TIDAL Primer: 2020s Pop-Punk Revival

Willow may have introduced herself to the music world with the pop hit “Whip My Hair,” released when she was 9, and shared her more soulful side with works like WILLOW and The Anxiety, but on lately I feel EVERYTHING she’s showing off the range of her rock propensities. The album features blink-182’s Travis Baker on three tracks, including one, “G R O W,” that also boasts a guest spot for the pop-punk foremother herself, Avril Lavigne. “From 13 to 16, she was my idol,” Willow shared with V Magazine. “It’s really nice to be able to have a quintessential pop-punk record with the pop-punk queen.” Smith also dug into her desire to lead by example, adding, “I just hope that the Black girls who are listening to my music and listening to this album see that there’s more of us out there. It’s a real thing; you’re not alone.”

Pop-punk would be nothing without the over-the-top, attention-grabbing theatrics of its musicians, and rock itself would be nothing if it weren’t for the misfits who cling to the music, the only place they feel like they belong. So it’s no surprise that YUNGBLUD is ruling the pop-punk revival, what with his ability to speak directly to his diehard fan base while donning a rotating hue of highlighter-colored hair and bright-cherry lipstick. With musical elements running the gamut from hip-hop to punchy guitar rock, and acutely aware lyricism dealing with nuanced sexuality and political unrest, weird! is a defiant, quick and fun return to an age when punk was not only a glamorous means of expression but a voice for the voiceless.

Mia Berrin, the singer-songwriter who is the core of the Brooklyn-based foursome Pom Pom Squad, wrote the band’s debut album, Death of a Cheerleader, after experiencing her first queer romance and realizing she’d been living a life that wasn’t her own. That full embrace of everything she is can be heard in the youthful diatribes of “Head Cheerleader” and “Lux,” which find her revisiting her teenage self, as well as the Motown melodies and in-your-face punk attitude in songs like “Crying” and “Drunk Voicemail.” On those tracks, Berrin can bring to mind the diverse legacy of artists who paved the way for her sound — from ostracized women like Courtney Love to unsung legends like the queer Black guitar goddess who invented rock and roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Meet Me @ the Altar created the band they wished existed when they were growing up as fans in the pop-punk scene. And with the August release of their debut EP for Fueled by Ramen, Model Citizen, the three young women of color will be making the kind of records they wished existed as well. The EP’s lead single, “Feel a Thing,” is a playful pop-punk jaunt fit for an arcade, but beneath the good times is a very serious, very welcome mission statement. “I hope [Black and brown folks and women] see that since we’re doing it, they can do it too,” vocalist Edith Johnson told me for a TIDAL profile early this year. “And that doesn’t even necessarily mean only music; that [revolves] around anything they want to pursue in their life. ‘You can do this. What’s holding you back? You’re just thinking too much.’ And I hope that’s what they see when they see us.”

Having Travis Barker play drums on your album may be a pop-punk rite of passage, but having him co-produce it? That’s how you stay in the pop-punk canon for life. With his fifth studio album, Tickets to My Downfall, Machine Gun Kelly dug deep into early ’00s radio-rock sounds, and though fans of his previous rap albums were surprised by the guitar-driven tracks, plenty of new and old listeners embraced the change. On the strength of singles including “Bloody Valentine,” “Concert for Aliens” and “My Ex’s Best Friend,” Tickets rocketed to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and MGK was granted the official credit for bringing pop-punk back to the forefront. 

Jaden Hossler, who performs as jxdn, was already picking up pop-punk accolades before his newly released debut album, Tell Me About Tomorrow, even hit streaming platforms. He was the first artist to sign to Travis Barker’s DTA Records after garnering attention via his massive TikTok following. Still just 20 years old, jxdn certainly made smart use of his social-media savvy to get ahead. But with a surplus of hooks, production by Barker and blink-ish highlights like the Machine Gun Kelly feature “WANNA BE,” his album could’ve kicked ass at the height of the CD era too.

Speaking about his Minnesota upbringing, singer-songwriter-rapper Mod Sun told Billboard, “If I wanted to find people that liked what I liked, I needed to go out and find them. They’re not coming to me.” And find them he has. His circle includes friend and collaborator Machine Gun Kelly, his co-director on the viral film Downfalls High, and Avril Lavigne, with whom he shares writing credit and a microphone on the powerful punk ballad “Flames.” The song features on his album Internet Killed the Rockstar, which, ironically, includes 11 tracks that prove rock stardom is alive and well. 

The importance of singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo’s No. 1 Billboard hit album Sour in the pop-punk conversation cannot be overstated. Considering she snuck in through the side door with her behemoth love ballad “Drivers License,” fans had no idea that the 18-year-old had a hard-edged pop-punk album up her sleeve. With abrasive guitar tracks like “Brutal,” where she sings, “Who am I, if not exploited?” and “Good 4 U,” where she wields pop-punk vocals with a power we haven’t heard since Paramore’s “Misery Business,” the Filipina-American ex-Disney star is reminding the world that punk-rooted rock is a form of expression everyone can understand.

Baltimore-based quartet Pinkshift’s track “I’m Gonna Tell My Therapist on You” went viral during the pandemic, for a couple of reasons: one, they had a captive audience who found the topic relatable; and two, the high-octane track is pure ’00s pop-punk nostalgia packed tightly into less than three minutes. In April they released their debut EP, Saccharine, adding to that hit the pop-punk jaunts “Mars,” “On Thin Ice,” “Toro” and “Rainwalk.” As the singer in a pop-punk band that features people of color, lead singer Ashrita Kumar understands how important their presence is to the scene. As she told SPIN, “We have gotten messages saying, ‘This is so cool and it makes me feel seen.’ I think, honestly, if there was any measure of success, that’s success.” 

With the release of his breakout EP, How Will I Rest in Peace If I’m Buried by a Highway?, and the adrenaline-laced punk-rock single of the same name, Midwest-born-and-bred music-maker KennyHoopla immediately drew comparisons to acts from the early aughts. With his latest release, he’s taking that aesthetic a step further, collaborating with (you guessed it) Travis Barker for an eight-track “mixtape” called Survivors Guilt. Its anthemic rockers, like “Estella” and “Silence Is Also an Answer,” seem better suited for a stage than for your earbuds — just in time for the post-Covid return of touring.