Representation of Pop Punk Artists [cliodhna]

Appeal mostly to teenagers who wish to break free of routine and boundary.

Artists create music that is connected to experiences of adolescence. 

Encourage, fun, light-hearted approach to life and music.

Ideologies:

• Teenagers only care about hedonistic values and lives. This is routed in the melodies of pop punk with catchy choruses and lyrics promoting hedonism.
• Typical teenage issues are portrayed in some pop punk videos in order to appeal to the target audience of teenagers. This video by Wheatus combines humor with the teenage issue of romance to create a song which appeals to this market.

• Pop punk videos include silly fun things that encourage the audience to laugh. This light-hearted approach appeals to the younger generation who don’t take life too seriously e.g Blink-182 All The Small Things.

Steryotypes:

• The stereotype of rebellious teenagers with a disrespect for authority is one that is deeply embedded within the genre of pop punk. This is a culture that has become endorsed by the media through advertising and news. The advert below suggests a lack of culture and education in the punk rock audience. This leads to negative stereotyping and adds to the implication that culture = success.
  
  

  

  
  

• This stereotype has drifted into the real world, causing people to face dangerous consequences as a result of their image and the representation the media has attached onto the subsequent “look.” 
  This article from the New York Times explains what can happen when media attaches a negative representation to a group of people.

Response:

• The punk demographic have two different responses regarding the media’s portrayal of their “urban tribe.” 
• Many would be drawn to the humorous and playful approach of the music industry whilst being able to relate to the issues expressed in the lyrics. This causes an influx in demographic and an appreciation of the representation of the fans as young teenagers who are focused on living out their youths in a way that fulfills them personally.
• The negative impacts of the media have caused controversy for the punk audience. The harmful stereotype of punks being uneducated and almost animalistic and violent causes much anger and pain within the punk community. These stereotypes are received poorly by an audience that wishes to be accepted as individuals and not judged on their image and the media’s associations that go along with that image.
• This article explains the responses of a audience member who grasps the concept of unity within punk. It also tells of the different types of punks and a personal experience of the violent consequences of people passing judgement on this demographic based on the media’s representation of them. 
• This unity is one that has been seen throughout history, especially in Northern Ireland during the troubles. One punk fan tells Martin McLoone of the University of Ulster that cultural unity was established on the punk scene. The sectarian barriers had been knocked down due to the spirit of unity brought about by punk and how the representations of punk fans have damaged the credibility of a peaceful people who in fact brought about an end to violence instead of a beginning.
  "When an old cop started taking our names and addresses he looked flummoxed. there were punks from the Glencairn estate, Divis Flats, Ardoyne, the Lower Shankill and the Markets. It must have been the first time since 1969 that he had encountered a large group of youths from working-class republican and loyalist areas that were not trying to kill each other."