Replying to @⁨st42nwpt@lemmy.world⁩

I was a teen at the time and while a lot of this is personal taste, I think Offpsring’s Americana just really nailed it for me. The whole album, but the titular track in particular, www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtzKW_ONjJ0

9/11 wasn’t a surprise in a lot of ways, we really felt it coming. Afterwards, in the early 00’s that followed, I remember less of the alt and punk rock and a lot more of the cleanly produced emo pop punk taking over. Stuff like Alkaline Trio (From Here to Infirmary), The Ataris (So Long Astoria), Something Corporate (Leaving Through the Window), and Saves the Day (In Reverie). Appealing to angsty teens has always been like shooting fish in a barrel (see Sonic Youth or Nirvana) but in retrospect, it’s hard not to see that widespread, mainstream appeal of emo as a reaction to something.

EDIT: The Kids Aren’t Alright

YouTubeAmericanaby The Offspring - Topic

Replying to @⁨st42nwpt@lemmy.world⁩

Not a specific album, but John Mellencamp in the 80s and early 90s. He made being an American sound cool and hopeful and all of that. He still makes music, but I didn’t listen to him much after 9/11. I do remember his song Our Country which was kind of about 9/11 and kind of about the world after it, but his earlier stuff was much more hopeful.

Look up his album The Lonesome Jubilee, I think it’s his best work to date. From 1987.