In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, bands like Green Day, Blink-182, Sum 41, Simple Plan, New Found Glory, and Weezer founded the genre pop punk.

Today, though, most of the genre’s big bands are going for a softer sound that is basically pop, even though the fans and bands still call it pop punk.

Fall Out Boy used to be a prime example of pop punk, with their previous albums, Take This to Your Grave, From Under the Cork Tree, Infinity on High, and Folie a Deux. In 2013, however, the band watered down its sound on the album Save Rock and Roll, which featured electronic drums and synthesizers. The band’s sound became even more pop on the follow-up album, American Beauty/American Psycho.

Paramore followed the same path. The band’s first three records, Riot!, Brand New Eyes, and All We Know is Falling, all had a pop punk sound. Their self-titled album, which is their most recent, has a vastly changed sound. Although the songs do have a strong presence of real instruments instead of synthesizers, it is still pop. Songs like “Ain’t It Fun,” “Still Into You,” and “Grow Up” show the musical direction Paramore has taken, and what the band has left behind.

Bands like All Time Low and Tonight Alive also have entered the pop or pop rock scene as well. Meanwhile, the bands and their fans all deny that they are no longer pop punk.

So, are more pop punk bands changing their sound to have a chance to be recognized on the radio? And is the pop punk genre dead?