I know the joke is overplayed by now, but it’s still very true that if you yell “where are you?” into a crowd of millennials, there is a very reasonable chance at least a handful of people will respond with “and I’m so sorry.” I would probably be one of those people. The early 2000’s were a better time. Not good enough that a punk attitude didn’t warrant existing, but better than the absolutely depressing state the world is in right now. There’s a war in Europe, the middle east is still not stable, the demand for production to keep growing has destroyed working regulations in many countries and we’re all kindly turning a blind eye to it so we can have our new phones. The world is on fire and there’s a decent chance we’ll see serious consequences to global warming in our lifetime. And I don’t mean to imply they’re not serious already, but I worry they get much worse. And to top it all off, the economy is in shambles and finding a place to live is harder than overcoming the anxiety to pick up the phone. With all of this going on it’s no surprise that pop punk is back.
As much as I would love to pretend, I wasn’t a big part of the whole pop punk movement back in the day. I was into the music on a very surface level, listening to artists like Green Day, Blink182 and Avril Lavigne, but I had no idea about the messages behind these songs. I was barely a teenager when the genre last hit its stride so how could I have known. I only got a deeper understanding of the music many years later, when the genre had mostly gone. Fall Out Boy was one of my favorites, but even some of their newer music was a bit underwhelming (sorry Mania, there’s some listenable tracks on that album, but none stand out). Then right before the pandemic started we saw a little bit of a revival of the genre by artists like Machine Gun Kelly. He’s not the best at this genre and I’ll be the first to admit that some of his songs sound very generic. But this did kick off a whole new generation of pop punk. Now, there’s a good chance some of this music was already in production or at least being planned, but it still felt like the floodgates were opened. Artists like Mod Sun, Blackbear and Yungblud worked with old industry titans like Avril Lavigne and Travis Barker. Simple Plan is still making music and even made a fantastic song with Deryk from Sum41 called “ruin my life” that I could listen to for hours. Then there’s new artists like Charlotte Sands, Sueco and Olivia Rodrigo who make music that is in the genre or similar to it.
And that brings us to 2023. What is going on in 2023? Well for starters, Fall Out Boy came out with a new album and it was really good. I talk about it here but if you just want the highlights you should check out Kintsugi Kid or Hold me like a Grudge. We did get the news that SUM41 has broken up, but after this long that’s no surprise. Artists I mentioned above like Mod Sun, Avril, Charlotte Sands and Sueco are still bringing out bangers and most importantly, we’re getting more Blink 182. When Blink 182 released their song Edging last year, I wasn’t impressed. It sounded fine, but it wasn’t exactly memorable. I had to look up what the song was again to even include it in this post. But just the other day we got a new song from them as well. One more time. And hot damn is it a great song. It comes straight from the heart, it’s well written, sounds fantastic, has the Blink 182 crew back together on a song and is already effortlessly memorable.
II think with all of this happening at the same time, it’s safe to say that pop punk is having a big revival and it’s making me very happy. Where artists like Machine Gun Kelly started this wave, old legends like Blink, Simple Plan and Fall Out Boy are going to make sure it’s here to stay. The same rage against the world around us that spurred brilliance like American Idiot, Enema of the state and Three cheers for sweet revenge is still there. We’re still angry at the world for not taking us seriously and respecting our lives and opinions, and we’re still finding unity in the music we listen to. And to leave you with these lyrics from “bad day.”
I had a no good, really bad, messed up day,
And I’m stressed out, super sad, not okay.
I’m never getting better,
No, it’s not a phase,
And I like it that way.
Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 