Whenever I’m in a questionable mood, there’s a certain genre of music I always return to. As someone who was born in the early 90s and grew up around the millennium change, the early 2000s punk rock sound is the most soothing sound I can think of. And when I say punk rock, I’m not particularly picky on what I include in that. But at its core there’s a few bands that come to mind to me personally, all of which I’ve included in this playlist.
To start things off, there aren’t a lot of albums I can think of that have only good songs on them. There are artists I like more, and songs I like more, but I can’t think of an album that feels as complete as Greenday’s American Idiot. That made it very hard for me to decide on which songs to include. So I didn’t decide. Instead I added the entire album. When listening to this album I had to think about an interview James Acaster did on the British TV program Sunday Brunch. If you’re unfamiliar with either, don’t worry. He said that he always put music on shuffle “like he doesn’t deserve better.” and after that revelation he started listening to albums start to finish. And I’ve been the same for a long time, just go straight to an artist’s most played songs and ignore everything else. Not anymore. I’ve started listening to albums start to finish, and what better place to start than my favorite genre. I don’t judge anyone listening to this playlist on shuffle, but for those who want to (re) experience American Idiot in its entirety, the songs on the album are at the start of the playlist in their proper order.
Greenday isn’t the only band included. Other amazing artists in the genre are Fallout Boy, Paramore, My Chemical Romance, The Offspring, Good Charlotte and many more. But putting aside the old watch of pop punk and punk rock for a moment, I didn’t neglect the new wave of similar music. I debated putting 21 pilots in here as well, but for now I’m leaving them out, since they feel different enough. What I did add was music by Machine Gun Kelly and Yungblud. Both are relatively modern artists, with Yungblud rising to fame very recently. Their music feels like a revival of the genre and I’m a big fan of this movement. Apparently MGK’s song “my ex’s best friend” even won a prize at the VMA’s. Well deserved if you’d ask me. It makes sense that they are able to capture similar energy to the older punk rock songs since they are working with the legendary Travis Barker, the drummer from Blink182. I will continue adding songs to this playlist, so if it’s a genre that’s up your alley, definitely keep tabs on it. Now excuse me, while I start thinking of what genre to cover next month!
Opal Kaharis 