell four million copies by the year's end. Green Day were elevated to a national level, headlining Lollapalooza and Woodstock 1994 and becoming nominated for four Grammy Awards. Consequently, punk fans criticized the band for "selling out," finding Green Day's music too soft and pop-oriented. To this day, many in the punk scene, including a number of pioneers, object to the consideration of Green Day and similar bands as 'punk'.

The same year, The Offspring found similar success in the indie release Smash, which would go 6x Platinum in the US, and produced the hit singles "Come Out and Play" and "Self-Esteem". Like Green Day, The Offspring were criticized by others in the punk scene for their mainstream success, which they argue represents the antithesis of traditional punk aesthetic. In addition, Weezer's blue album (1994), despite being considered a power pop album, contains overtones largely inspired by the emerging pop punk scene at the time. By 1995, ska punk achieved commercial success in the United States and several other countries. Some ska punk music — by bands such as Reel Big Fish, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Goldfinger and Less Than Jake — shared many characteristics with pop punk, particularly in its accessibility, upbeat tone, and increased emphasis on melody in lieu of speed and aggression. The Long Beach band Sublime, in particular, was influential in reviving interest in the ska punk genre with their self-titled third record in 1996. Another ska punk band, No Doubt, hailed from Anaheim in southern California and their 1995 album Tragic Kingdom performed overwhelmingly well on the charts in 1996.

Green Day eventually took a more "punk" path with Insomniac in 1995 and ended up selling over 7 million records. In the aftermath of the 1994 punk breakthrough, bands such as Rancid (a band formed from ska punk band Operation Ivy) and Face to Face were the subject of major-label bidding wars and lucrative deals. Albums such as Dookie and Tragic Kingdom have been certified diamond for shipping over 10 million units in the United States alone. The Offspring's Smash is the best-selling independent label album of all-time with over 12 million copies sold worldwide. In 1997, San Diego-based Blink-182's single "Dammit" found gradual success at rock radio and signaled a change in the status quo that would come full circle in the following two years. The Offspring returned in 1998 with Americana, which reached the top 10 worldwide and went multiplatinum with 9 million certified copies worldwide. The hit single "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" became an iconic song, and went 4x Platinum in Australia.

Mainstream peak (1999–2005)

Pop punk's commercial success generally peaked with the release of blink-182's Enema of the State in 1999, which sold 15 million copies worldwide receiving multi-platinum status in the United States, Canada, Australia, Italy, New Zealand and platinum status in Europe and the United Kingdom. Enema of the State is thought to have had a considerable effect on the second-wave pop-punk bands such as New Found Glory. The band's status was cemented by constant rotation on MTV. The band Lit enjoyed success with "My Own Worst Enemy", which spent 11 weeks on the top of the modern rock charts. New Found Glory gained popular exposure in 2000 with the release of their self-titled second album.

Blink-182 found continued success in 2001 with Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, which sold 14 million copies worldwide. The commercial success of the album secured blink-182's status as one of the biggest bands of the genre. Sum 41's major label debut, All Killer No Filler, went multi-platinum and spawned Total Request Live hits "Fat Lip" and "In Too Deep". New Found Glory's album Sticks and Stones debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. 2002 saw Drive-Thru Records steadily build up a roster primarily of pop punk bands, such as Midtown, The Starting Line, Saves the Day, The Movielife, and Something Corporate. Simple Plan rose to the forefront in 2002 with No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls, and Good Charlotte found similar success in The Young and the Hopeless. Bands such as MxPx, American Hi-Fi and Bowling for Soup also achieved relatively high-charting hits on industry charts in the early 2000s. Solo artist Avril Lavigne, who has been referred to as the "pop punk princess", also found commercial success in 2002, with her punk-influenced pop sound.

Radio hits in 2003 included The Ataris' cover of "The Boys of Summer" and Yellowcard's "Ocean Avenue", both commonplace on top 40 playlists. Blink-182's fifth studio album Blink-182 sold millions and included singles like "Feeling This", "I Miss You" and "Down" also charted highly. In 2004, Simple Plan's "Welcome to My Life" was a top ten hit on the pop charts, while New Found Glory's "All Downhill from Here" peaked similarly on the rock charts. Green Day had worldwide success in 2004 with American Idiot, a politically charged rock opera that sold 14,000,000 records. They released singles that topped charts worldwide, such as "Holiday", "American Idiot", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and "Jesus of Suburbia".

