Last night, due to the Simpsons being pre-empted by a showing of Ice Age, I chose to watch myself some VH1. Despite the fact that I was really enjoying the re-run of the top 100 one-hit-one-wonders when along came an ad for their Big In ’04 special.
Now, this particular ad forcused on nominee Green Day. I have no problem with Green Day. I bought Dookie way back when and played it until the cassette wore out. My quibbles are not with them. My quibbles lay within VH1’s copy writing department. In the little ad, Green Day are referred to as “the godfathers of punk-pop.” Um, pardon?
Sure, Green Day broke the gates down for bands like Blink-182, Good Charlotte, and countless others. They were the first punk-pop, pop-punk, whatever, to break into the mainstream. I’m not gonna dispute that fact. Godfathers, though? C’mon, please… if we’re gonna talk “godfathers”, we have two contenders for the title.
Number one would be the Buzzcocks. Arguably, they were the first ones to make really poppy, catchy songs with a punk feel. Listen to “Orgasm Addict” or “I Don’t Mind” to get an idea of what I’m talking about. Our second contender, and a more likely candidate, would be the Descendents. I’ve talked about these prototypical SoCal punkers before. Their style of pop-punk is what every act from Green Day to Simple Plan to New Found Glory to those guys playing in the basement next door owe their sound to. Seriously… “Suburban Home” and “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” sound just as fresh today as they did when they came out.
If any bands are going to be declared godfathers of the pop-punk movement in music, it should be either of these folks. Not a band that has liberally borrowed from both.
what a shameThe fact that you are referencing VH-1 and their in depth analysis of genres is a travesty in itself. Maybe they came to their decision based on mainstream sales and airplay, not local basement bands when they made that claim. James Brown was the godfather of soul, but do you really think he was the first one to do it well? I can see an old black man sitting on his front porch drinking lemonade right now screaming like a barber in Coming to America. \”James Brown ain’t no godfather oF soul. James JOHNSON, now that boy sang soul before James Brown knew how to comb that afro!\” Would you feel better if I named you the godfather of rants, because wow.
Ass\”local basement bands\”?Man, I’m not THAT fucking elitist. Hell, when you get right down to it, pretty much every pop-punk band is ripping off the Ramones.
NOFX….I agree with you with regard to the Buzzcocks and the Descendants, but I think people often miss the influence that early NOFX had on the overall Socal scene. They never sold the records that Green Day has, but they’ve also never tried to. That said, I’ve very much enjoyed the new Green Day album, though I don’t put it in my punk folder, lol. It’s a new mature edge for them, and it’s nice to hear someone rail intelligently about the problems in the world rather than whine.
Umm…Yeah, my ass… and Backstreet Boys were the first boy band. What about the Dead Milkmen? I’d certainly classify them as pop punk and their first album came out in like 1982.
jealous!!I’m probably responding to a completely ancient post here, but this reminded me of the time a friend and I fell asleep at a Descendants show.. It was a few years back at 1st Ave in Minneapolis. Bouncing Souls & Swingin’ Utters were both great.. but when the Decendants came on we both ended up falling asleep sitting on that low brick wall that runs along the concert area. =P