"Pop Punk"

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Does anyone like LIFETIME?

Jon Williams (ex machina), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

John, I'd guess that it has less to do with music and more to do with image and attitude: while I don't find pop-punk any sort of travesty and am willing to defend it against tired "it's not really punk" lines, I do tend to get slightly less excited about the way some of the bands present themselves and the subject matter they tackle. I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with it, but I listened to enough pop punk in high school, I'd guess.

That said, I do like a lot of the most pop stuff, mainly because it is something sort of new: "Sk8er Boi" and the average Blink 182 single are pop-punk in a way that's interesting to me. And I don't at all mind hearing the more emo-ed bands you mention (well, Jimmy Eat World more than Dashboard Confessional) -- I'd rarely go out of my way for it, but it's usually a decent listen.

nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

can somebody make a stab at charting the devolpment of that super-crisply enunciated voice that's on (generalizing) all this stuff? It's the thing that bugs me most about recent pop-punk; it just seems so bizarre.

g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

Pop-punk was a major part of the '90s for me, but I just haven't heard that much newish stuff in this vein to keep me totally interested, mainly because the 'modern rock' station here plays four post-Creed tracks for every one post-Green Day track. The second Tuuli album is close to perfect, though.

scott woods (s woods), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

Busted!

Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

sundar to thread!

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

alex in NYC not to thread!

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yeah. Nabisco's close I think. It presents itself as a music which is communicating as well as just being a pop hookrush and generally what it's communicating doesn't bother me anymore.

Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

"i'm just a teenage dirtbag baby"

mark s (mark s), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

With a hip-hop beat, baby.

Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

To my ears the substance of say "Swing Swing" and "Sk8r Boi" are very similar: one's narrative, the other's monologue, but I'd hazard to guess that the communication taking place in pop-punk is still more a matter of image/trope than of substance! I don't know, this just struck me this morning while driving to the market, when some nameless pop-punk song came on the radio & I knee-jerked "ugh" and got ready to change the station, and then I said to myself: "Wait a minute, if this was the Backstreet Boys, you'd leave it on, wouldn't you? And, well, isn't this the Backstreet Boys, more or less?"

J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

I like some stuff that Offspring and NO/FX have done, do they count?

mei (mei), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

It's Avril's fucked-up metaphysical ethics that piss me off.

Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

I really like pop-punk, myself. Especially Busted! But, then, I have no shame.

I think it's that music you don't like is more irritating when it's close to your preferred style - I have more hatred for the Nicklebacks and Creeds of this world than for any crap pop group, and I don't know why. Because the shite rock bands are dragging down 'my' music, maybe? Bands like Sum 41 and New Found Glory, who sound to me like Epitaph-style punk taken to its poppiest conclusion, don't offend my punk sensibilities because I don't really have any.

Is it just the narcissism of small differences?

cis (cis), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

DEATH TO FALSE POP PUNK!

http://www.thisispunkrock.btinternet.co.uk/fliers/1/descende.jpg

Jon Williams (ex machina), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:21 (twenty-one years ago) link

Cis for me it's cos it's closer to the stuff I *don't* like.

Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

Most pop-punk has horrid real drumming on it too John which the Backstreets don't.

Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

A lot of the better pop-punk is extremely danceable. Their beats are fine.

scott woods (s woods), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

Tico, you're just special.

cis (cis), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

Wow, I didn't know the Backstreet Boys were ILM friendly.

Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

As Long As You Love Me was ace.

Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

I liked "Backstreet's Back" the most, I think

Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

Shape Of My Heart, please.

Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

I like the Bowling for Soup song. Much catchier than anything Good Charlotte or Sum 41 ever released.

My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yd have to remind me, Tico (please do!)

Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

Looking back on the things I've done
I was trying to be someone
I played a part
Kept you in the dark
Now let me show you the shape of my heart

(i.e. he is really AN ALIEN!!)

(it's got the loveliest melodic bit on that chorus)

Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'll check w/my sister (actually I could prob nick her Cds now, she doesn't care anymore).

Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

see also "Pop" Punk: What bands are/were good? What band killed it?

Whatever about Avril's passing abilities, she isn't pop-punk, is she? Sk8er Boi seems miles from Blink 182.

Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

(far closer to the Josie&The Pussycats soundtrack, for example)

Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

Well maybe they're Pop Punk!

Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

Mike Watt in the Good Charlotte video: now that's "pop punk".

scott m (mcd), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

alex in NYC not to thread!

TOO LATE, INFIDEL!

