Pop Punk Predictions: The End Of An Era

The past half-decade has been quite the tumultuous one for alternative music. Pop punk, previously thought of as a throwaway genre for pre-adolescents has been given a new life in today’s alternative landscape. Unfortunately, it seems as if the genre’s time in the limelight might be drawing to a close, or at the very least shifting significantly. Between State Champs touring with 5 Seconds Of Summer and Neck Deep cracking the UK Top 10, 2015 was most definitely an amazing year for pop punk. However, the aforementioned bands have a far more carefree, upbeat sound than the artists which have dominated pop punk over the past few years. As 2016 dawns on us, I felt it necessary to open a dialogue on the future for these bands, and see if they can make a career for themselves after the tr00nami finally crests. Let’s start off with one of the higher profile bands in the scene…..

The Wonder Years

With the release of their latest album No Closer To Heaven, it seems as if The Wonder Years are finally ready to ditch the pizza, crewnecks and khakis of yesteryear and move into the fabled realm of “real music”. Just one glance at any of the songs on the album reveals Soupy has taken his penchant for songs about old white people in the 1940’s to the extreme. There’s nary a single major chord or d-beat to be found anywhere within the album. The Wonder Years now resemble the kind of run-of-the-mill alternative rock band that would play to twenty-something beardos and get a positive write-up in Brooklyn Vegan than your average pop punk outfit. It almost makes you forget these were the same guys who wrote a song about the Kool-Aid man beating up Cap’n Crunch at one point.

The Story So Far

It’s honestly hard to tell what The Story So Far will do in these dire times. They seem to have pushed their stangry, sadboi-baiting sound to the nth degree so there’s really nowhere else for them to go at this point. They could simply go back to their Under Soil & Dirt sound and ride the tr00 wave til it’s very death. If they followed their former pupils Neck Deep and joined the neo-mallpunk wave, that would presumably be the musical equivalent of throwing in the towel (not to mention it would basically alienate over 80% of their fan base). I believe TSSF should follow Trophy Eyes example and essentially become a hardcore band disguised as a pop punk outfit, that way they can retain their credibility amongst the 16-year old Tumblr users while also evolving their sound in the process. Basically the musical equivalent of having your cake and eating it too.

Man Overboard

Sadly, it seems as if Man Overboard’s time in the sunlight has come to a swift closure. Their last album was a confusing, boring mess that sounded way too much like Weezer-circa 1994 than any pop punk band nowadays. Man Overboard’s attempt to shake off the stigma of being a pop punk band in 2015 evidently backfired significantly, with Heavy Love charting far lower than their last album on Billboard. Once their contract with Rise Records expires, I could probably see them riding their career out for the next few years on some smaller label before the pressure of adulthood finally overwhelms their desire to play for crowds of 300 pizza-addicted teenagers night after night. For the band often credited with kickstarting the modern tr00 movement, it’s quite a shame to see Man Overboard’s career turn out this way. Expect to see various Defend Pop Punk shirts lining the discount racks of various thrift stores for the remainder of the decade.

Transit

Not only is the tr00 pop punk era drawing to a close, but it seems the fabled “emo revival” music-journalists have been creaming themselves over might be on its last legs as well. For Boston band Transit, this presents a problem. Despite various NFL-related airplay, the response to their last album was lukewarm at best. Given their propensity for walking the lines between both genres, the band have found themselves at a crossroads in their career. They could simply follow The Wonder Years example and go full Pitchfork-baiting indie rock. However, given the indie community’s general dislike for former pop punk/emo bands passing themselves off as credible artists, time will tell whether Transit can weather the fallout of the cresting wave of tr00ness.

Title Fight

Has their ever been a band with a worse case of multiple personality disorder than Title Fight? One minute they’re chumming it up with Backtrack and Rotting Out on America’s Hardcore, next minute they’re ripping Hum and trying to pass themselves off as a “shoegaze” outfit. Despite Hyperview sounding like something 4AD Records would’ve shat out in the early 90’s, things seem to be looking up for Title Fight. Along with former EZ-deniers Citizen and Will Yip butt buddies Turnover, Title Fight seem to be leading the charge for “former soft grunge bands trying to build a life after pop punk”. Give them credit, at least they know D-beats and songs about ex-girlfriends don’t exactly have a long shelf-life. Better to move with the times and risk getting left in the dust, week-old pizza slice in hand with a tattered flannel shirt adorning your back. Expect to see them at the Grammys accepting an award from Dave Grohl in the near-future.

