Pop punk (also known as
punk pop and other names) is a
fusion genre that combines elements of
punk rock with
pop music, to varying degrees. It is typically referred to as a strand of
alternative rock that combines
power-pop melodies and chord changes with speedy punk tempos and loud guitars.
[1] This is also used to describe the
emo sound, and often the line between emo and pop punk is blurred.
It is not clear when the term pop punk was first used, but pop-influenced punk rock had been around since the mid to late 1970s; performed by bands such as the Ramones, Buzzcocks, The Jam, The Undertones, and Descendents.[2][3][4][5][6][7] Bad Religion, who started in 1980, were another early band to play the genre, and some consider them godfathers of pop punk.[8][9][10] In the mid-1990s, the Northern California-based pop punk bands Green Day and Rancid as well as the Southern California-based pop punk bands The Offspring and Blink-182, achieved worldwide commercial success. From the mid-1990s onwards, some bands associated with the genre have been described as happy punk, faux-punk, mall punk, pseudo-punk, bubblegum punk, emo or surf punk.[11][12]
The pop punk style emerged at the onset of punk rock around 1974, with the Ramones; however, it was not considered a separate subgenre until later. The Ramones' loud and fast melodic minimalism differentiated them from other bands in New York City's budding art rock scene. Protopunk and power pop bands had also helped lay the groundwork for the pop punk sound. An early use of the term pop punk appeared in a 1977 New York Times article, Cabaret Tom Petty's Pop Punk Rock Evokes Sounds of 60's.[13] By 1977, punk rock had already become a much more active and concentrated movement in the United Kingdom than in New York City. Buzzcocks, Generation X, 999, The Jam, The Rezillos, The Lurkers, The Undertones, and The Shapes featured catchy melodies and lyrics that sometimes dealt with relatively light themes such as teenage romance. Many mod revival bands also displayed pop punk leanings.
By 1981, hardcore punk had emerged in the United States, with louder, faster music than punk bands. Vocal harmony, melodic instrumentation and 4/4 drumming were replaced with shouting, discordant instrumentation, and experimental rhythms. A few bands, such as Descendents and The Vandals, began to combine hardcore with pop music to create a new, faster pop punk sound, sometimes referred to as popcore (or skatecore). Their positive yet sarcastic approach began to separate them from the more serious hardcore scene. The term pop punk was used in the 1980s, in publications such as Maximum RocknRoll, to describe bands similar to Social Distortion, Agent Orange, and TSOL.[14]
