Asking the question “What is punk rock?” is like inquiring about the meaning of life or pondering the existence of God. It’s one of those diffusive, inevitable queries for which everyone has an opinion—and for which no opinion is ever really agreeable or satisfactory. Determining what constitutes a punk rock song or band is always relative, whether it’s to that specific time in musical history, location, personal experience or background knowledge.

Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History Of Punkby Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain offers a historical context for the term, qualifying its definitive characteristic by what happened, by whom and when. Kurt Cobain famously used a more vaguely philosophic determination, saying, “Punk is musical freedom. It's saying, doing and playing what you want. In Websters terms, 'nirvana' means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that's pretty close to my definition of punk pock.” This all may be a moot point to a 13-year-old from the suburbs with a completely different understanding of punk that’s been crafted anew in their generation.

So why ask this question now? Why stir up the age-old, ongoing argument about what is punk and what isn’t? Earlier this month, Fearless Records unleashed Punk Goes Pop Vol. 3 (a new edition in their popular line of covers compilations) and the 14-track compilation stirred a wide range of reactions about genre specifications. These irate reactions urge a few questions worth considering. First, what are some of the current conceptions of punk rock, and how do they factor into today’s musical landscape? Second, what does it mean for an artist to shift from punk to pop? Finally, who really cares about genres anyway?

The bands featured on Punk Goes Pop Vol. 3 are varied to some degree. The compilation showcases everything from Mayday Parade covering Jason Derulo’s “In My Head” to Miss May I’s screamo interpretation of Jay-Z’s “Run This Town” to Artist Vs. Poet’s version of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” The covered songs on the disc are undeniably pop—at least by today’s standards. All have been heavily played on pop radio this year, sold enough copies to top various Billboard charts and most are known to the average, casual music listener in Anywhere, U.S.A. But what about the “punk” part? Should bands like Cute Is What We Aim For, Family Force 5 and the Ready Set be qualified as punk?

CUTE IS WHAT WE AIM FOR singer SHAANT HACIKYAN, who covered T.I.’s “Dead And Gone” for the collection, says he agrees with fans that are calling out Fearless for not using punk bands on their punk compilation. “This compilation has never struck me as 'punk,'” Hacikyan says. “It's always been a release that I looked forward to because it was a collection of artists who were willing to dabble in something outside of their norm. When a band or artist is known for a certain sound, they tend to box themselves in sonically and conform. This compilation serves as a unique outlet for bands that have proven their ability among the ranks. Besides, how 'punk' is covering another band’s work?”

MAYDAY PARADE frontman DEREK SANDERS has a less concrete view of the matter, noting, “Good music is good music, and that should be the bottom line.” He says, “We do these compilations to have fun and have a good time creating music. Beyond that, it doesn't really matter.”

BOB BECKER, Fearless Records founder and creator of the Punk Goes... series, says that when it comes to selecting the artists who appear on these compilations, the label tries to mix things up, attempting to balance heavier artists with those who may already be more pop-inclined (as well as not focusing too heavily on the Fearless roster). Becker agrees that the term “punk” is ambiguous for the purpose of these albums, but at this point the word is embedded in the brand, for better or worse. “When we started the comps, we put on bands that were considered punk, but even then the older bands said they were not punk,” Becker says. “Now, the fans of those bands say the new bands aren’t punk, even though some of the newer bands are considered punk to this generation. To me, now more than ever, punk is more of an attitude than a style of music.

He also says that fans that take issue with the compilation not featuring actual punk bands may have a point—but that point is, again, relative. “They are probably right,” Becker says. “I can see why some older punk rockers could be bummed or pissed, but hell, they need something to be mad at anyway. The bottom line is that these comps are just fun—for both the bands covering the songs, and for the fans who listen. They’re not really intended to be taken seriously.”

But music fans, especially in this scene, are nothing if not serious. In the Altpress.com discussion thread for the Punk Goes Pop Vol. 3 stream, comments ranged from “I find it insulting that these bands are being called punk. Most of these bands are as far as can be from punk,” to “If they called it something like ‘whiney emo kids go mainstream,’ then maybe they'd get the right audience.”

Still, Punk Goes Pop Vol. 3 debuted at No. 26 on the Billboard Top 200, which means a bunch of music fans dropped their hard-earned bucks because they wanted to hear these 14 songs. If Sanders is right when he says that the bottom line is just whether something is good, does it really matter what classifications it falls under? MARLI REED, a 16-year-old music fan from Hanford, California, feels that genre distinctions still matter, mostly because each has spawned subcultures that help people define themselves.

