http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen ... 0442c.html

One speedy genre
does a fast fade

Is punk-pop pooped out?


It looks that way. Four of the genre's former best-selling bands are falling down the charts.

Jimmy Eat World, the Used, Sum 41 and Good Charlotte — which all broke through or sold well with their last CDs — have seen their followups flag faster than they can change chords.

The result not only suggests the waning of this speedy and tuneful style. It points up the weakening power of rock radio to break albums without major help from a pop crossover.

Some of the groups have enjoyed major support frommodern-rock or mainstream-rock stations — to little avail.

Jimmy Eat World sold 1.3 million copies of its self-titled album from 2001, buoyed by the smash single "The Middle." But the group's latest, "Futures," doesn't seem to have any. After five weeks, it has plunged to No. 75 on Billboard's Top 200 Album chart, with sales of 212,413. This, despite hitting No. 2 on modern-rock radio with its song "Pain."

The Used, which moved 576,000 copies of its previous, self-titled work, languishes at No. 120 after seven weeks with "In Love & Death." The CD has sold 223,538 copies. Not only has the band suffered from shifting tastes in rock, it no longer has a juicy media story to sell. During its sales peak, singer Bert McCracken was going out with the then-red-hot Kelly Osbourne.

Sum 41's fortunes had been on a downward spiral for a while. The Canadian brat-rockers hit a peak with 2001's "All Killer, No Filler," at 1.8 million in sales. But its chaser — 2002's "Does This Look Infected?" — dropped to 620,000. The new "Chuck" has moved only 166,788 CDs in eight weeks. It's on the ropes at No. 105, though the song "We're All to Blame" went top 10 on modern-rock radio.

Good Charlotte has performed better than these other acts, but it hasn't had the radio support or buzz needed to get within a mile of its last album. "The Young & the Hopeless" pushed more than 3 million copies in 2002. The new "Chronicles of Life & Death" has taken seven weeks to sell 443,453 CDs. It's huffing and puffing at No. 64 on Billboard.

Showing slightly more promise in this fading field is Simple Plan. The Canadian band's "Still Not Getting Any" has been holding in the 20s and has sold 316,144 in four weeks.

The only punk-pop band that's approaching platinum status is Green Day with "American Idiot." Still, if you consider that Green Day long ago transcended the genre — and that its CD is a critical smash — the punk-pop connection seems less a boon than a liability.

as a fan of Real Punk (you know,Hard and Loud and Dark),this is some good news that all this girlieman suburban mall pop punk garbage is finally fading.

Thank goodness.



I hate that shit.

the only band in those 4 that is worth listening to is Jimmy Eat World.

those bands friggin suck thats why they have nothing of value to offer to the people. what the fuck does good charlotte represent besides shitty music, horrible vocals, and poser fashion. maybe if they get a couple more tattoos their albums will sell. once your are fucking seen dating hilary duff you are no where near even being considered rock music let alon punk.


but on the other hand i dont think it is going to end becuase besides the bands that you listed and some other horrible ones like simple plan and yellowcard and new found glory. there are other really good bands out there with real talent and lyrical vocal power that arent getting any recognition, bands like sparta, the mars volta, early november, taking back sunday, thrice, and thursday

I read that the tattoos are not even real.Even the tattoos are fake.In last month's Blender there was a funny picture thing of how the lead singer goes from a yuppy look (readng glasses,white shirt,etc) to the "punk" look of eye makeup,a million tatooes,leather jacket.Its absurd.

they dont take themselves seriously. They rule

TRL pop boybands pretending to be punk with their washoff tattooes and face makeup from their momies drawers.

I dont think bands like The Stooges and New York Dolls and The Sex Pistols took themselves seriously.But they werent TRL pinup posters for teenage girls either.They was angry and loud and anti social and stuff that top 40 radio or MTV would never play.

There are two schools of modern punk.The Nirvana version and the Green Day version.The Greenday version sucks.

If the Stooges had the chance, they would have pimped themselves on every MTV show they could find. Unfortunately, they spent their whole career so high that they got fucked over by everybody or in jail, so they never really got that popular.

Same could be said of Television, or any of Johnny Thunder's bands.

There was actually some Thrash on their latest album. Still too poppy for me but I won't discredit this band for the future. The rest can fuck off and die as far as I am concerned good riddance!

The Green Day version? Green Day's new album is as good as any that has been put out in any genre in recent memory. "Holiday" and many of the other songs on the album represent everything that is good about punk music. They get attacked for being the first punk band to truly enter the mainstream, but do not confuse them with bands like Sum 41 and Good Charlotte. As the article mentions, they have transcended the world of pop punk. As for Nirvana being punk, I totally disagree. They were a rock band with punk influences. To me, that is totally different from actually being a punk band.

Green Day = good

All other pop bubblegum mall adolescent mall punk = garbage

This is just sad. "Juicy mediastories" shouldn't sell records, music should.

Bands inspired by Green Day's success and trying to take advantage of it.

Anyone who calls Jimmy Eat World "pop punk" needs to pull their head out of thier ass.

My roommate is doing his part to keep it alive.

Those guys crashed and burned years ago.

agree but what was he doing dating kelly osbourne?
good charlotte and sum41 are moving away from that style in some ways and green day and to a lesser extent blink 182 already have.

Excellent point about Blink 182. Their recent album was quite a departure from previous efforts.