Why I hate pop punk

I have always hated pop punk.

A hatred rooted in watching friends undergo their Fall Out Boy eras in middle school and my traumatic viewing of Blink-182’s performance at Coachella in April of 2023; an hour long set of vile language and intros, screeching vocals, and a crowd packed with angry millennials cursing me for not memorizing the set beforehand. Band member Mark Hoppus truly solidified my opinion on the experience by shouting, “This isn’t a phase Mom, Emo for life!” into the crowd as a 52-year-old man wearing black denim jeans, a cartoon cactus shirt, and his iconic “emo” glasses. Overall, my worst nightmare. As someone who already wasn’t a huge fan of this genre of punk pop, I was overthrown into hatred. I looked around at the Coachella-attending millennials that worshipped the band, people who once were teens raging against the capitalistic ties of living in suburbia, and accepted that I couldn’t stand it, or maybe I was just mad that Frank Ocean had dropped out for Weekend 2.

Hating an entire genre is a rare thing, and something I would ordinarily condemn. However, in this circumstance, I find myself entirely validated, thanks to the meaningless lyrics that try so hard to emulate rebellion against an “other,” the hypocrisy of bands that turn out to be an exact product of the industry they rebel against, and the overall low quality of music that pop punk bands produce.

Punk music, the origin of pop punk, rose in popularity in the late 1970s, emerging mainly from the United Kingdom. Bands often used their song lyrics to overtly express political ideologies against consumerism, nazis, and government officials in an explosive violent artistic expression. The Saints expressed their distaste for consumerism with the song “Know Your Product” (1977), shaming “cheap advertising” and the mass consumption of cigarettes. Dead Kennedys wrote the song “California Uber Alles” in 1978 to satirically criticize California’s governor at the time, Jerry Brown, by comparing him to Hitler in Nazi Germany. Bad Brains wrote “Banned in D.C.” to convey their frustration of not being accepted as musical artists in their hometown of Washington D.C. and “Don’t Need It,” a song condemning consumerism. The list of those with messages they send through punk music goes on and on, with The Slits and The Clash and The Sex Pistols and Public Image Limited and Bikini Kill and Fugazi.

Despite punk’s progressive forefront, it’s important to keep in mind that it took years for punk musicians in marginalized groups to get the acknowledgement that they deserve. Punk and riot grrrl movements have historically been overpowered by white musicians. These white musicians were often hypocritical in their mission statements, practicing their own racial prejudice and homophobia despite shouting lyrics that condemn it.

In the early days of punk, the genre was overrun by the white male artists that occupied every corner of the music industry. In the shared frustration of women, bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Sleater-Kinney began the riot grrrl era. In this new genre of punk, female artists could safely discuss their frustrations of being a woman in a world dominated by the patriarchy. These women reclaimed punk music on the basis of sex, making women more inclined to join the punk scene. However, the white women in this movement severely lacked intersectionality, leaving women of color to fend for themselves in the punk scene.

It took a second movement, and the societal acceptance of black punk bands, for people of color to become more integrated in the punk scene. Bad Brains, an all-black and all-male punk band, was responsible for shaping the forefront of punk music, and still had extreme trouble being accepted into the punk scene. Venues constantly canceled on the band, other punk musicians refused to support them, and the group was altogether ignored from the punk scene in the late 1970s. Bad Brains worked hard to distinguish themselves as a talented group of punk rockers, eventually leaving their mark as one of the most influential punk bands of all time. Bad Brains pushed the limits of what society expected of black music groups, combining funk, rock-n-roll, metal, and punk in their music, seen most clearly in one of their early albums, I Against I (1986). They inspired musicians such as the Beastie Boys and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to explore new genres and make music that broke the racial barriers in place at the time. Bad Brains proved that punk had no limitations, and could be whatever the artist intended; a mindset which truly shaped the next generations of punk and the entire genre of music.

It took even more of a push to include women of color into the fold of punk. X-Ray Spex was one of the leaders of women in color in punk, releasing the album Germ Free Adolescents in 1978 and working to bring intersectionality into the punk movement. Main vocalist Poly Styrene discusses her battle with belonging in the UK punk scene as a biracial woman in her song “Identity,” setting the scene for more women to feel seen in the punk movement. More recently, Honeychild Coleman, founder of the Sistagrrrl Riots and lead singer of the band The 1865 that revamped the riot grrrl genre in 1998, put the spotlight on black women who were left out of the riot grrrl scene. The 1865’s album Don’t Tread on We! (2019) shows the ongoing presence of black women in the punk scene. She ensures that listeners do not forget about the women that were often overshadowed by white voices in the peak of punk listening.

The legacy of political punk continues in modern music with bands like The Linda Lindas. A group of half-Asian half-Latinx young girls bring the spirit of the riot grrrl era back to popularity with politically motivated lyrics. Their most famous single, “Racist, Sexist Boy,” was their claim to fame in 2018. The Linda Lindas went viral for their covers of famous punk songs like “Rebel Girl” by Bikini Kill, which eventually led them to open for the band in 2019. The feminist and anti-racist ideologies that The Linda Lindas convey through their music prove to listeners that the soul of punk is still well and alive, and a new generation of talented female artists are using it to make an impact on the music industry.