“The screamo metal bands have fans with facial piercings and straightened, usually dyed hair,” Reed observes. “The ‘punk’ bands have the kids in super-tight skinny jeans with Mohawks and chains. If the classifications were taken away from the music, all of these different, little cultures would dissolve, leaving a mass of indistinguishable groups of people who are into music, period. People get opinionated about them because they don't want to be labeled as something they're not. If you called an emo a goth, he might bite your face off. The same goes with music. If you called a fan of the Black Dahlia Murder a fan of Katy Perry, that fan would be pissed. It all has to do with what image people want to display to the public, and that's why I think that genres matter so much.”

BRETT DETAR, previously the frontman of THE JULIANA THEORY—who were called both “punk” and “pop” as the genres have evolved and shifted—has similarly found that genre designations are used mostly as consumer labels—a means of categorizing music as a product. From an industry perspective, these subsections determine how a record will be marketed, what radio stations it will play on and whom that band will tour with. Are these important? Maybe if you work at a record label or a radio station, but Detar doesn’t believe they should ultimately matter. “I think [genres] are irrelevant to music fans and even more irrelevant to music makers,” he says. “Modern music fans are intelligent and well-versed and into all different types of music. Categories and genres are for marketing [to] people. Music fans today have incredibly wide palettes for different sounds and styles. People are willing to listen to all different types of music even in one setting so I think less artists are thinking about what fits neatly into a specific genre.”

Other artists find this open-door policy insulting their cause. DEAD TO ME bassist/vocalist CHICKEN, who calls Punk Goes Pop Vol. 3 “arguably one of the most offensive misuses of the term ‘punk rock’ in human history,” argues that the creation of genres and the scenes that spring up around them is important—he says they generate community and belonging for like-minded people who share ideals and goals. “I suppose the strong opinions are generated because to some of us who have actually put time and effort—emotionally, physically and financially—into creating a scene where our friends can come and participate in an exchange of ideas and creativity in a space not dominated my mass media and product placement,” he explains. “It’s a real kick in the pants to see commercial bands like [those on Punk Goes Pop Vol. 3] come ruin the party.”

Of course, mass appeal doesn’t necessarily make someone not punk rock (see: the Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion and NOFX). GLEN MATLOCK, bassist of THE SEX PISTOLS—one of the world’s flagship punk bands—believes that a balance exists between the aesthetics of a particular scene and the ability to reach a broad spectrum of fans. Matlock, who says the term “punk rock” has never really been of much consequence to him (it was never fully embraced by the Sex Pistols) makes a solid point: It’s less about the means and more about the message. “The whole idea of music for me, is to communicate,” Matlock says. “If you’re getting your stuff played on the airwaves, it is merely helping you do that, so you are getting your message across to as many people as possible. I have no problem with 'mass appeal' at all—the hard bit is ensuring your message is a worthwhile one!”

Well, you could argue the message isn’t exactly relevant on a covers compilation  since the messages being presented in the music don’t belong to the musicians themselves. They belong to people like Lady Gaga and whoever penned Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold.” So what do we care if a few bands who may or may not be punk want to cover a few songs that are overplayed on the radio? The moniker “punk” vacillates so wildly that everyone is probably annoyed for different reasons. ALLI WAY, a 15-year-old fan from central California, puts it this way: “To me, being a punk band would just mean being real in your music.”

BEN WEASEL, frontman of SCREECHING WEASEL, says something similar in disparate terms. “I don't give a damn which bands are punk and which aren't, and neither should you,” he says. “If there's a duller conversation than who's punk and who isn't, I've yet to hear it. Those conversations almost always revolve around the social aspects of punk wherein ‘punk’ becomes an adjective to replace ‘acting like a fucking idiot’ and ‘not punk’ means ‘using common sense.’ On those rare occasions when ‘What is punk?’ is asked in regards to musical styles, well, if that question was ever relevant, it ceased to be at least a decade ago. What is punk? Anything that wants to be, apparently. Punk is mainstream, and thank God for that. I have no idea how to define it anymore, and that's great news. It never should've been easy to define in the first place. It's no coincidence that back when you could easily identify a punk band, most of them sucked, and usually in the same three or four ways.

 “The real question is: Do you want to be one of those modern-day inquisitors, running around like a ninny pointing fingers and chastising people for making music or liking bands you're convinced [you shouldn’t] because it doesn't fit in with your dumbbell ideas about what is and isn't punk? Hell no, you don't. Music is one of three things: great, awful or mediocre. Buy the great stuff, ignore the awful stuff and avoid the mediocre at all costs.” alt