Punk In Depth. Part 3: The 90's, Emo, Ska, And Pop-Punk

Disclaimer: For the purposes of this article, the defintion of pop-punk is as follows. Pop-punk is a subgenre of both pop and punk, mixing both. Pop-punk is pop music done in the punk musical style and with punk instrumentation. Pop-punk is not used as a derogatory term. I, personally, am a fan of several pop-punk bands. There will be no flaming of pop-punk in the comments. If you don't like pop-punk, tough. It's a part of punk history and will be included in this unbiase history article. Thank you.

In the 90’s, there was a sweeping movement that brought rock, particularly punk, to the mainstream. Pop-punk and grunge broke out onto the scene and, with help from the rising success of MTV, became an unstoppable force in the music industry. Hardcore punk had begun to die away in popularity though, resulting in many subgenres that stretched away from hardcore styles, but much of the scene remained in tact.

Nirvana was a grunge band that started to gain popularity in the early 90’s, led by front man Kurt Cobain. With MTV’s help, Nirvana became one of, if not the, biggest band in modern rock. As a result, grunge became a huge US success, making Cobain and the rest of Nirvana pop icons. Kurt eventually committed suicide, though there is speculation of murder committed by his wife of the time, Courtney Love. Dave Grohl, the former drummer of Nirvana, went on to form his own band, the Foo Fighters, who enjoy much modern rock success. Grohl also performs in the band Queens Of The Stone Age, who has also earned popularity in the modern rock genre. Nirvana were not the only grunge band of the 90’s, Eddie Vedder’s Pearl Jam were another popular grunge band. Today, grunge is mostly considered dead but some bands like Puddle Of Mudd and Nickelback play with a similar sound and feel to grunge.

Grunge was not the only punk subgenre to evolve and enjoy success in the 90’s. Emo, short for emotional or emotional punk, was a melodic, thoughtful, and emotional (har de har har) punk subgenre that began with the 80’s bands Rites Of Spring and Husker Du. Emo is often confused with pop-punk, but has several dissimilarities that set the genres apart. Bands like Dashboard Confessional enjoyed much success as emo started to thrive amidst the “post-punk” 90’s scene.

Ska too, grew large in the 90’s. Ska bands like Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Less Than Jake started to receive radio airtime and got large followings during the 90’s. Ska in the late80’s and 90’s was referred to as the “Third Wave Of Ska” or ska-punk. Ska-punk had truly started to come about in the late 80’s, but was largely an underground movement led by bands like Fishbone. Sublime was a 90's ska-punk band that recieved something closer to a cult following at the time. In fact, Sublime were arguably the most famous ska-punk band of the 90's. They are usually grouped with the pop-punk explosion, but had too much of a ska/reggae influence to be considered pop-punk.

Most prevalent of all the punk subgenres of the 90’s, pop-punk began to take the mainstream music scene by storm. Green Day were the first, starting in the early 90’s with hit albums like Dookie. Later in the 90’s and into the new millennium, bands like Blink-182, who emerged with their huge album, Enema of the State, began to share the spotlight with Green Day. This explosion led to a huge amount of punk bands signing to majors, a far cry from the 80’s norms. DIY was still large, but major labels had begun to overpower small indie labels at the time. Pop-punk is and was met with mixed reactions by punk fans. Many punks got into the scene because of pop-punk, but a large majority of punk fans chose not to embrace punk’s rising popularity, regarding pop-punk bands as “sell-outs.” Today, bands like Simple Plan, Sum41, and Good Charlotte lead the genre along with Blink-182.

Punk in and of itself also grew in popularity thanks to a boom in sales for Epitaph records style bands like Pennywise, Bad Religion (a member of which, Brett Gurewitz, started the label in the 80’s), Millencolin, Offspring, and Nofx. Skateboarding had emerged as a popular sport during the time, and these bands represented the musical movement of the sport (with exceptions, of course). For this reason, these bands have been referred to as “skate-punk.”

The skate-punk and ska was coming mostly from the west coast, particularly in the SoCal area. This makes a bit of sense really, seeing as Epitaph, the leading skate-punk label, was located there. The east coast was coming out with more of the emo sound. This, too makes sense, seeing as emo started as a melodic offshoot of the hardcore scene. Do you see how the history flows, children? Good.

To cap it all off, punk began to branch into many subgenres, which had begun to establish themselves in the wide ranging sounds of the 80’s. Hardcore had a slight decrease in popularity, but emo, ska-punk, and pop-punk enjoyed huge success in the 90’s (these trends continue today, with the possible exception of ska-punk, which has fallen slightly). The DIY scene is still quite large, led by bands like Toxic Narcotic. Hardcore street-style punk has also had quite a rise, led by bands like The Casualties and Kill Your Idols. Political messages in music did not stop, but since there was significantly less political turmoil under Clinton (with the exception of “Lewinskygate”), the genre did not have as much popularity, a trend that is changing very rapidly today.

