Over the years, Fall Out Boy has had an array of genre names tagging their act, from pop-punk to pop-rock. Their style has ranged and changed over their musical career, from album to album: The old vs. the new strikes a chord in the fannatic’s heart like nothing else. Now, they’re known for what their songs did in the dark and their more heavily dependent rock sound. Back in 2005, Pete Wentz, Patrick Stump, Joe Truhman, and Andy Hurley were basing their music on the hardcore scene they arose from in 2001 in a small town of Wilmette, Illinois. Songs like “Dance, Dance” and “A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More ‘Touch Me’” received their second major label album, From Under The Cork Tree, double platinum in that year and scored them fame they didn’t reach with Take This To Your Grave. Their fan-base grew over those years of the early 2000s until 2009 when they decided to leave their music and go on a hiatus. The year 2012 brought opportunity for the group, and the boys joined together again to make a new album, this time incorporating the new sense of sound they’d found while on their break to bring forth songs like “Miss Missing You” and “Young Volcanoes.” The songs used less angst filled lyrics and focused on the developed noise rather than the raw emotional words before them, but this album caught more of an audience than expected, yet still maintained a sense of self for the boys. Fall Out Boy admits they have changed their style, as they have grown and found their own path over the years, but even at concerts they state that punk is not about placing a label on music. Their entire message is that anything can be “punk,” and on Patrick’s public twitter account he even posted that “Putting boundaries on how punk should sound/look is the least punk rock thing one can do. Be yourself=Very punk.” (Patrick). Many may not see them as punk, but at heart, they know they’re worthy of whichever way they chose to wear the title.

It’s no secret the band has changed greatly since their starting adventure in the early 2000s. Pete lost the guyliner, Patrick lost the extra fluff, Hurley lost his hair, and Joe lost… well, definitely not his curls. The band has dropped the emo vibe from previous records and now appeals to a more broad range of audience that favors the pop scene. However, while that is true, they still take clear pride in there they came from.

If one attends their concerts, they will be provided with speeches on that it’s like to be an outcast, now with a newly found element of how “punk” it is to be an original individual—these famous preaches typically come from Wentz, the band’s bassist, before the playing of specific, usually more heartfelt songs. The crowd riles up at these words as they make a connection between the songs and themselves, and amongst the older of the fans, when songs from albums such a Folie à Deux begin playing, there’s an obvious change in atmosphere. It’s like nostalgia in the form of audio: everyone gets to their feet and sings with emotion that’s lost in songs like “The Pheonix”, but is still present within lines of “Save Rock n’ Roll.” The difference in the voices that echo Patrick’s are noticeable vibrations—their first albums were feeling, but the latest stuff is energy. Not that that’s a bad thing, though. It’s hype, it’s loud, it’s the music for the pit and the floor jumping frantics. The fans of the past and present version of the band can explain it well enough. The boys may be selling out their shows, but they’ll never sell out on their fans. Their change isn’t anything to dread at all. Their music is upbeat, stirring, and just as rigorous as it was once before, the only difference now is that they’re currently touring, active, and are refreshed with new life within them; and they’ll continue to breathe out lyrics from the heart so long as they produce our addiction.

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Works Cited:

Patrick, Stump. Twitter, 1 Jul 2012. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. <https://twitter.com/PatrickStump/status/219613368976281601>.