The saying goes, you either had your emo phase or you are still in it. Most people can think back to their early junior high and high school days and remember listening to bands such as Blink-182, All Time Low, My Chemical Romance and many more. On the other hand, some people (myself included) still listen to these bands, and it brings them a sense of nostalgia. So don’t put up your vans and black skinny jeans yet, pop-punk is not dead quite yet.
In 2012-2013 the band 5 Seconds of Summer brought a new light to “punk” music. They said that they looked up to bands such as Blink-182 and All time low and suddenly, all these newer fangirls are listening to the bands that were considered “punk-pop” or “punk-rock.” Skipping ahead to 2021 now, Travis Barker, the drummer for Blink-182, has brought his help to newer artists and is bringing good punk-pop music back to mainstream radio.
Obviously a big celebrity, anything that Travis Barker touches is going to get attention. Most recently, he has collabed with artists such as Machine Gun Kelly, Trippie Redd, and even Lil Huddy. When someone like Barker is put on a project like those, it makes older fans want to listen as well as younger fans who may just be a fan of the other artist who may not have known who Travis Barker even was.
Not only is Barker featured on many musical projects, he also is a producer with his own label called “DTA Records” where he has produced for Machine Gun Kelly (Tickets to my Downfall is still the greatest album), Trippie Redd and most recently, signing jxden. All of these artists have songs or even full albums that have that old punk-pop sound we all know and love. With the help of social media apps such as TikTok, singers are able to get their music out there faster and make it a trend. My favorite trend was when everyone was doing the cough for All Time Low’s “Dear Maria Count me in.” Hence, the reason artists such as Lil Huddy and jxden are blowing up. Since they already had a large following, it was easy for them to get people to listen to their music. For older people like myself who may not be into Lil Huddy, seeing him work with an artist like Barker really gave me a different perception of him and got me to listen to his new music—which is actually pretty good.
All in all, the sound genre of punk-pop will always be one of my favorites, and it makes me so happy that an artist and drummer as talented as Travis Barker has taken a chance on these new artists and is bringing the sound back to mainstream radio and making it popular again. By doing this, he is making a younger group of fans listen to the genre which then makes them want to listen to the older bands such as Green Day and Fall out Boy. So, punk-pop is NOT dead, and we should all listen to Travis Barkers new projects—you may even find your new favorite song.