Post by trashcanman on Feb 25, 2014 20:46:20 GMT 2
Question of the week: how do you define what is punk and wha is pop when a pop band uses a punk sound or a punk band goes pop? Ask ten people, get ten answers. For example, let us gaze upon these three men.
Blink 182 indubitably made waves in the Orange County punk scene, the last bastion of flourishing punk rock. One of the few places where it still breeds in numbers and arguably the most vital community in the history of the scene. Only New York even comes close and that was almost forty years ago, and including mostly bands you really had to stretch to consider punk. Southern California's scene was all punk, all the time. No Blondies, no Talking Heads, just Descendants, Bad Religions, and Fears for miles around.
So Blink was defined by a punk sound and featured simplistic music that made other punk bands look like progressive rock acts. And the guitarist hadn't really even mastered his own songs, either. When I saw them, he was sloppy as hell, even playing stuff I could teach a person who'd neve rpicked up a guitar in their life in about a minute. So that's pretty punk.
After making it big on MTV and rock radio with a nice string of rockin' hits, the band felt a need to spread their creative wings a bit and released 2003's self-titled album. When a band with several releases comes out with a self-titled album, it typically is meant to symbolize a rebirth. First albums are often self-titled, so when a band does this, get ready for a departure.
In Blink's case, the departure was from punk. band members had been exploring their influences in side projects and when they came back together they decided to make something different. The album included a duet with Robert Smith, and I think only one doofy upbeat rock song, I'm Feeling This, that sucked shit and was clearly only recorded to appease the label with a single and get them to release the rest of the songs.
Most off the songs were moody acoustic-based songs utilizing piano, classical instruments, melancholy melodies, and led by creative beats from their exceptional drummer. This was certainly not the same band. After listening to bands like Refused and Fugazi, they'd decided that they needed to so something new. Something better. This week's song is I Miss You, and features a video full of darkness, lesbians, creepy forests, and wolf spiders. Why? Why the fuck not?
I actually kind of love that album as a whole. It's certainly not punk. It's blatantly pop and it's actually better in my opinion.
Blink 182 indubitably made waves in the Orange County punk scene, the last bastion of flourishing punk rock. One of the few places where it still breeds in numbers and arguably the most vital community in the history of the scene. Only New York even comes close and that was almost forty years ago, and including mostly bands you really had to stretch to consider punk. Southern California's scene was all punk, all the time. No Blondies, no Talking Heads, just Descendants, Bad Religions, and Fears for miles around.
So Blink was defined by a punk sound and featured simplistic music that made other punk bands look like progressive rock acts. And the guitarist hadn't really even mastered his own songs, either. When I saw them, he was sloppy as hell, even playing stuff I could teach a person who'd neve rpicked up a guitar in their life in about a minute. So that's pretty punk.
After making it big on MTV and rock radio with a nice string of rockin' hits, the band felt a need to spread their creative wings a bit and released 2003's self-titled album. When a band with several releases comes out with a self-titled album, it typically is meant to symbolize a rebirth. First albums are often self-titled, so when a band does this, get ready for a departure.
In Blink's case, the departure was from punk. band members had been exploring their influences in side projects and when they came back together they decided to make something different. The album included a duet with Robert Smith, and I think only one doofy upbeat rock song, I'm Feeling This, that sucked shit and was clearly only recorded to appease the label with a single and get them to release the rest of the songs.
Most off the songs were moody acoustic-based songs utilizing piano, classical instruments, melancholy melodies, and led by creative beats from their exceptional drummer. This was certainly not the same band. After listening to bands like Refused and Fugazi, they'd decided that they needed to so something new. Something better. This week's song is I Miss You, and features a video full of darkness, lesbians, creepy forests, and wolf spiders. Why? Why the fuck not?
I actually kind of love that album as a whole. It's certainly not punk. It's blatantly pop and it's actually better in my opinion.