All this tepid crap -- Alien Ant Farm, Sum 41, Blink 182, Good fuckin' Charlotte, Avril Lavigne, Less Than Jake, Simple Plan, New Found Glory, etc.... are all as abjectly meaningless as the Trains, Matchbox 20s, Seven Mary Threes, Marcy Playgounds, Verve Pipes and Vertical Horizons. Likewise the Stainds, Disturbeds, Colds, Ademas, Salivas, P.O.D.s and Linkin Parks....

.....IT'S ALL CRAP!

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

How do you feel about the weakerthans?

Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

catchy crap though

gaz (gaz), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

TOO LATE, INFIDEL!

All this tepid crap -- Alien Ant Farm, Sum 41, Blink 182, Good fuckin'
Charlotte, Avril Lavigne, Less Than Jake, Simple Plan, New Found Glory,
etc.... are all as abjectly meaningless as the Trains, Matchbox 20s, Seven
Mary Threes, Marcy Playgounds, Verve Pipes and Vertical Horizons. Likewise
the Stainds, Disturbeds, Colds, Ademas, Salivas, P.O.D.s and Linkin
Parks....

.....IT'S ALL CRAP!


WHAT ABOUT VINES, HIVES, ETC

Jon Williams (ex machina), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

The Vines are utter pantomime shit, but I do like the Hives. I wouldn't put them in the same category as Sum 41 and all that....their reference points (Nuggets garage rock) are a world apart from the neo-pop-punk horde.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

i just realized jon williams is going to grow up to be alex in nyc

jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

Jon Williams and the rest of the lost boys will never grow up.

NA. (Nick A.), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

Who will be *my* Killing Joke???

Jon Williams (ex machina), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

i really like this Revis song called "caught in the rain"... it's totally dramatic emo-pop. the vocals stink (like most of the stuff in this genre) but the dynamics and melody are pretty great.

i am really digging the emo-pop (as opposed to punk-pop) lately. there is basically a whole new crop of bands that realized that the foo fighters' "everlong" was 1 million X more important than "smells like teen spirit".

gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

basically a whole new crop of bands that realized that the foo fighters' "everlong" was 1 million X more important than "smells like teen spirit".

and the goo-goo dolls mid-era stuff like "so far away".

gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sometimes when I'm messing around on the ol' keyboard, I start playing something that sounds vaguely pop-punkish. And then I bask in the ease with which it came to me and think, "Someone should be paying me to write songs for those fools! I'll make millions!" But the fact that I play it so intuitively makes me think that I secretly like it.

jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

Jon W. -- Lifetime WAS great, but they were in the horribly unfortunate position of sounding like a synthesis of bad pop-punk and bad-emo, despite writing more complicated and thoughtful songs.

I think my main problem with this stuff is in the production: There's not much of a historical reference point for the "sound" of the Backstreet Boys, so we just accept that "this type of music is, by nature, brutally overproduced and shiny"; whereas, with something attempting a "punk" sound, something with that much gloss is going to sound silly next to the tough and raw historical precedent set by bands like the Dead Boys, Ramones, et. al.

Ben Boyer, Friday, 20 June 2003 15:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

I hear someone's making a movie based on the song "sk8r boi"
i hope reese witherspoon's in it

i think the only reason i like the weakerthans is because it reminds me of propagandhi's softer moments.

Felcher (Felcher), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

not much of a historical reference point for the "sound" of the Backstreet Boys

?!?!?!?!?!!!???????

jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

JW- it's pretty obvious that LtBlt is your KJ.

gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

Lifetime started the second nu-pop punk sound!


Revis sounds like Creed listened to Hum.

Jon Williams (ex machina), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

How can LB be my KJ????? I actually am friendly with them.

KJ = old band

Jon Williams (ex machina), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

Well, Jaymc, it's rudimentary pop: just like any three-chord singalong stuff, it's easy to play intuitively but hard as hell to make transcendent and not just irritatingly there. (The only difference between the "punk" version and the indiepop version is distorted-guitar-click versus shiny-guitar-jangle.) I used to write in this mold, but not punky: it seemed like the best way to get one good song was to write 20 three-minute songs and then find the two minutes in that whole hour that actually kicked.

nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

does anyone really think there's a quantifiable difference between the descendents and avril? (i like both.) i mean, "i'm with you" is certainly as much of a teerjerker as "bikeage". also, who's more calculating/ironic? < /shit-stirrer>

jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

In the "pointing out to Descendents fans that they have no good reason to hate 'Sk8er Boi'" game, I don't think the emergence of "I'm the One" should be particularly surprising.

nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 20 June 2003 16:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

But Milo *is* THE ONE.

