At a Glance: Pop Punk

There is a fine line one can draw in regards to pop punk. Like all genres of music, it has evolved over the years and became more and more fitting of the “pop” label. The genre was clearly started with the Ramones in New York and moved over to the UK with bands like The Buzzcocks and The Undertones throughout the 70’s and 80’s. Besides The Ramones though, pop punk didn’t seem to receive too much attention until the early 90’s when bands like Bad Religion, NOFX, and Propagandhi started creating a buzz in the scene. In ’94, the labels found the band that could lead the charge for pop punk and released Green Day’s “Dookie” with great success and The Offspring was quick to follow with “Smash.” Two albums I consider extremely influential on me as a person.

Pop punk had thrown itself into the public’s eye on the heels of the grunge movement, but there was still a little more emphasis on the “punk” side of things. Bands like Rancid, Pennywise, Lagwagon, Anti-Flag, The Ataris, MxPx, and No Use For A Name carried the torch with catchy hooks and fast drum beats, truly embodying what pop punk was all about. This is the era of music I got caught up in and it absorbed me like a whirlpool. It was fun, yet rebellious, and made fucking sense. For me, these bands spoke about every single thing I was thinking about and experiencing, which as a teenager at the time, made life so much easier.

Let’s consider that my Allen Cross impression, shall we?

The great thing about pop punk is that you can always run back to it. Granted, some of it you wish you could wipe from your memory “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” styles, but most of it is still pretty fun. And as you can probably tell by this article, I’ve been on a big pop punk nostalgia kick recently. It’s the simplicity that I’ve always loved and that's something that everyone needs in their life from time to time.

I’ve been all about the Ataris as of late; mainly due to “So Long, Astoria” and “Blue Skies… Broken Hearts… Next 12 Exits.” When you’re missing someone like I am at the moment, these albums do exactly what they did to me when they were first released: put the words scrambled in my head to music and shouted them out through a speaker system. I tend to find shouting is done best through speakers of some sort anyway.

Coincidentally, Kristopher Roe has been on tour over the past little while for the 9th or 10th anniversary of “Blue Skies… Broken Hearts…” and doing acoustic sets using material from that album and “So Long, Astoria.” He is hitting Canada in July and for you 905ers, he rolls through Burlington next week (Friday July 4th, flyer to the left) and is playing with our very own Bombing Neverland, Ashley Sloggett, and Aitch. All of whom will also be doing acoustic (slash normal) sets. He’ll be hitting Toronto the very next night and playing at the Kathedral.

Pop punk, in my mind, gets slammed a little too hard. I’ll be the first one to make fun of what it became after the success of Blink 182, after all, bands like Simple Plan and Good Charlotte are a bit of a joke. But notice these bands were brought in to capitalize on pop punk’s mainstream success and have just as easily switched styles to accommodate whatever the kids are listening to these days. All musicians grow, but these kinds of bands seem to “switch” to what will sell them more records. But hey, more power to them and at least they’re writing their own shit.

And those bands that play pop punk because that’s just what comes out of their instruments are still kicking. The Ataris for example are working on a new album, coming back full circle and creating a much more simplistic record. +44 continued where Blink left off and bands like Motion City Soundtrack seem to be putting their own twist on the genre.

Evolution is a funny thing in the music industry, but at its core, pop punk is still catchy sounding music with an innocence that is hard to find in the real world. The Ataris say it best: “Being grown up isn’t half as fun as growing up.”

Soundtracking Our Lives.

If you're like me, music is an important part of your everyday life. From the moment I wake up, to the moment I go to sleep (and often throughout the night as well), music plays a pivotal role in defining who I am at that very moment. Like any great movie, the soundtrack to your life can make or break your story. Sure, we're all entitled to our guilty pleasures, but they're like the comic relief character. Well, if music can be considered a character - I'd like to think it could and you can't deny that it certainly adds to your character.

This is why I don't get a lot of music today. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a victim of growing up (at least not yet) and I do like a great deal of new music. You've got to sift through the shit and skim for the gold, but it's out there. But to me, music means something so much more then background noise, which I feel a lot of new music today is. It's music without soul, music without meaning. It's just there. It exists and you exist with it. It's forgettable and therefore, so are people’s “soundtracks.”

I don't think I've ever been in an environment or situation where I was not fully aware of what was being played on the stereo. I can pinpoint exact moments in my life with songs; I’m brought back in time with particular records. It has all played a part in what has made me the person I am today and it’s comforting to know that I can organize my music chronologically.