The 90’s were probably the first time that punk rock and its subgenres had maintained a spot on the mainstream music charts. This success continues today, despite the boom in hip-hop that came at about the same time. These trends are continuing now and show no sign of stopping in the near future. In fact, if anything, punk’s popularity is showing sings of continued as the new millennium presses on.

In order to avoid confusion, I will explain the difference between emo and pop-punk. Emo is a very deep, thoughtful, emotional offshoot of punk. It tends not to be as catchy as pop-punk and is very melodic. Pop-punk is really just pop music done with punk instrumentation. The themes sometimes intermingle, but in general (there are always exceptions) emo tends to be much deeper than pop-punk. Pop-punk is much lighter and catchier than emo, and

This concludes the Punk In-Depth series. Next up is Punk in the Third World (if I can gather up enough information). After that… Fu--ck if I know. I’ll think of something.

"It's the only thing that's living to me. I shall live and die and be judged by it." - Joe Strummer (On Rock and Roll)

“Just turn all the knobs to 10!!!” - Joey Ramone.

- Mr. Lucky

Comments

[HallucinoGenic]

Great how you the article is (almost) unbiased. good job

[LastRockShow]

awesome article....very well written.

[MrLucky77713]

Woo-hoo! It finally got posted! This is probably the most controversial time period of punk outside of today. The reason is the pop-punk explosion. I was hesitant to mention pop-punk at all, but it IS punk, and therefore is a part of punk history.

[DParis]

a punk article that includes Good Charlotte and Blink 182.....ahahahahahahahaha

haa

There will be no flaming of pop-punk in the comments. If you don't like pop-punk, tough. It's a part of punk history and will be included in this unbiase history article.

Don't be thick.

[JoeMacFadzen]

First of all, Great article, the whole series was great. And secondly, "Gasay," even if it was written by a high school kid, he still did a kick ass job, so until you can do a better history, stop complaining. also, punk isnt just about playing a few power chords, its about getting a message across, proving a point, and having fun. The types of chords used shouldn't be grounds to insult an entire genre because most great punk bands are extremely talented.

[the_beastly_one]

First class article!

[dookie_86]

nice article

[ILIKEMUSICALOT]

yeah, awesome article. dont judge punk by what types of chords are played. All that matters is that it sounds good, no matter how you play it.

[MrLucky77713]

Gasay...I AM a high school kid. I'm a 15 year old sophomore. NO FLAMING POP-PUNK. Jesus. It's right there in the article. Let's not start a punk/power chord argument either...

[life_247]

is emo punk?

[threestorybrad]

yeah i like just about all types of music in some way...punk is alright but the muscian quality is lower and i think you all know that

[emokid101]

sublime ***in rocks

[emokid101]

and they are sure as hell not pop pukn, ***ing losers

[frigginjerk]

the comments on this article are being moderated. y'all can shut yer yaps.

[Mack56]

Good series. Some of the series articles on this site should be made into books or something.

[just some guy]

this article makes me smile...

i'm gonna go listen to every style of music you just mentioned...i like being forced into appreciation in a non-negative way...

[MrLucky77713]

Emo is a punk subgenre really. Sorry I didn't mention your favorite band...Not really... I'd flame CS...but soon enough FJ will probably delete the comment. That, and it's just too stupid and clearly a violation of what I asked from everyone for comments here. "Big fat floppy donkey dick" How original...I have no idea where you got that one coughSOUTHPARKcough...

[harm0n20]

nice article. good job lucky

[Tcurtis]

very very good article. your whole series is awesome. i like the quote from Joe Strummer at the end. R.I.P. to all those mentioned in the article who have passed (ie. Kurt Cobain, Joey Ramone, Joe Strummer, Brad Nowell) 5 Stars.

[three.chords]

i didnt read the last few paragraphs but good article

[bean_brain]

I like it man, good job with the impartiality.

[Son of Spam]

Good job on being unbiased, great article.

[undead_bunny]

good article! R.I.P. Kurt, Joey, Joe, and Brad!!!

[CasualtiesArmy]

Good article. Look forward to the next one

[emokid182]

yea this was a very gooda article. Coulda mentioned a couple more emo bands of today besides dashboard, but that's just me. very good article

[Wyldey Rhodes]

I dont like this article,

[Wyldey Rhodes]

well its alright, ill read the rest of the series, but it seems its lacking much material, it mentions a few bands but doesnt really give a backround, or is this article meant the just skim, if you're gonna do an article go head to toes man, well good job on the unbiased part

[Molodov]

Good, unbiased, and well punctuated. Just the way I like 'em. No, really. Very good article. Enjoyed the entire series.