The lyrics behind songs like “Racist, Sexist Boy,” “I Against I,” and “Identity” were and continue to be a valuable tool for rebellion, giving marginalized groups a platform to speak out. Even more than the lyrics, the subculture surrounding punk is even more politically and socially active. Centered around concepts of being anti-nazi, anti-racism, and pro-individuality, members of the punk community are outward in their opinions, wearing nonconformist hair styles and leather jackets covered with pins and patches expressing their morals and political and economic ideologies. The concept of punk was to create a space safe for individuals to express themselves without fear of bigoted judgment. Even through the rise of pop punk, this legacy continues with bands that still believe in the power of music and the subculture behind punk.

Pop punk took the sound of punk music and diluted it for the purpose of selling records to young teenagers who felt like they needed somewhere to belong. Music should always have a purpose, like punk’s purpose of bringing people together into a community of misfits. The problem with this case, is that record labels do not care about the community of fourteen year old “emos” it creates, but how they could profit from the tweenage misery we all experience. Pushing out bands with meaningless lyrics and a subculture promoting self-harm, self-hatred, and isolation from the world allowed record labels to sand down the meaning behind punk music to create a cheap and pointless genre of music. The commodification of punk is a tragedy, one that unfortunately resulted in Panic! At the Disco and Blink 182. Maybe there was rebellion and angst in the beginning years of pop punk but as the genre progressed, it turned into yet another way for record labels to find artists that fit the image of a trendy punk rocker and push out vapid records, using the image of the more consequential historical punks to sell the music. The lyrics of these records focus on vague examples of rebellion through sexuality, drug use, and self isolation, things that a writer at the label probably found edgy and just rolled with.

Exhibit A: The Tramp Stamps. At first glance, a band of three women going for the dyed hair-alternative-pop punk look. The Tramp Stamps are an all female pop-punk group who took to social media to promote their music. However, their newly dyed pink and blue hair were quickly exposed to be a formula, partnering solo pop artist Marisa Maino and two other female pop artists with record deals together in order to find success under the image of punk. These alleged industry plants were heavily criticized for their pivot to the pop-punk image that showed how truly overused and vapid the “pop-punk” look is. They pose as a great example of this made up form of rebellion in pop punk, using vulgar lyrics to pose as some sort of form of revolution, when in reality, songs like “I’d Rather Die” don’t truly say anything about society. Tramp Stamps complain about the sex lives of women, but do it in a way that makes little sense, bashing the “straight white guys” that the women continue “hooking up” with. In a way that doesn’t truly rebel from anything, these straight white women make little sense on a majority of their songs, closing this one by listing generic white male names.

In Panic! At the Disco’s earliest album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out (2005), the band portrays themselves as a standard “emo outcast” group, releasing songs with little meaning and high pitched vocals, mostly regarding sinning and the occasional drug overdose. In the song “Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off,” lead singer Brendan Urie belts about the sexual habits and fantasies of teen girls, asking “testosterone boys and harlequin girls” to “dance to this beat and hold a lover close.” In this strange, lyrically disturbing song, Urie says “let’s get these teenage hearts beating faster,” confusing the listener and exposing the predatory nature of the singer. This album is clearly aimed at younger teens, or anyone craving some meaningless angst, and each song is less significant than the last. It poses sexuality as a tool of rebellion and a gateway to the belonging of the pop punk scene. In the context of “teenage hearts,” this message comes across as off-putting and exploitative to the more mature listener. The band discusses sinning often, posing a sort of mimicked rebellion against something that is never really solidified. Panic! At the Disco’s producers decided to take punk’s image, and some of its sound, and use it to manufacture a band that appeals to depressed tweens looking for a role model. In the song “A Casual Affair,” Urie refers to his sexual escapade as “a lover on the left / a sinner on the right,” of course referring to himself as the sinner. He often uses this as a description of himself, as if being a “sinner” is what exiles him from society. What “sins” are Brendan Urie committing? It’s never quite clear. Though taking influence from the punk scene, Panic! At the Disco is a prime example of how capitalism has overtaken the message of rebellion in music, and reshaped it to conform to the desires of young impressionable listeners, thus ruining the original intent of punk. Panic! At the Disco makes its living off of rebelling against this unelaborated “other-” one can only assume is the “industry” or some other vague all ruling power. However, they fall into hypocrisy by making millions in the hands of their record label that spoon feeds them content to push out into the same previously mentioned “industry.”

The genre is no longer the expression of rebellion that it used to be. It has been commercialized and sent to the public as watered down teenage angst. Bands release terrible music in order to sell records, profiting off of the original punks who changed the music industry with their political lyrics and anarchistic sound.

Punk is ultimately about resistance, against bigotry, wealth, the music industry, society as a whole. Pop punk does its best to emulate this message, but falls short in its attempts by pushing out meaningless lyrics, commercialized looks, and subpar guitar riffs. Combatting pop punk is a difficult task, how can one protest an entire genre more than I already have by silently hating it? I can only stand by as more misunderstood thirteen year olds fall victim to the screeching complaints of My Chemical Romance and Paramore. It is important, however, to uplift those voices that are trying to bring the sounds of punk back. Listening to groups like Sheer Mag, G.L.O.S.S., and Downtown Boys supports this new wave of punk music, created for everyone and continuously breaking barriers of race, gender, sexuality, and ability. Bringing back punk is not just listening to bands like these, but also acknowledging the forefront of punk and the history of punk rockers that created change in the industry. So, if you absolutely have to listen to “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” by Panic! At the Disco because it transports you back to the simpler times of middle school, it’s important to remember the washing away of the meaning and social rebellion of punk at the hands of capitalism and remember the true origins and progressive attitude of punk music.

 

Article by Annie Wynner

Photos by Gus Stewart, Jay Calderon, and Amy Dixon