History of the Punk, Part III

Everyone knows punk rock entered the mainstream with Dookie (1994), an event made possible by Nevermind (1991), which was itself made possible by a decade of shitty metal.* So commenced a period in which California punk bands that had stubbornly weathered the 80s (Offspring, NOFX, Bad Religion, Social Distortion, Pennywise, Jawbreaker, Op Iv/Rancid) finally got their shot at the big time. Even NY hardcore heroes Sick Of It All made it onto Beavis and Butt-head. The Cali groups had already been tempering their hardcore roots with more traditional song structures, slower tempos and friendlier hooks in the DIY climate that prevailed prior to Dookie, and while the jump to the majors lent a new polish they largely retained their individual identities. This window of punk revival came to an end, as far as I'm concerned, when the Offspring released a chart-topping sack of shit titled Americana in 1998, a castrated and vapid moneymaker signaling that creatively independent punk would have to go back underground.

Of the bands that formed in that era 1994-1998 — kids inspired by Green Day's example — the most inoffensive breed of well-scrubbed pop punk was determined to be the most commercially viable. Blink-182 had formed in 1992 and so, like a sophomore to all the freshmen, was older by just enough to lead this young generation of soundalikes (Mest, Good Charlotte, Sum 41, New Found Glory, Yellowcard) bred for the spotlight by corporate record labels that had mastered the trick of "turning rebellion into money". Enema of the State (1999) is the definitive sound of the years between Americana and the invasion of Iraq, and contrary to the aspersions I'm casting it is a good record.

During those same Enema years 1998-2003 despite the prevalence of pop punk on the radio almost no new punk bands were formed that would go on to mainstream success. The drop-off between 1997 and 1998 is jarring.

Punk was brushed out of the spotlight in the early millennium by the garage rock and postpunk revivals, primarily because the once-profitable formula to which it had been reduced had become stale. Oversaturation. Eight months after Baghdad was tomahawked Blink released their final album. But many pre-Dookie stalwarts soldiered on to varied success, energized by renewed political convictions. Major releases of the Iraq war era include NOFX's War on Errorism (2003), Anti-Flag's Terror State (2003), Bad Religion's The Empire Strikes First (2004), Green Day's American Idiot (2004), and Leftöver Crack's Fuck World Trade (2004). Over in the apolitical circles epic productions have been en vogue, notably AFI's Sing the Sorrow (2003) and Decemberunderground (2006) and My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade (2006).

So that's the view from the charts. Now the interesting part is exploring everything happening beneath the charts, at the scattered campfires where the flame of '77 is rekindled.


* For a dissenting opinion see 80s metal apologist Chuck Klosterman. Thrash, black, and death metal are general exceptions to the shittiness rule.