Real Friends

I feel as if Real Friends will be the band most affected in the aftermath of the tr00nami. Most of these other bands had roots in less meaningful, less stangry forms of music (easycore for The Wonder Years, hardcore for Title Fight, etc.) However Real Friends are entirely a product of the 2010’s pop punk landscape, and I feel as if they will suffer the heaviest once the market falls through on the tr00 pop punk enterprise. Leaving aside the fact that their debut album was mediocre at best and didn’t hold a candle to their EP’s, there’s only so far you can go with sleepy eyes, bony knees and d-beats. Their Chicagoan contemporaries Knuckle Puck seem to do Real Friends better than Real Friends themselves can, while Aussie upstarts Trophy Eyes basically took Real Friends template of “pissed-off pop punk about ex-girlfriends” and pushed it to its limit. I honestly can’t see Real Friends with anywhere else to go. Once their fanbase grows up, it will definitely be hard for them to try and connect with the next generation of pop punk youth (which seems to be skewing in a far more lighthearted direction if Neck Deep’s latest album is anything to go by.) In their case, I believe Fall Out Boy said it best: “Chicago Is So Two Years Ago”…

Title Fight – Hyperview (2015)

Title Fight – Hyperview

Maturation is a disease that afflicts plenty of bands, and quite often causes them to go down the road of mediocre albums and incur change of audience real fast. Nowhere is this more evident than on Title Fight’s latest album, Hyperview. Back in 2011, Title Fight made their name with their debut album Shed, released on the hardcore label SideOneDummy. Shed was a speedy little pop punk album that bore quite a strong hardcore influence, akin to bands such as Lifetime or Have Heart and it captured the hearts of critics around the United States. Shed wasn’t a huge commercial success by any means, but it did allow Title Fight to develop quite a reputation in the American punk scene. Their follow-up album Floral Green ditched a lot of the hardcore trappings and contained strong alternative rock and shoegaze overtones, which diluted their sound quite a bit. However, it still had the same fiery punk spirit and gritty production of their early work in order to satisfy their fans.

For Hyperview, however, Title Fight have mostly ditched whatever semblance of hardcore and pop punk remained in their music, choosing to dive face-forward into the world of shoegaze. The tracks on Hyperview echo with enough reverb and breathy vocals, it’d make Kevin Shields cry tears of joy. “Chlorine” is a nice jangly tune, that probably would have been a great hit on MTV’s 120 Minutes two decades ago. “Your Pain Is Mine Now” is arguably the centrepiece of the whole album, a beautifully melancholic cut that evokes the breezy shoegaze of acts such as Galaxie 500 or Lush. The production on Hyperview is undoubtedly slicker and less grittier than Title Fight’s previous recordings, however it seems as if the band relies too much on the production. Lead singer Jamie Rhoden appears to have given up the barking vocals of earlier releases, opting for a softer My Bloody Valentine-esque cooing vocal style, typical of shoegaze singers. Unfortunately, this schtick gets old real fast, as does the album itself. Once the first five songs finish, Hyperview quickly descends into bland, monotonous shoegaze wankery.

Compared to the raucous and blistering melodic-tinged hardcore of their earlier albums, Hyperview is definitely a much more gentle and softer affair, and it suffers due to this factor. The jangling riff that opens “Your Pain Is Mine Now” makes you wonder whether Title Fight are closet Smiths fanatics, and Rhoden’s vocals really make you question whether or not he’s been listening to too much Ride. “Trace Me Onto You” with its driving guitar and vaguely pop punk-e is arguably the closest Hyperview comes to catching the upbeat and energetic spirit of Title Fight’s earlier recordings, acting as a decent throwback in the last quarter, amid a sea of dull reverberated guitars and little to no drumming.The songs all sound pretty enough, but there’s not a whole lot of substance to them. You get the feeling that the band compromised on the songwriting, just to make the production sound better and more spectacular in the process. The majority of the songs don’t stick with you at all, the album just sort of floats off in its own cloudy haze, there’s nothing to really grab you at all. Even with shoegaze, you still need a decent melody or groove in order to hook the listener in, and James Brown’s decayed corpse would have more groove in it than the songs on Hyperview.

Whereas Floral Green was a nice compromise between the more mosh-friendly hardcore and introspective naval-gazing alt rock, Hyperview takes the latter. If you’re a fan of acts like Pity Sex or Citizen, who similarly put a more punk influenced spin on the traditional shoegaze formula, then Title Fight’s latest album should be right up your alley. However if you’re a die-hard fan of the band and miss their grittier music, there’s not much to like here I’m afraid. Evolving an established sound can make or break a band and in Title Fight’s case, I sadly think that is has hampered them quite drastically. You could make the argument that Hyperview’s sleeker and slightly more commercial-friendly sound benefits the group, as you could easily picture half the songs on here making an impact on commercial radio. However, if they have to compromise their original sound in order to grow and mature like that, what’s the point? Sorry Title Fight, you’ve lost me on this one.

5/10

A Guide To Pop Punk

Like it or not, pop punk has shown to be one of the most versatile forms of punk rock to emerge, and it’s shown time and time again that it simply won’t die, no matter how hard people try to kill it. Whether it’s 5 Seconds Of Summer playing at the EMA’s, or a garage band covering “All The Small Things” in your local dive bar, pop punk is everywhere. And if you can’t determine your Set Your Goals from your Sum 41’s, I’ve compiled this handy little guide to the various pop punk subgenres contained within this weird and wonderful genre.

