Checked Shirts, Band Merch and Skater Skirts: My Pop-punk dilemma

You guys should have seen me this weekend. Proudly donning my Primark boyfriend flannel shirt, a twenty one pilots tee and flirty little skater skirt number from ASOS. Come to think about it, I don't know if The British Museum was the best place to wear this outfit. It was weird wearing this kind of apparel because while it might not be the kind of outfit I were all that often, I did look in the mirror

and feel as though I looked like a stereotype, and I genuinely felt like I belonged to something.

I can safely say that pop­-punk is my favourite genre of music. In my (relatively short) time, I have delved into and experienced a ton of different music style, but at least for now this is the one that is really sticking with me. I believe my love affair started back in late August when I went to Reading Festival 2015. I only went on a day ticket and I went by myself, because none of my friends were cool enough to come along (yeah, let's go with that). I essentially attended because my two favourite bands, Bastille and Panic! at the Disco, were both on the main stage bill on the same day. But in between these acts were two other bands I knew little to nothing about. First was a band called Neck Deep. A hardcore punk­pop bank from South Wales, their set was lively but didn't really move me at the time (I think I was a little too earlier in the day for all that shit.) Later in the afternoon, after the

exhilaration of Panic!'s set, came All Time Low. This was a band I'd heard dribs and drabs about in high school but decided to look up prior to the festival so I could look like I knew what I was doing. I quite promptly became hooked. Their live show cemented my appreciation for them; energetic, funny, carefree and just well performed.

Ok, so you're thinking "where does the 'dilemma' bit fit into this lengthy anecdote?” Well, the thing is all the reasons I love pop-­punk kind of contribute to the problems I have with it. Now before this festival, I already adored bands that I guess were famed for being at the forefront of the 2005 “emo” movement. But after Reading, I delved much deeper into this weird, new world and from that point, as is in my nature, I began to microanalysise. To be honest with you, I’m having trouble filtering my thoughts at this point into a cohesive, well-­written opinion article. Maybe it’s my imbedded pop-­punk instinct stopping me from writing anything bad about the genre. But anyway, I think the best thing at this point would just be for me to list my issues, and expand later.

Problems I have with Pop-­punk:

The stereotype associated with the genre

It takes itself too seriously

The army of (sometimes) blindly dedicated fans

Judgemental fans that like to jump on you for anything they don’t agree with

See? – Microanalysise. I’m gonna cut this whole thing off kinda soon as it seems like I have a lot more to say than I thought. But here is the Dilemma. The very same thing that most hardcore fans adore about this genre – myself included ­- is its sense of community. The ‘scene’ that has the ability to support one another, whether you’re an underground band or an suicidal teen or some going through their 20’s depression. However, these same fans can be very, very intimidating. It’s not so bad for me because I have thick skin. But some 12-­year-­old year living a sheltered life in Pennsylvania who just felt in love with Twenty One Pilots but is being called an “fucking poser” just cause she found the band because of ‘Stressed Out’ – that’s gonna hurt. True be told, this combination of keyboard defenders and the fact that I feel like the fans act like their too good for me leaves me feeling a little alienated.

That’s it. That right there is the term I’m looking for. I. Feel. Alienated.

My specific tastes in things has always meant that I’ve never really fit into one solid place (hold off on the violins, please).  Upon finding pop­-punk and its tight-knit community, I thought I’d found something I could truly identity with – outsiders united, and all that. But apparently, it’s too tight-­knit for me to be a part of. I’m not trying to sell a sob story and I don't want to start some fucking revolution in the pop­-punk scene . If you knew me, you’d know that I don’t measure myself by other people’s standard and I simply do what I like, regardless of others' judgements. It was just important for me to get this out and self-­assess where I stand. I still love pop-­punk’s message of “if you’re different, you belong here.” But once I get ‘here’, what then? I have to find a happy medium of not being part of some vicious guard and going out in my checks, my t-shirt and my cute little skirt

and not feeling like a pretender.