[Rocker3829]

Great article and series man, i'm a 17 yr old junior and I couldn't touch this series. May not mention all the bands but you mentioned the most important, though I dont like Punk for many reasons, still a great job.

[brOWniE dRug]

dood good job this is the only part of the series i've read, but from what everybody else said, you musta worked pretty damn hard. good job bro

[scumfuc_69]

Nice job, not too good not too bad....
however, the 3rd paragraph has nothing to
do with that the article is about...

[frigginjerk]

once again, all pop-punk posts have been deleted.

[boxcarblink41]

Nice job, not too good not too bad....
however, the 3rd paragraph has nothing to
do with that the article is about...

lol oh yeah your right

[azateleking]

nice one

[4stringshredder]

Wow...this is really rare; an article about punk that is (for the most part) impartial and objective. Finally, somebody has written an article that has a purpose other than to plug the author's favorite bands.

I abosolutely detest every form of punk, but this article is respectable, and I actually learned from it. (I had no idea what the hell ska was) More articles on UG should be like this.

[Jerman]

You guys just ruined my day by completely disregarding MrLucky's no-flaming request, Christ. Shouldn't have read the comments, totally contrasted a stellar article. Great writing, Lucky.

[MrLucky77713]

^Thanks man. Really, with FJ's modding, this commentary is mostly constructive.

[wAnNabE47]

Good old joey Ramone.....

[hobo8917]

pretty decent article

[nasty_santa409]

nice article.

[KevinHallX]

the only dissagrement i have is when you say that ska is dying out, it seems to me that ska is picking up more than ever. though that might just be in my town. other than that great article. good to have some objective work now and then.

[MrLucky77713]

^You would actually be right. Ska is really starting to pick up. Compared to the other listed genres though, it is lacking. That will probably change soon...

[fenderbass]

Disclaimer: For the purposes of this article, the defintion of pop-punk is as follows. Pop-punk is a subgenre of both pop and punk, mixing both

lol....no sh*t retard

[MrLucky77713]

^ No, really there are like varying definitions. Some people think it's just punk that got popular and sells a lot of records. Or it's any band that isn't "hardcore." You can get some fucked up responses from people if you don't set down a clear definition.

[slyguyty]

Hmmm....Sunny Day Real Estate is def. the band that pretty much started emo....

[MrLucky77713]

Noo, it's mostly accepted that it was Rites of Spring, Sunny Day Real Estate was huge though

[SuicideToast]

good article!!! sublime rock!

[Ecalecalyse]

oh crap a 15 year old, that article was amazing, especially so for a kid your age. great research. great article 5 stars

[Myke_AKA_slash]

i never thought of greenday as "pop punk" they just seem to have somthing intelligent to say besides girls and booze...

[Ddevil]

nice article

[XNiRvAnAX]

whats he going on about nirvana being pop icons?!?!?!?!

[The Jin]

fine piece of work you got here man

[Mark]

really good article, keep up the good work

[Chen928]

Read everything, holy crap.

I can't write a research paper like this to save my life.

Very nice unbiased view.

[ultimate_punk]

good article Lucky, liked it a lot. It was impartial and well written. good job.

[punkrokker182]

nice article by the way

[punkah]

good, but no mention of rancid?

[uragooch33]

yea dude hes not gonna get everyband cause you be sitting there for tree hours reading the names of bands so go to the rancid website if you want to see there name on the internet

[eliromero13]

i like the quote from joey ramone " just turn all the knobs to 10"
it,s great because it's so true

[lp_mayer_guitar]

eliromero13:
i like the quote from joey ramone " just turn all the knobs to 10"
it,s great because it's so true

That caught my eye also

[noob4lyfe]

much lighter and catchier than emo, and

This concludes the Punk In-Depth series.

Great conclusion

[green_man_gr]

great article

[MrLucky77713]

In the 70's, punk wasn't DIY. That didn't happen until the 80s. Punk isn't dying. Read up a bit and learn your history, GC_scumpunk. The Clash needed no DIY roots, the movement didn't exist. And if the Clash ruined punk, it would be long gone by now. I still see punks and punk bands, so I guess they didn't ruin it...

[Lord_Xian]

nice article, i was pretty much up on emo, but what about this' X-tremo stuff ive been hearing about? whats that all about; is it just emo with drugs?

[MrLucky77713]

Extremo? Sounds to me like you maybe mean scremo? It's a mix of hardcore and emo, so there's more screaming and stuff.

[thesums4eva]

this was an excellent article although i wouldnt consider nickelback a grunge style band

[SDGuitarist]

I also think this is a good article but i wouldnt consider grunge and emo part of punk. Its sad to hear that pop punk is in punk's history.

[ahdokboy]

5 stars.

