Pop punk’s golden child Billie Joe Armstrong has turned against the genre that has been so good to him, sort of.
In an interview with Kerrang, the Green Day frontman explains just why he’s at such odds with the phrase “pop punk”.
When pressed about a tweet he sent last year in which he said he would “destroy the phrase ‘pop-punk’ forever”:
my mission for 2016? to destroy the phrase "pop-punk" forever
— Billie Joe Armstrong (@billiejoe) December 31, 2015
Armstrong explains the tweet by saying:
“I’ve always hated the phrase ‘pop-punk’. I think it’s a contradiction in terms. Either you’re punk, or you’re not. [The tweet] was not directed at any of the bands [described this way], it’s just that it’s too singular a term for my tastes.”
RELATED: Green Day Announce 2017 Australian Arena Tour
Armstrong says that when he was coming up in the scene, the bands were all so “diverse”, adding that’s what the genre is missing and what it so badly needs.
“No two bands sounded the same. No-one was jumping on one particular sound. We were all different,” he says.
“Every good band was into what other good band were doing, and it didn’t matter that these bands were very different from one another. In fact, it was important that we were different from one another. And now we have pop-punk. And I hate that phrase. It lacks diversity.”
After an extended silence, Green Day are now in full swing. Their next album Revolution Radio is out Friday, 7th October and they’ll be touring Australia for a bunch of arena shows next year.
Listen: Green Day – ‘Still Breathing’