Orgcore:

Orgcore actually covers a lot of different punk subgenres, but since it mainly grew out of pop punk, I saw it fit to mention this here. Orgcore gets its name via the fact that bands in the genre tend to be beloved by the website Punknews.org, so the name is more tongue-in-cheek if anything. Sonically, Orgcore bands tend to borrow a lot from genres such as emo, folk punk, indie rock and post-hardcore, and sometimes even all at once. The genre saw its unofficial beginning in the late 90’s, when San Francisco punks Jawbreaker broke up and a crop of bands influenced by them began to pop up and make their mark on the punk landscape. Simply put, if a band sound like they’re a Jawbreaker tribute act (or in some cases, a Superchunk tribute act), they’re most likely an Orgcore group. Key bands in the genre include the pride and joy of Gainesville, Hot Water Music in all their donkey-braying, twin-guitar employing glory. Alkaline Trio, before they fully embraced Hot Topic and became whatever the hell they are now and Against Me! before they recorded Transgender Dysphoria Blues. Orgcore bands also tend to embrace a DIY ethic and definitely fall more on the punk side of pop punk. Modern bands such as Joyce Manor, Tigers Jaw and Lemuria have carried on the Orgcore sound, and given it a fresh indie makeover, fit for Gen Y consumption, making sure that the genre won’t be going away soon.

Easycore:

Easily the funnest subgenre in pop punk, easycore has a multitude of ways you can define it. Also known by the names popcore or happy hardcore (actually a totally different genre, but I digress) at its most basic it’s simply pop punk with breakdowns. But at its most advanced, it’s pretty much one of the most insane and downright funnest genres in pop punk. The genre is generally agreed to have gained its name from New Found Glory’s 2008 Fall tour entitled “The Easycore Tour”, which also featured A Day To Remember and Four Year Strong as support acts. These three bands essentially form the trifecta of modern easycore, and influenced acts such as Set Your Goals and Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! in the process. Easycore contains much influence from genres such as metalcore and hardcore, with gang vocals and breakdowns being a prominent trait. Some bands such as Abandoned By Bears and Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! also prominently feature keyboards in their work, which can lead to a more upbeat and zany sound. Compared to most other pop punk subgenres, easycore definitely takes itself the least seriously, but in that respect it’s easily the funnest and most visceral of all the pop punk subgenres. Sometimes you just need something that’ll make you want to mosh to your hearts content, and there’s nothing wrong with that. When that time comes, chuck some Four Year Strong on and get ready for a beatdown in the key of happy.

Tr00 pop punk:

Coined by the humorous scene blog Stuff You Will Hate, “tr00 pop punk” refers to the wave of pop punk bands who’ve appeared in the last decade and taken the genre by storm.  The key thing that defines these types of bands would have to be their over-reliance on incredibly emotional and angst-ridden lyrics. True, angsty lyrics are a staple of pop punk as a whole, but these bands elevate them to a borderline emo level of annoying. Much like easycore, tr00 pop punk also features prominent gang vocals, but it forgoes the breakdowns and aggressive vocals for a more “traditional” pop punk sound. Key bands in the genre include The Wonder Years (post-2009), The Story So Far, Real Friends, Neck Deep and Man Overboard (pre-2011) It’s hard to determine the exact origin of tr00 pop punk, but I’d say The Wonder Years “The Upsides” and Man Overboard’s “Real Talk”, both released in 2010 were probably the catalysts for the genre as a whole. When you picture kids with ‘Defend Pop Punk’ shirts, and played out pizzacore memes, you’re probably picturing the average fan tr00 pop punk kid. Personally, I like it, but if the thought of Tumblr kids posting Real Friends memes makes you want to run for cover, you’d best steer clear of this one.

Ramonescore:

In 1976, New York based punk rock band the Ramones released what would arguably become the blueprint for punk rock, their self-titled album. Following this, the band released a string of great albums throughout the 70’s such as Leave Home and Rocket To Russia that would cement their legacy as punk legends. In the late 80’s, bands such as Screeching Weasel and The Queers would take the template that the Ramones had originally pioneered and give it a fresh update for the hardcore era, standing in stark contrast to the heavier contemporaries of their time. Throughout the 90’s, record labels such as Lookout! and Asian Man would release multiple albums by Ramonescore bands, furthering the genres appeal throughout the decade.  Ramonescore arguably reached its apex in the early 2000’s, when bands such as Teenage Bottlerocket and The Ergs! emerged and  Ramonescore often crosses over with Orgcore, so occasionally you’ll get bands like the aforementioned Ergs! who blur the lines a bit between the subgenres. Ramonescore can be pretty fun at times, but holy shit it is easily the most derivative out of all these genres (although, that’s kinda the point, to be honest) .Ramonescore is one of the more stagnant of these subgenres and has mostly fell out of fashion in recent years, since there’s only so far you can go with three chords and your best Joey Ramone impression. However, some great recent bands in the genre such as Masked Intruder have emerged lately, proving that there’s still room for those those infamous chord progressions and black leather jackets in pop punk.

And there you have it. Part 2 should come sometime soon, focusing on more pop punk related genres. Thanks for reading 🙂