We recently caught up with Cyrus Bolooki, drummer for New Found Glory, who are celebrating their latest release, Radiosurgery, out 30th September through Epitaph Records. We asked him what he though the top 5 moments in Pop Punk were and he came back to us with this list. They’re in chronological order, but he cheekily suggests they could also be taken as order of importance. Check them out!
1. The Ramones are formed (1974)
Even though the album is more punk than pop punk, this album (as well as the band in general) helped to make punk in all of its forms a household name.
2. Green Day puts out Dookie (1994)
This was the mainstream music world’s introduction to Green Day, whom many believe to be the pioneers of pop punk. This album went on to sell tens of millions copies worldwide, made instant rockstars out of Green Day, and made it cool to not only change your hair color and get in a mud fight on stage in front of hundreds of thousands of people, but also have the last name of Cool!
3. The Warped Tour begins (1995)
NFG has been part of the Warped Tour 6 different times throughout the years, ranging from one show on the local stage to headlining the main stage on more than one occasion. The Warped Tour was a major factor in increasing the popularity and visibility of not only pop punk, but many of the variations of rock and alternative music in the 1990s and 2000s, not only in the US, but all over the world.
4. Blink 182 – Enema of the State is released (1999)
Arguably their most successful commercial release, this record is what I consider to have pushed pop punk over the edge and taken it from a genre that had a few successful artists in the mid-90s to a way of life and a new direction for rock music in general.
5. New Found Glory releases Sticks and Stones (2002)
Our biggest-selling record to date, this album featured some of NFG’s catchiest and most influential songs, like “My Friends Over You” and “Head On Collision”. The album would eventually go on to sell over a million copies worldwide, and help to solidify New Found Glory’s place in pop punk history.
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