Continued success and decline (2005-present)

By 2005, emo pop, a fusion genre combining emo and pop punk, became popular, with the record label Fueled by Ramen releasing platinum albums from bands including Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Paramore.

Fall Out Boy released their breakthrough record From Under the Cork Tree in 2005, spawning top ten singles "Sugar, We're Goin Down" and "Dance, Dance". The band had previously been a staple of the Chicago hardcore punk scene, where they mixed pop sensibilities with hardcore punk. Nevertheless, Fall Out Boy are widely considered a pop punk and emo pop act.

Blink-182 announced in February 2005 that they were going to take an indefinite hiatus. All planned tours were cancelled, along with recording of their album.

Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy signed Panic! at the Disco to his record label, Decaydance, and the band scored "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies" as a hit single, which popularized the band and won them an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year. The All-American Rejects found success with Move Along (2005), which inspired three top-15 singles: "Dirty Little Secret", "Move Along", and "It Ends Tonight". My Chemical Romance had similar chart success in 2006 with The Black Parade. Avril Lavigne had similar success with the single "Girlfriend", which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the top-selling song of 2007, making it the most successful pop punk single of the decade. Her platinum album The Best Damn Thing became the top-selling pop punk album of 2007, selling around 7 million copies worldwide, making it the second most successful pop punk album of the decade after Green Day's American Idiot.

The All-American Rejects returned with "Gives You Hell" in 2008, which went four-times multi-platinum and charted highly.

Several pop punk bands took different directions in the late 2000s, with Panic! at the Disco crafting the Beatles-inspired, baroque pop-styled record Pretty. Odd. (2008) and Fall Out Boy experimenting with glam rock and R&B on Folie a Deux (2008), both of which created fan confusion and backlash.

In the mid-to-late 2000s, bands such as A Day to Remember, Four Year Strong, The Wonder Years and Set Your Goals started fusing the catchiness of pop punk with the heaviness and style of hardcore, by incorporating breakdowns, two-step beats and pinch harmonics. This new style, heavily influenced by bands like Blink-182 and early Fall Out Boy, included hardcore and metalcore influences. Mainstream success didn't come until A Day to Remember released Homesick on Victory Records in 2009. The album sold 22,000 copies in its first week. The album had five singles and received frequent airplay on MTV, Fuse, and other music television channels.

2009 saw Blink-182 reunite at the 2009 Grammy Awards, then tour and release another studio album. Set Your Goals released This Will Be The Death of Us in July 2009 on Epitaph Records. That same month, All Time Low released their breakthrough album Nothing Personal which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, and spawned hit singles Weightless and Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don't), each received commercial radio airplay and constant MTV rotation and made All Time Low one of the most recognized bands of the genre. Four Year Strong released Enemy of the World in March 2010 and sold over 12,000 copies in its first week. Also in 2010, The Wonder Years left their "pop mosh" past and released an album more along the lines of the traditional pop punk style called The Upsides, which sold 1,852 units in its first week.

Blink-182 released their sixth studio album, Neighborhoods, in September 2011 and it debuted at no. 2 on the Billboard 200. New Found Glory released Radiosurgery in October 2011 before embarking on the Pop Punks Not Dead Tour with This Time Next Year, Man Overboard, The Wonder Years and Set Your Goals. Man Overboard started a campaign during the release of their self-titled album, to "Defend Pop Punk". The campaign has been highly popular, selling a lot of merchandise, and along with the success of their second album, has propelled Man Overboard to the forefront of the new wave of pop punk.

On February 4, 2013, Fall Out Boy announced the end of their three-year hiatus and a new album, Save Rock and Roll, which was released released in April 2013, as well as a worldwide tour. The album debuted at the top of the Billboard 200, replacing Paramore's self-titled album which reigned atop the week before.

The Story So Far released their second LP, What You Don't See, on March 26, 2013. It debuted at No. 46 on the Billboard 200. On May 14th, 2013, The Wonder Years are set to release their fourth full-length album, The Greatest Generation.

See also

• List of pop punk bands

External links

• The Mod Pop Punk Archives - includes information about early 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