Friday, March 20, 2009

A Question to the readers...

Okay, so a buddy of mine made a comment regarding Hofstra Concerts' booking decisions saying we never booked a punk band. I said we'd booked Bayside last year, a pop punk band, and then somehow a debate started as to what "pop punk" was. She claims it is merely punk music that is popular, I believe it to be music that contains elements of punk music while injecting itself with the conventions of pop music.

What do you think? Let me know because I am curious.

1 comment:

Adam said...

I have no idea who Bayside are, but for me, pop punk has always been the latter of your two suggestions. Wondering where to draw the line between "popular" and "unpopular" is difficult, but I suppose Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys are pretty popular right? Are they pop-punk? I sure don't think so.

Nah, pop-punk's roots, to my knowledge, began in the Ramones' adaptation of bubblegum pop into their music, and culminated with the Buzzcocks, melding the sugary pop melodies from '60s garage bands and '70s power pop and boy-girl-relationship lyrics and injecting speed and punkish attitude into the mix. Unfortunately, pop-punk gets a bit of a bad rap nowadays since it's by and large radio-friendly schlock with some asshat singer shouting about "conformity" or "the government" or whatever. But way back when it was a glorious thing! And there are surely some good pop-punk bands getting the formula right these days, I just can't think of them off the top of my head.

That's my two cents at least.