Ah the many faces of pop punk… 

Here on Encore we’ve explored a wide range of songs that fall under the genre’s umbrella; from the sounds of Green Day’s Rock-Opera-Political thriller American Idiot to SUM 41’s metal-worshipping, Jackass-inspired Fat Lip, to Avril Lavigne’s quirky and jealousy ridden hand-clapping Girlfriend - Pop Punk is a big ol’ tree with a whole lotta branches. 

In 2005, mainstream pop punk tied its wagon a lot closer to the traditional sounds of Rock N Roll, with heavy guitars and stadium-like bravado that kept the Rock-radio airwaves happy.

Emo; the emotional side of pop-punk was usually relegated to the sounds of the underground. 

The ‘scene’ was filled with bands across North America that were a little pop, a little punk, a little goth, and honestly, a little twee. 

If you were a band having deep, overdramatic feelings about life, love, and fitting in, and treated music as if it was your own personal confessional for all of the above - that was fine - you’d probably find yourself a fanbase - but you certainly weren’t going to find yourself a hit.

Coalescing with the rise of internet culture at the time - emo and screamo bands were massively popular on myspace - with filesharing doing a lot of the word of mouth heavy-lifting both virtually and in real life. 

In a time where everyone was making CD mixtapes - you could easily sneak a (legally or otherwise obtained) mp3 of your favourite emo band on a custom-curated disc - and it started to influence culture at large.

While a ton of emo bands eventually broke through, perhaps the very first of their kind was Fall Out Boy - and while they started off like many other subculture sweethearts of the era - in just a few short years - they would become one of the hottest bands in the world.

This is the Story of Fall Out Boy's Sugar We're Goin' Down

Written by Clayton Taylor for iHeartRadio