3 minute read
The Return of Pop Punk
Pop-punk dominated the mainstream in the late 90s and 2000s, and almost 30 years after its first big breakthrough it seems like the genre’s comeback is here and it’s better than ever.
It’s impossible to talk about pop-punk without mentioning Green Day. The punk trio from Oakland California started in the late 80s but it was in 1994 with their major label debut “Dookie” when they blasted into the top, selling more than 10 million copies in the US, and marking the transition from grunge to punk in the mainstream. Green Day’s punk music was inspired by bands like The Clash and the Ramones, combined with more “poppy” melodies. That new sound made Green Day one of the biggest bands in the world and it started the new wave of “pop-punk” paving the way for bands like Sum-41, Simple Plan, Good Charlotte, Fall Out Boy, and more. Green Day managed to do it again 10 years later with their Punk Rock Opera, Grammy Winning album “American Idiot” in 2004 where the band’s popularity skyrocketed. Today, the Rock and Roll hall of farmers have sold more than 85 million records worldwide and are still making music, while headlining big festivals like Lollapalooza and filling up stadiums around the world. They’ve also been a big inspiration for current artists like Billie Eilish, Post Malone, Ed Sheeran, and even Lady Gaga. Without a doubt the most successful punk band of all time. One of pop-punk’s most important names is blink-182. Following Green Day’s Dookie, the trio from San Diego made the next big pop-punk album in 1999 with “Enema of the State” putting the genre back on top with lots of bands following, their next two albums “Take off your Pants and Jacket” and the self-titled record (“blink-182”), were filled with hits making them one of the biggest bands of the era. Being a huge influence for artists like Panic! At the Disco and Avril Lavigne. They recently finished the US leg of their massive world tour selling out arenas across the States with the iconic “Mark, Tom, and Travis” lineup reuniting for the first time since 2014. Both Green Day and blink-182, arguably the 2 biggest and most influential bands of their era, are set to headline the “When We Were Young” festival in Las Vegas alongside tens of other similar bands, in October. Last year’s edition of the festival was a massive hit headlined by My Chemical Romance and Paramore. Both bands are also considered to be some of the best bands of the 2000s, and within the last year went on big World Tours. The new era consists of artists like Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly, whose album produced by Blink-182’s drummer Travis Barker, “Tickets to my Downfall”, peaked at number 1 in the billboard charts in 2020, Putting the genre back in the map introducing it to a whole new generation of fans. Even artists like Olivia Rodrigo are bringing back that Pop-Punk influenced sound.
Pop-Punk’s energetic rhythms, angsty lyrics, and fun tracks make it easy for people to come back to them, getting that nostalgic feeling. The big bands of the era coming back and hearing new artists use pop-punk sounds is the perfect combination for the genre to be in the place it is today proving that “It was never a phase”. Who knows, maybe in a few years we will see pop-punk as the new “Dad Rock”.
