By Uday Bhardwaj
My Chemical Romance getting back together was on no one’s bingo card in 2019. However, here we are, a couple weeks out from their show at the 2024 When We Were Young festival, where they performed all of The Black Parade from cover to cover. And that’s just the surface. Through WWWY, we can see that pop punk and emo continue to thrive today, simply with a newer coat of paint.
Just look at the 2023 headliners Green Day,who had some “controversy” surrounding their track “American Idiot” in the past year or so. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has taken to changing the lyric “I’m not a part of the redneck agenda” to “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda” during performances, in response to the new political formations present in the US. The trenchant critique of right-wing politics is still there, just updated for a new era. This application of old styles to new topics can be seen in their newest release, “Saviors,as well. Songs like Bobby Sox, Dilemma, and One Eyed Bastard have insanely memorable hooks, making them perfect arena rockers just like their other classics. However instead of saying “Sieg Heil to the President Gasman” like in 2004’s “Holiday,”the trio reminds us that “TikTok and taxes” are the only constants in our modern lives in “The American Dream is Killing Me.” After the recent election results, there is no doubt that Green Day will continue their political bent with their signature sound as the backtrack.
Green Day and MCR aren’t the only old heads headlining WWWY; Blink-182 did so in 2022, and are set to do it again in 2025 after a very successful arena tour. The trio, now featuring 100% more Tom DeLonge, released a deluxe edition of their most recent album in 2024, aptly named “ONE MORE TIME… Part-2.”The juvenile lyrics and bright catchy choruses are unmistakably from their earlier genre defining work like “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket” and “Enema of the State.” Some may call it safe and derivative. I personally am in love with it. The track “All In My Head” perfectly represents Blink’s new modus operandi. On drums, the always reliable Travis Barker graces us with tight snare rolls. Meanwhile, DeLonge opens the track shredding his butt off, eventually transitioning into those classic Blink power chords for the chorus, providing an excellent backdrop for the call and response with Mark Hoppus. As for lyrics, both Tom and Mark somehow manage to weave a complex emotional narrative about the isolation of being a touring band at this age, while also getting in one masturbation reference apiece. This is clearly a more mature Blink, but they haven’t strayed too far from their roots.
Those who have switched it up though, have done it to massive success. MCR’s 2024 co-headliners, Fall Out Boy, released the album So Much (For) Stardust Last year. It features amuch grander sound than their other post-hiatus efforts. Songs like “Heaven, Iowa” and “Heartbreak Feels So Good” have dreamy, imposing production complimented with PatrickStump hitting high notes that would make any tenor blush. However, it’s also much poppier than their earliest albums, like Take This To Your Grave, and seems less to be less of a big venue sing-along album like American Beauty/American Psycho,”what with the grand narratives and spoken word tracks such as “The Pink Seashell” featuring Ethan Hawke. They seem to have struck a happy balance with their sound, appeasing both elder emos and the Zoomers of rock TikTok.
However, the future of the genre is not in the creaky bones of the bands of the aughts, but rather in the new generation. Bands such as 2023 WWWY alumni Waterparks have succeeded at redefining the genre, fusing punk, pop, and industrial for a modern audience. Their 2021 release Greatest Hits has tracks such as “LIKE IT” and “Fuzzy,”with beatboxing and slide whistles reminiscent of a 100 Gecs song adding to the dazzling guitars and screams of punk. It just goes to show how exciting the current state of the genre is, with something for everyone. From topical lyrics and arena rockers, to penis puns and power chords, from hatred of Dubya and Dick to Elon Musk shoutouts and ethereal auto tuned vocals, pop punk has shown it isn’t dead. The leaves may have fallen off at one point, but the cork tree still bears fruit.