[hellohello34761]

i hate punk, any kind of punk. But i know good writing and this is excellent, whoever wrote this should write for rolling stone or something

[TheAxeAbuser]

gppd article.
but there was no mention of rancid - `one of the all time TRUE punk bands.
all todays rubbish like good charlotte and blink 182 are cheeep copies when compared to rancid.
ill will give you 3 out of 5 stars.
peace

[TheAxeAbuser]

the first word is suppose to say (Good) hehe

[MrLucky77713]

^Rancid was mentioned somewhat well in the 80's. I guess that's the deal about series work, people who don't read all of it think you forgot something. Oh well.

[anykindapunk]

I think this article is great! Pop-punk is still punk so everyone needs to stop tryin to act all bad-a** and give it up! you know you love it all!

[ilikebigmacs@mc]

heavy cool cool coy

[egor]

Myke_AKA_slash:
i never thought of greenday as "pop punk" they just seem to have somthing intelligent to say besides girls and booze...

LOL i listen to them alot this year but i never refered them (for myself) not to punk rock and not to pop-punk ,i referd them to some alt' rock , or something like this .....

[182degrees]

Soz to be a retard, but is 'ska' pronounced like it looks like start of the word "skab", or is it like skae as in the start of 'skate' or what?
Great article btw!

[rawbread]

ska as in la with an sk....earlier someone mentioned pop punk being a mix of pop and punk and that some people just consider it being less hardcore. so what constitutes a pop sound....i would think it would be just stuff that was less hardcore and catchier. but i just want to say that whoever said they hate punk because it was just aout booze and girls you can **** off..i dont even like punk but its not becuase its about booze and girls. id say alot of the lyrics are politically based or about how much the system sucks. um..i thought this article was totally cool but id like to see something about indie sometime or maybe how alternative grunge ska emo and indie all emerged into the scene.
good advice for anyone...buy the new mouse cd good news for people who love badnews. it kills all

[punkrockdude2]

theres no such thing as pop punk they just call it that cuz its popular....duh.....long live social distortion and sex pistols!

[madvillebassist]

i think all punk (except emo) is being overtaken by rap, sell-outs, and emo. i hate rap, sell-outs, and emo, but i kinda hope punk goes back underground and doesnt get popular. i hate mtv too
www.outofnowheremusic.com

[Harmonius]

I can't believe this guy wrote an article on Emo, without mentioning Jimmy Eat World, the creator...

[«ÃFireÏnside»]

i think this articles pretty good....except for ska-punk bands you might want to add in Operation Ivy(the former band of 2 members in Rancid) to the mix, as they did taht way back in 87-89....nonetheless good article

[MrLucky77713]

wow...some real idiots left comments...

punkrockdude: You're wrong. Read the article again.

goodnite: What the hell are you talking about? I'm pretty sure you're joking... A: This article wasn't about just emo. B: Jimmy Eat World didn't invent shit. Rites of Spring invented emo back in the harDCore scene.

[ma)(payne]

k.....Blink 182,Offspring, and Greenday(I still think greenday is) were all punk bands, anyone that disagrees just doesnt get the point, have u heard old blink 182 ? before travis was the drummer, they were a punk band, and greenday still is a punk band, I'll argue that forever...

[MikeLikes2Rock]

The only pop-punk band I like is Green Day. Simple Plan and Good Charlotte aren't even good enough to be considered poppunk. It should just be...I don't know. I just hate most Pop-punk bands.

[monkeyspks]

my favorite article about punk/pop punk/ whatever. great job.

[RockNRollGuy420]

awesome

[piss_off]

MikeLikes2Rock:
The only pop-punk band I like is Green Day. Simple Plan and Good Charlotte aren't even good enough to be considered poppunk. It should just be...I don't know. I just hate most Pop-punk bands.

actually pop-punk isnt bad at all. real pop-punk is just happier more melodic punk. real pop-punk is like nofx or bad religion.

[nofxnofxnofx]

^^^ i disagree some of nofx's newer stuff is more poppy but listen 2 ribbed or 1 of theyre older albums and that is not pop

[piss_off]

dude! did you even understand what i just said? pop-punk is punk! its just happier and NOFX, all of it, is pop-punk. Good charlotte, simple plan, or any of those corporate MTV wannabes are not pop-punk, they are rock.

[fher182]

Very Good!

[soankeyman820]

its nice-really nice!!!-though i wouldnt place great bands like sum 41 in the smae category as SUPER pop sell-out bands like simple plan and good charlotte. skate punk-the best in my opinion. tho u forgot to metion the lead to all of this (like 80's straightedge band minor threat) tho that mite be in part 2, i havent read that yet. tho piss_off is wrong: BAD RELIGION IS NOT POP-PUNK!!!..

[smiles77]

good job Mr fuzzy!

[Woh]

that was a great article

[EvilDomo]

awesome article!

TAKE THAT POSERS!