This comfort is why I think we should all pay closer attention to our soundtracks. Whether we realize it or not, these songs, albums, and artists truly define us as people. Even your biggest musical injustice/mistake serves its purpose. For me, that’s probably Aqua. There was a legitimate time in my youth where I was like “Man, this is cool.” There was even a worse time in my early twenties where two friends and I actually got back into listening to Aqua on road trips. Interesting fact I know. Even more interesting that we are all straight – but this is all beside the point. For whatever reason, Aqua found its way into my soundtrack and it played its role. It came in initially at a time where I was really young and naive; where I was making mistakes as a part of learning how the world works. The second time there isn’t really a good excuse, but I can look back on those road trips fondly and know that it brought three friends closer together through laughter. Even with mistakes like Aqua in my soundtrack, I still know how and why they exist in it. Does anyone else pay this much attention?

I’m not trying to sound like an elitist or judge anyone, my respect for music stems from the fact that it’s the only form of media that everyone enjoys and has an opinion on. What I am trying to do is challenge the listener to really suck in that experience. So much is forced fed to us through the Top 40 charts and music videos that I question the impact it has on people. I mean, if you enjoy “pop” as we know it today, then more power to you, but I hope that it connects with you on some level and it’s something you can look back on fondly.

For me, I take refuge in the fact that I remember the first time I heard Nirvana and how it made me feel. I take solace in the memory of hearing “Basket Case” (Green Day) and “Self-Esteem” (the Offspring) and knowing that things, for the first time, made sense. I get goose-bumps thinking of those old local venues, where I watched Grade and Jersey play their hearts out and I knew that I finally belonged.

That brief list may seem like a “when I was a kid” message, but it really isn’t. It's all the stepping stones to how I got here and pieces of my life's puzzle. What's yours? If you had to, could you write your life story based solely on music? What are the songs on your soundtrack and are they going to be memorable in five or ten years? I hope they are.

So friends, here is my challenge for you: top five songs that defined your life up until now. Post a comment or send me an email with your list and let's see how your soundtrack is. Here is mine:

• Van Morrison, “Sweet Thing” (mp3) – Quite possibly my favourite song of all time. My earliest memories as a child were surrounded by my parent’s folk music, but this one has stayed with me forever. Originally released in 1968 on the album Astral Weeks, this classic song has always been one I can run home to. The lyrics say it best: “You shall take me strongly in your arms again. And I will not remember that I ever felt the pain.”
• Green Day, “When I Come Around” (YouTube) - In 1994, an album that would change my life forever was released. That album was called Dookie and it grabbed my attention as something unique from the moment I heard the first single “Longview”. But it wasn't until a year later that I really started to take notice; “When I Come Around” had the raw emotion of the grunge movement, but with a catchy melody and a lyrical story to tell. I bought this album strictly because of this single and thus, began my love affair with punk rock.
• Grade, “Triumph And Tragedy” (mp3) - Around '98/'99 I started becoming more and more interested in the local scene. I started to realize that the music I had embraced and grown to deeply love wasn't just from far off places. It was alive and around me. Not only that, but there were actually people out there into the same things as me. I soon got my hands on a copy of Under the Radar and was converted. I've been supporting the 905 scene ever since.
• The Fullblast, “Miss You” (MySpace) - We had reached the new millennium and the world didn't end. I was 16 years old and had my first kiss under my belt thanks to the Y2K threat and a lovely girl’s kindness. I had the world in the palm of my hand and every day I was discovering new music thanks to MP3.com and Napster. It was that summer that I decided to attend my first local show at the Pineroom in Oakville. On the bill were future successes Boys Night Out and Silverstein; some local favourites in Safewayhome and The Pettit Project; but nothing would be more memorable to me then the moment The Fullblast took the stage. All of a sudden I had my very own version of Lifetime (a band I never got to experience live until they reunited) playing in my hometown and playing their hearts out. I decided right then and there that I would do anything to help bands like them succeed. This is the exact moment when I decided I would work in the music industry.
• Jack's Mannequin, “Dark Blue” (mp3) - This one is a little personal and I'm not going to go into too much detail about why. I will tell you this: two years ago this song played and my life was inspired and renewed. For a moment, nothing existed or mattered except what was around me. Every day since has been a blessing and this song will always remind me of just how lucky I am.