Wiki pop-punk: Wikipedia provides a general definition of Pop-punk music as well as a fairly detailed history beginning with the start of punk rock and moving up through to present times. The featured article allows for a brief glimpse into the evolution of Pop-punk, not just information on its current manifestation. It includes the names of a few bands that helped begin the movement and those that made it more popular with direct links to more information on those bands as well.
Not Sad Anymore: How Pop-punk Recaptured It's Spirit is a fairly cleverly written article metaphors some of the better known pop-punk bands to well known comic book heroes. It gives some good descriptions of the music of the bands it mentions in terms that are easy to grasp. It does have the taste of bitterness as the author discusses their opinion on the decline of pop-punk music and then the subsequent come-back, but if you take that with a grain of salt the rest is still very informative. The main site itself has reviews, interviews, and editorials on all kinds of different music, so if you wish to go adventuring, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
Last FM: Turn up your volume! This link will open a streaming radio station playing you non-stop pop-punk tunes. As each song plays you will also receive information on the song, album, and group you’re hearing. You’re likely to recognize many of the bands and/or songs if you listen to any top 40 station as well. Pop-punk is pretty darn popular these days.
Pop punk's not dead! This blog is likely to throw a lot of bands at you that you’ve never heard of. It promotes a lot of the more underground (sometimes referred to as Indie) groups so it’s nice if you’re looking to expand beyond the mainstream. Many of the posts are simply a video or image and then links to more information on the band whose video you’re watching (or image you’re viewing), but it also has exclusive interviews from some of the bands as well. You can find direct links to those interviews on the right hand side of the page so you needn’t worry about having to scroll through all of the blog entries to find them. They keep it nice and simple. The blog does branch out a bit into some of the other subgenres of punk, but they’re sure to give you a heads up to clarify.
Pop-punk; For the Heart, From the Heart: This is a site set up more in the vein of a newsletter format but written like a blog. It’s a bit harder to navigate because the text is very small and there’s no easy way to search the site. However, if you’re willing to give it some time and don’t mind skimming for buzz words, some of the features are quite informative and the blogger who runs it often has some funny and insightful (read insulting) things to say about other articles and blogs that talk about pop-punk music and bands.
Bowling For Soup: No pop-punk list is complete without them, not in my opinion. Bowling for Soup is kind of the epitome of pop-punk. While not as popular as say Blink 182 or Green Day or All American Rejects or… well, the list goes on, they hold true to the almost need to keep light of the subjects they sing about. Their site will not only give you information on them, it will by it’s very nature show you the lighter side of punk that pop-punk is. Their video “Punk Rock 101” will sum it up nicely:
I also recommend watching the other videos on their site, because again, they really do epitomize the genre.
Dress pop-punk: This video gives a very short synopsis of what pop-punk is and it also shows how pop-punk music influences fashion. I think it’s interesting because it shows you just how much music is a part of our everyday life.
While there are no local venues that host just pop-punk bands there are a few that are likely to host a couple each month. Many of the venues link to the bands sites on their calendar pages or even have sound clips provided, allowing you to sort through to find the sound you're looking for.
El Corazon in Seattle is a fair bet. They also do a lot of all-ages shows, and since pop-punk tends to appeal to a younger crowd on average, all-ages shows are very common in the scene. In fact Poorsport, a local Seattle pop-punk (or as they like to say, melodic punk) band will be playing there on the 21st of May. They're a lot of fun and put on a great sure, I recommend checking them out!
The Showbox is a popular venue for the larger, touring pop-punk bands. Mostly top 40 stuff, but you do need to know what you’re looking for in order to find an appropriate show.
The News Tribune has a calendar of events for punk shows. From what I’ve seen listed most of the bands they mention are easily classified as pop-punk, not merely punk, they just generalize it a bit. You'll see both El Corozon and The Showbox mentioned there.