Jon Williams (ex machina), Friday, 20 June 2003 16:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

okay, why not "good good things" or "silly girl" though?

gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 20 June 2003 16:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

Bikeage / Cameage / Myage = amazing

Jon Williams (ex machina), Friday, 20 June 2003 16:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

and here's the thing about the descendents: bill could write all the "avril fan-ready" nifty three chord pop songs, but milo and whomever was playing guitar or bass on that particular album were more than capable of making bitter/complicated art-punk-metal that transcended the saccharine of the previous track.

too much sugar rots your teeth, balance is the key.

gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 20 June 2003 16:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

The main gimmick to defending superficial chart pop in thoughtful writing, as far as I can tell, is the contrast between the subject and the commentary. Pop punk, by affecting even a shred of rebellion, exhibits some kind of thought, and is thus less "daring" to write thoughtfully about.

ara, Friday, 20 June 2003 17:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

The reason the Descendents are among the greatest bands ever:

http://www.dragcity.com/catalog/records/dc30.jpg

Jon Williams (ex machina), Friday, 20 June 2003 17:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

my vote:

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc500/c503/c503697u32b.jpg

gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 20 June 2003 17:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

What is the Descendents' connection to Nig-Heist?

Sam J. (samjeff), Friday, 20 June 2003 17:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

i think bill drummed for them in the black flag years when the descendents were on hiatus

gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 20 June 2003 17:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

Revis are great.

Also, Travis Barker will end up being the most-aped drummer of our era.

Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 20 June 2003 17:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

Avril and Milo are both pretty good at self-aggrandizing, delusional psychoanalyses of "tragic" females. Is "Bikeage" the one that goes, "Who's gonna pick you up / and take you home with them tonight? / Not meeeeee"? Neither seems afraid of coming across as truly repulsive human beings in their songs. Good for them, I say. However, "Sk8er Boi" is quite a musical anomaly on the album; the rest is really boring. The Descendents had those cool, fussy basslines and more manic energy.

I'd like to hear a DJ Sammy treatment of "Hope". Maybe Avril can sing it.

Kris (aqueduct), Friday, 20 June 2003 18:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

My favorite Descendents song is pre-Milo, "Ride The Wild." I think it's the drum sound, it always reminded me of early Violent Femmes (though listening to it now, I'm not hearing that connection).

I like a lot of pop-punk, older stuff. I don't find the new stuff offensive in the least, but why would I buy any of it when I still have a binder full of Descendents, Mess/Darlington, Green Day and so on? I still pull out some of those albums, but less than I used to. Rancid's [i]Life Won't Wait[/i] holds up pretty well, I like the One Man Army CD I picked up the last time I went to a Warped Tour show, of course the Descendents and the Buzzcocks.

miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 20 June 2003 19:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

Another reason I'm not drawn to the Sum 41s and New Found Glories of the world is that I never liked the bands that inspired them (NOFX, Lagwagon, etc.).

miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 20 June 2003 19:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

I don't know how to respond to this because I love All-American Rejects and Good Charlotte, but I hate New Found Glory and Dashboard Confessional and don't care about Sum 41. I don't think these bands are all one and the same. Dashboard Confessional is a fuckin' Lisa Loeb who won't stop talking about high school. New Found Glory suck so bad they only get SLOWER as the song goes on (they are phyiscally incapable of speeding up). Sum 41 are just kinda really boring (like Weird Al, who would sound like Sum 41 if he was a young punk kid, they do make great videos though). All-American Rejects use grandiose production to make their generic heartbreak yarns massive (god bless 'em!) and Good Charlotte simply made the best pop/rock album since the Replacement's "Let It Be." I can't tell if they're a baby Clash or not since they haven't been around that long. But they made an album a baby Clash would be proud to have in their catalogue.

I notice Good Charlotte gets a little more love each time they release another single. That rocks.

Descendents are ok (my fave is probably "Jean Is Dead"), but yeah, anybody who likes them but hates ALL the pop-punk out there now is probably doing it based on some ass-backwards principle.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 20 June 2003 19:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

Not really. The production is enough for me not to.
But, uh...I do like Good Charlotte. Don't tell!

Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Friday, 20 June 2003 20:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

And I'm pretty sure I'm not biased and alone when I say the lyrics to most Avril Lavigne's songs don't do anything for me AT ALL, even when getting in touch with my inner pre-pubescent femininity.

Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Friday, 20 June 2003 20:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

Try Kelly Osbourne. She's WAY better than Avril on all counts (ok, Avril's bellowing on "I'm With You" is out of Kelly's range).

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 20 June 2003 20:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

You know what's really sad? Sony have done a really awful job of marketing her album. Even with the show's hype she hardly gets a favorable push. It's sold poorly which is a shame. I've only heard the singles, but they're NAHZ.

Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Friday, 20 June 2003 20:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

yeah, anybody who likes them but hates ALL the pop-punk out there now is probably doing it based on some ass-backwards principle.

I haven't heard all the pop-punk out there now and to be frank based on what I HAVE heard, I'm not in the mood to hear more.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 June 2003 20:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

yeah, but Ned, you don't like anything now! You don't count. I'm talking about the I'd-like-Sum-41's-single-if-the-copyright-was-1982.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 20 June 2003 20:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

yeah, but Ned, you don't like anything now!

I think the more people wrongly simplify my stance the more I'll be amused. ;-)

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 June 2003 20:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

For me, I suppose it all stems from my soft spot for NOFX. :B

Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Friday, 20 June 2003 20:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

:B --->buckteeth, not a split tongue

Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Friday, 20 June 2003 20:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

I like Blink-182 - what i've heard is fun and catchy. Dont underatnd whythey're bing accused of/seen as a sign of decline of wetsern civ.

H (Heruy), Friday, 20 June 2003 22:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

It's worth noting at this point -- I don't think anyone made this distinction earlier -- that Avril Lavigne did not write "Sk8er Boi," or "Complicated."
and Jess/Dubplate... I stand by this:
>> not much of a historical reference point for the "sound" of the Backstreet Boys <<
explain the "?!?!?!?!?!!!???????."

Ben Boyer, Friday, 20 June 2003 22:22 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sum 41 is fantastic. "Still Waiting" might be pop-punk's shining moment - of the last five years, at least.

Samuel Bloch, Sunday, 22 June 2003 16:22 (twenty-one years ago) link

search: sum 41, offspring, alien ant farm, good charlotte, blur's crazy beat, mel c's falling down.

lid, Sunday, 22 June 2003 17:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

you know i used to think avril looked like a racoon, but now i fancy the pants off of her. she just looks like she needs a hug.

Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Sunday, 22 June 2003 17:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

yeah, anybody who likes them but hates ALL the pop-punk out there now is probably doing it based on some ass-backwards principle.

what if you're like me, and you have a token pop-punk band that you like? wouldn't that be seen as dodgy here? (not that i give a fuck, but like ned, most of it just plain annoys me) for the record, my token pop-punk band is blink 182, they can craft some pretty good melodies out of about 3 notes, plus they're fun and danceable.

di smith (lucylurex), Monday, 23 June 2003 00:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

eh, that's cool, though I wouldn't be me if I didn't say you shouldn't check out Good Charlotte's, Kelly Osbourne's and the All-American Rejects' latests.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 23 June 2003 00:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

it's the people who only like pop-punk if it happened within the correct timespan that bug me.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 23 June 2003 00:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

woah. I triple negatived. You SHOULD check those albums.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 23 June 2003 00:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

five years pass...

I think the Hard-Ons are pop punk and everyone else can gtfo

wilter, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 09:39 (sixteen years ago) link

ten months pass...

^^dont remember posting that.

recently remembered 'pop and disorderly' by Limp which came out in 97. I just downloaded it, It's pretty good!

wilter, Tuesday, 1 September 2009 09:09 (fifteen years ago) link

five years pass...

This Sdekicks album is p enjoyable

calstars, Saturday, 24 January 2015 03:02 (nine years ago) link

it's all right. last few songs are very good

emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Saturday, 24 January 2015 04:48 (nine years ago) link

amazing thread

emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Saturday, 24 January 2015 04:49 (nine years ago) link

(mostly the sidekicks record just made me really want to listen to the cymbals eat guitars album from last year, not that they necessarily sound alike, though maybe there's a case to be made for the former being pop-punk/indie and the latter being indie/emo)

emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Saturday, 24 January 2015 04:50 (nine years ago) link

eight years pass...

Wondering how any serious journalist or pundit tricked into promoting the Iraq War lives with the knowledge they were less skeptical of an international conflict than the tracklist for Rock Against Bush pic.twitter.com/fWtxKtZVps

— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) March 20, 2023

You wrote for The New York Times and were further behind the curve than Sum 41

— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) March 20, 2023


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