What happened to catchy pop punk? • Page 7

Rap has new innovation every day

The idea of rap is broader than, play some fast power chords and sound like youre in high school

 

Hip hop is the most innovative genre in popular music and has been since the 80s

 

Simply because of the way it's created guitarless music has a wider potential for diversity.

 

Rapping about weed, money, and rims is highly innovative

 

Ignoring the weird, racially-coded stereotypes, if that's what you feel hip hop is solely about I suggest reading some more about it/listening to artists.

 

I don't know you but I know you're better than this/don't actually believe this is all rap is about.

 

Yeah dude youre looking in the wrong place. Just like the best pop punk isnt the most popular the best rap isnt the most popular.

Though actually id argue better rap is getting popular these days than what has been the last 10 years. Kendrick Lamar, Sonny Shotz and Earl Sweatshirt got me back into hip hop. And im not even big on Kanye like most people.

 

Dude, what the fuck.

 

And see heres the thing. The four i mentioned above are all still very much considered hip hop despite the new things they bring to the table.

The minute pop punk starts being innovative, its not pop punk anymore. Its post- something. Or something -core. Or alt- something. Or prog- something. Or indie- something. The minute a band breaks the mold of pop punk power chords and drum fills and third/fifth-interval vocal harmonies, people immediately start re-classifying it.

That tells me the genre is limited. I say this as someone who used to love this stuff and made a pop-punk album himself. You cant do that much without changing the formula that the pop punk genre is tethered to.

Im honestly glad the trend is dying and youre hearing more young musicians try to refine their vocal style. Rather than forcing notes out of the front of their throat (again, i did it too) and damaging their vocal cords while sounding like squirrels breathing helium. It was fun while it lasted but ultimately its kind of a superficial trend in music and im glad to see it dying out. Ill still always love the same bands i loved in high school but the problem is i dont see anyone doing this music style better than they did.

 

exactly this

you don't really think that way, you know how to appreciate shit, don't push this way just to "win" an argument

hip hop is beautifil honest music

(p.s. we all here love pop punk too, that's why we're here)

 

Haha, I was partially kidding, I am aware of underground hip hop. I do like some rap, but saying it's the most innovative genre since the 80s is kinda stupid, especially taking into account all music (not just pop punk) with instruments that require an actual knowledge of music theory.

 

that literally is insignificant (re: musical knoledge)

notwithstanding, it is also incorrect

 

lol b/c the Ramones knew anything about music theory and I'd say it worked out pretty damn good for them

 

i'd say making beats requires more music theory than instruments because you can't just flail around and make noise and make people think that's good

 

Also pop punk really does not require music theory, its actually some of the easiest kind of music to just write intuitively with no professional training and thats why it got popular to begin with

 

I've only read the first page of this thread, but I've wondered the same thing. Jason made a reference to songs like "My Friends Over You," "Best of Me," "Online Songs," etc. and I often wonder if I just consider pop punk to sound like those songs, so I look for those massive hooks and overlook the pop hooks in today's music as a result. That's possible, but the fact is there are definitely not many songs like that today. I could spin Allister's Last Stop Suburbia from beginning to end and it's just loaded with crazy good pop hooks. I don't really hear stuff like that in the "pop punk" genre anymore.

 

I just realized no one has posted this album yet:

what the fuck is wrong with us

 

This. The late 90s early 2000 sound was just so much fun. I never ever get tired of hearing the good pop punk from that period, but I enjoy very little of what comes out today. It just isn't catchy and doesn't evoke that same feeling like the old stuff did. And I'm not talking from a nostalgic view either, it's much more than that.

I echo previous comments in that not every band or genre has to be some deep, groundbreaking shit. The overwhelming majority of music isn't that anyways, it's all derived from things done previously. What I care about is bands doing that style well and making enjoyable music.

All genres are cyclical and maybe pop punk goes back to that sound. If not, I'll still have those records to enjoy.

Btw it's nice to have a rational discussion about pop punk without all of the elitist put downs and snide comments from people who are "above" the genre. Also nice to see others like me who still enjoy the old classics and jam them, regardless if they like the new wave of bands in the scene.

 

I think I'm fairly alone in this belief, but I think some State Champs songs are damn catchy. They also write a fair number of songs that are totally run of the mill, boring modern pop punk too, but there are some gems in there.

 

I actually agree completely. They are a band that you can see has all the tools, but to me is just missing consistency. I think Derek has a great voice.

 

If they embraced the pop side I think they'd be a lot more successful. Drop whatever edge they're trying to project and just write hooks.

 

guys, check this out

The 100 Best Pop Punk Bands

 

why the hell is Brand New number 9? lmao

 

Two things:

1. "Catchy" is not the same thing as "pop." I think a lot of people are conflating the two. TWY, State Champs, Real Friends, even Knuckle Puck and TSSF, have all written plenty of catchy songs. I agree that modern pop-punk is less pop and more punk, though, and that modern pop-punk bands can't write pop songs like those older pop-punk acts.

2. If songs like "The Best of Me" or "My Friends Over You" came out today, the commenters would all call them "generic" and say that pop-punk is so played out/dead/whatever. I see it happening to bands that are even trying to branch out with their sounds (last week was all about how the new Moose Blood was "super generic," despite that album sounding not at all like their own older songs and anything else young pop-punk/emo bands are doing now). I think a lot of us look back on that era with rose-colored glasses because we were young then and aren't now. I mean seriously, even blink-freaking-182 was criticized for putting out a blink-182 record (how many people made fun of the "na na's" and "oh oh's?").

 

I wrote a little bit about this thread in a 10-year piece about the first Boys Like Girls record.

Boys Like Girls - Boys Like Girls • chorus.fm