You might be thinking “Why has pop music been sounding different?” You might miss the Katy Perryera, but now, a grungy guitar and drums at 150 beats per minute is running the scene.

Pop Punk/Alternative music has recently made its revival and influences the production of power chords and drums in popmusic. In the 2010s pop punk music had its decline, while electronic music had its rise. It first became popular when GreenDay, Blink182, Paramore, and Avril Lavigne jump started pop punk music to be mainstream. Unfortunately, many of those bands have stopped working somewhere in the last 10 years. (Shown below is Blink182 performing,2013.)

Pop Punk in 2021-Beginning of 2022

 But now these bands influence the top songs on the billboard. On September 25, 2020, former rapper Machine Gun Kelly released “Tickets to my Downfall” , a pop punk alternative album, with features from rappers Trippie Redd and Iann Dior. The album went certified platinum (sold 1 million copies). The album also dominated the international charts. The Album Peaked at #1 on the Billboard 200, the Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums, and Canadian albums. The entire album was produced by Blink182 drummer, Travis Barker, which gives it a 2000’s sound. A promoted single track on the album, “my ex’s best friend” went to 10 on 7 charts. The song was considered a “pop-alternative hit”

In April 2021, Willow Smith (Will Smith’s daughter) released a pop punk song called “transparent soul” Once again, another pop punk hit with Travis Barker on the drums. Willow impressed many with hertalent on this song. The song was popular on TikTok, where it got 620 million views.

On May 14, 2021, former Disney star Olivia Rodrigo dropped “good 4 u”, a pop punk radio hit. The song was debated as to what genre it was, fans did not believe this was a pop punk song, or “real” pop punk.

The song is at a tempo of 167 beats per minute with a calm guitar and hard snare drums playing on the drop. People spoke about the similarity the song has to 2007 pop punk hit “Misery Business” byParamore. Months later, Olivia Rodrigo gave songwriting credits to Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams and guitarist Josh Farro.

This song broke the charts, peaking at #1 on +26 charts. The song is still on charts today, almost a year later, being on the Billboard 100 for 45 consecutive weeks.

Avril Lavigne was a famous pop-punk artist in the 2000’s and faded away from the charts around2013. Many long-time Avril Lavigne Fans believed she lost her sound in the decline of pop punk music in the2010s. In July 2021, she released “GROW” with Willow Smith, her first pop punk song in years, produced by Travis Barker. Later, in November 2021, she released the single “Bite Me”, produced by Travis Barker. The song was commonly on pop radios and got top 20 on multiple school charts.

Connection to Hollywood and Pop and Rap music

You might not know, but the late rapper Juice WRLD and XXXTentacion’s music was inspired by pop punk music. Juice WRLD’s main producer Nick Mira often added electric guitar riffs and chords into hismusic. His 2019 album (Death Race for Love) fell under the “Rock” genre. The mix of an electric guitar, drums and trap/rap sounds was new to the rap scene and shocked many. Nick Mira was also a producer on Machine Gun Kelly’s “Tickets to My Downfall” Nick Mira continues to produce for rappers and artists, such as Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Tecca, Gunna, and Young Thug.

On June 18, 2018, rapper/artist XXXTentacion died, the death shocked the rap world. Six months later, his first posthumous album was released. The song “On Minute” on the album has a hard, grungy guitar riff that runs the whole song. Travis Barker also plays drumson this song. Kanye West raps a verse about a ‘dark’ reality.

A lot of rap and pop artists share producers with Pop punk artists. Guitarist and producer Omer Fedi has made many pop hits from electric guitar chords. He’s made many pop hits you have most likely heardbefore (Mood- 24KGoldn , Stay The Kid Laroi, my ex’s best friend-Machine Gun Kelly, Lil Nas X’s debut album, etc.)

Pop Punk music is continuing to grow. Avril Lavigne released the album “Love Sucks” on February 25, with features from Mark Hoppus (Blink182 lead singer), and Machine Gun Kelly. Travis Barker plays drums on the entire album, and was one of the writers. On March 25, Machine Gun Kelly released album “Mainstream Sellout” which has more of harder punk sound, again Travis Barker was the main producer andplayed drums on the whole album.