Example of a Stylistic Analysis (by Daniel Lynders) :

90’S PUNK ROCK

Punk rock emerged in the mid 1990’s as Grunge decayed due to the loss of greats such as
Kurt Cobain and the split or decline of Mudhoney, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. As the mood
changed to one of optimism amongst the youth cultures around the world, the music
became lighter, yet still very simplistic in tonality and lyrical content, often being more lucid
than that of grunge music before it (even if the themes were a lot more simplistic)
Stylistically, Punk Rock saw the rise of speed drumming, where playing a straight rock beat at
200 Bpm or more became the norm. Simple drum fills with quaver and semiquaver
subdivisions were also sped up creating a need for technical drummers to lose power in
favour of speed. Double time drum beats also became common as found in songs such as
“Prisoner of Society”, “Josie”, “Land Down Under (Pennywise Cover Version)” and many
other songs from the genre. The rise of Blink182 saw drummers like Travis Barker (and his
predecessor Scott Raynor) cement themselves as a mix of both speed and tasteful creativity
in this style, creating many variations on the double time feel and tom-based shuffles.

(Fig 1 – Scott Raynor’s double time drum part on “Dammit” by Blink182 is typical of 90’s
Punk rock rhythms)
As the drummers got more complex the tonalities seemed to become more obvious and
simplistic. Using early Punk Bands such as The Ramones, Sex Pistols and Clash for their
harmonic inspiration saw bands such as Greenday and Offspring utilising Primary Chords in
simple “guitar friendly” keys with only one or two secondary chords appearing and rare use
of seventh chords, inversion, suspensions, diminished or augmented chords. Patterns are
often grouped into fast moving combinations and varied in Bridges and Choruses (examples
such as “When I Come Around” and “Dammit” come to mind) with songs in minor keys rarely
utilising the Harmonic structures and opting for Diatonic Natural minor Patterns. Chords are
often voiced in Power Chord or 5th styles chords and simple Perfect/Plagal cadences are the
norm with songs sometimes finishing on the IV or V chord & sustained to emphasise a point.

(Fig 2 – This Excerpt from “American Idiot” by Greenday demonstrates Power Chord
voicings utilising the “Box Shape” pattern on Guitar – in this case – in Ab Major we have I
IV and bVII – a common rock pattern used by AC/DC)
In 90’s punk rock, guitar lines and solos have slowly evolved to incorporate Octave Melodies
in Instrumental Breaks and solos with songs such as Sum41’s “Still Waiting” and Greenday’s
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” having obvious melodic phrases enforced with this style of
articulation in favour of the classic rock “lead break 16 bar solo”.

(Fig 3 – the octave solo from “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” is idiomatic of pop punk lead
guitar phrasing – the main hook is also an octave motive – played by two guitars)
Punk Rock has traditionally used guitar as it’s driving force with a line-up consisting of Bass,
Drums and either one or two guitarists, with one or more members on lead vocals or sharing
these duties. The bass players tend to opt for a very treble orientated timbre and tend to
double melodic riffs and motives from the guitar or support chords with root notes. Their
rhythms often match a bass drum pattern or quavers as in a straight rock feel but are sped
up as mentioned above. Matt Freedman from Rancid branches on this idea with incredible
picking speed and ideas suited to a country pickin’ guitarist rather than a bass player.
Guitarists tend to also opt for a treble orientated tone with clean and distorted sounds,
borrowing tones and settings from classic rock through to Heavy metal in order to cut
through and often loud drum sound. Parts tend to be layered well in Punk Rock with room
for everything, rather than grunge and metal which often has inaudible bass or vocal parts.
Singers tend to sing in a rough and often nasal (American) style with fast phrasing and poor
diction, which lends to the themes and style of Punk Rock songs (examples include Anarchy
in the U.K, Blitzkrieg Bop, Just Ace by Grinspoon and most of Jebediah’s discography).
Lyrically most early proponents of the genre sang about typical punk themes – teenage
rebellion, relationships, sex and drug/alcohol use – often using light-hearted lines with
catchy hooks wrapped up in fast tempos. Later into the genre bands evolved into darker and
more sombre themes such as loneliness and relationship breakdown (eg – Blink182s “Miss
you” and the bands spin-offs in Plus44 and Angels & Airwaves) and socio-political issues (eg
Greenday’s “American Idiot Album). This period saw the rise of more ballads and slower
songs on albums.
For improvisation over Punk Rock songs, pentatonic scales and simple major and minor scale
melodies are utilised in force as they work well over primary chord progressions. As punk
rock is generally a guitar driven genre, most motives and melodies are prominent in small
lead breaks and do not utilise the same wailing, blues pitch bends and whammy bar antics of
rock and metal and stick to simple major and minor pentatonic phrases.
Bands who have helped to pioneer and build the Punk Rock genre include Blink182,
Unwritten Law, Rancid, Pennywise, Offspring, Greenday, Good Charlotte, AFI, Sum41, and in
Australia Grinspoon and Frenzal Rhomb. The time period for this genre is generally accepted
as being 1994 – 2009.

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_punk
http://www.greendayauthority.com/

https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/se/ID_No/174827/Product.aspx

https://www.discogs.com/ (AFI, Pennywise, Greenday, Offspring, Good Charlotte, Sum41)