The Offspring

(1986-)
My definitive lineup:
Ron Welty - Drums
Gregory "Greg K." Kriesel - Bass
Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman - Guitars, background vocals
Bryan "Dexter" Holland - Vocals, guitars

I'm not sure, but it might be that there is no other foreign (=non-Finnish) band that I have listened to for this long.

I discovered The Offspring back in '98, when I saw their music video of "All I Want" in the TV. During the next year and a half, I saved money and bought three of their albums (Ignition, Smash and Ixnay on the Hombre). During that time they released Americana too - one of their most successful albums to date - which I wanted to buy too, of course, but my sister had bought it first, and I thought there was no need to buy two identical CDs for one household (a philosophy I have discarded years ago).

However, it's a little bit odd how I got hooked on The Offspring so much. After all, punk has never been - not before nor after I discovered the band - to my liking. I guess it might've something to do with the melodic songwriting of the band, and the fact that even if Dexter Holland tends to favor more aggressive output in punk vein over regular singing, it never hasn't been really atonal screaming, but more like a holler with a melodic aspect. I admit that not everyone finds Dexter's vocals that tolerable, but they are fine by me, and actually one of the biggest elements that have made their music so enjoyable to me. After all, his vocal melodies are also one of the major elements of their music in general - though the chord progressions in their songs might have more than three power chords, they're still pretty punk, which means the progressions can end up being pretty dull over a course of a single song. That's where Dexter's vocal melodies kick in - they are not that original, but they are more or less catchy, easy to sing along, and they really can create depth to a song that could have been pretty simple and repetitive otherwise.

Another defining aspect of The Offspring's music is the use of Noodles's background vocals - most of the time only as simple whoah-whoah hollers - which may look simple on the paper, but in reality they add more to the song one could think of. Many times Dexter and Noodles harmonize their vocals cleverly, creating melodic harmonies not unlike the one's in the music of eg. The Beatles - only in a lot more punk fashion.

Originally The Offspring were pretty punk. In a really punk way. However, their music has had a melodic side from the beginning, and they began to emphasize it early on. In time their albums got more and more melodic - and that way, more accessible and radio-friendly - up until their fourth album, Ixnay on the Hombre, in which they began to incorporate more punk-pop songs (as opposed to pop-punk, which is just catchy, radio-friendly punk) to their albums. In these songs the punk had been almost completely stripped off, and what was left was this punk band playing annoying pop tunes.

However, the band did not turn into a pop band, their albums just began to have more and more pop songs. In turn, the rest of the songs started to make more metallic edge - Smash and Ixnay were pretty heavy punk albums, but punk nevertheless, but their 5th album, Americana, began to incorporate a sound that borrowed some heavy metal aesthetics.

Their subsequent albums continued to spawn more punk pop hits and songs that were more metal and less punk. Once their 6th album, Conspiracy of One, was released, it dawned to me that Americana was probably their last album that would interest me. Occasionally I have heard some their newer songs, but not a single one of them has managed to stir up any more interest in me. They have lost the thing that appealed to me in the first place, and though I may pay some interest in the new albums they release, one of them has been really my thing. I prefer to keep my metal as metal and my punk as catchy, melodic punk.

***

My top-10 list of songs that are worth checking out:
All I Want
Amazed
Dirty Magic
Gone Away
It'll Be a Long Time
Kick Him When He's Down
Pay the Man
Self Esteem
The Kids Aren't Alright
The Meaning of Life

***

Reviewed albums:
Ignition (1992) - 77/100