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Abigail Unger
Cecelia Musselman
ENGW 1111
7 October 2016
MLA Format
A Wild Show from This Wild Life
If someone were to imagine a band called This Wild Life they might envision a
hardcore group of guys who smash guitars, sing loudly, and have a cant be controlled attitude.
He or she definitely wouldnt expect to see two heavily tattooed men in their late 20s onstage
playing acoustic guitar and singing soulfully about heartbreak, life, and love. Yet, this was the
sight when Kevin Jordan, lead singer and guitarist of acoustic pop-punk band This Wild Life,
was joined by Anthony Del Grossos guitar and back-up vocals Wednesday, October 5, 2016.
The duo performed for 400 of their dedicated fans in the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge
as part of their Low Tides tour, promoting their newly released album of the same name. This
Wild Life is two-person band based out of California signed to Epitaph Records, largely
influenced by punk music but incorporating it into their own mellow sound (Wikipedia).
Jordan and Del Grosso officially formed This Wild Life in 2010, but prior to the bands
debut, the duo were performing together as a punk act in their hometown of Long Beach, CA.
However, after realizing their fans were gravitating to their acoustic works, they formed This
Wild Life and developed their current acoustic pop-punk sound (Facebook). Most people would
describe punk and pop as polar opposites within the music world. Yet, over the two genres have
fused to form a type of music known as pop-punk, which is rooted in punk rocks tempo, power
chords, and loud edgy electric guitars and drums but incorporates the catchy melodies of pop

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music. However, the attitudes and lyrics behind pop punk mostly stem from punks social and
historical development.
Punk rock, to me, it meant that you could express yourself without limitations of skill or
money or connections. You could express yourself by your will and your talent, Dave Tree,
Boston artist, musician, and cinematographer claims in local radio station WBUR 90.9s A
Brief History Of Boston Punk Rock In 18 Vintage Photos (Cook). This idea of free expression
and rebellion against societys standards is the basis for the beginnings of punk rocka term
which originated to describe garage bands of the 60s. These bands, such as the Sonics, were not
trained musically, so they resorted to creating their own musical rules and style (Cooper). Punk
soon began to take over the underground music scene as a musical and cultural phenomenon as
more and more young disillusioned white teenagers were looking for an escape from the
boredom and constraints of society, with unemployment, racial tensions and social upheaval
providing fuel for their fires (Youngs). It wasnt until 1976 that punk as it is known today was
drudged up from the underground scene in New York, popularized by bands like The Sex Pistols
and The Ramones (Cooper). From there, punk began to diverge into and influence a number of
sub-genres, including the acoustic pop punk of This Wild Life.
The pop influence over certain punk rock bands can be traced back to the mid 1970s, but
it wasnt until the 1980s that true pop punk began to emerge in the music industry when bands
such as The Descendants, Social Distortion, and Dag Nasty merged hardcore punk with pop
music to create a new, faster pop punk (Wikipedia). The new fusion genre soon began to spread
as bands such as Green Day and Blink-182 emerged onto the scene in the late 1980s/early
1990s (Bartelt). These bands are often credited as the founders of contemporary pop punk,
although it is often argued whether Green Day is better constrained to the punk rock genre

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(Britton). Influenced by these earlier bands, many other pop punk bands began to form and
develop a following.
As evident in the history of almost all genres of music, teens and young adults are
considered a power group. They make up a majority of the market base and are the primary
consumers for concert tickets, merchandise, albums, etc. Thus, they have a large amount of
control over the rising and falling popularities of certain bands and styles. Many bands try to
appeal to this under-age-thirty clientele by incorporating relatable lyrics into their music. Unlike
the hip-hop acts and rappers who attempt to do this through references to drugs, alcohol, and sex,
pop punk bands, such as This Wild Life, tend to focus on personal issues addressed in sincere
lyrics. Kevin Jordan highlights his relationship struggles in a large majority of the bands
discography while also touching on more serious personal matters, such as his mothers fight
with cancer in No More Bad Days or growing up in a single-parent home in Pink Tie.
Jordans raw, soulful performances of these songs are one of the driving factors in This Wild
Lifes growing success.
However, despite its fairly recent surge of popularity, there exists a number of criticisms
revolving around pop-punk music and the culture it entails. Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of
Green Day, criticizes the musics label saying, I come from a scene where every band was
different from the others; it was all so diverse. No two bands sounded the same. No-one was
jumping on one particular sound. We were all different [] and now we have pop-punk. And I
hate that phrase. It lacks diversity (Britton). Armstrong offers a valid point. With modern poppunk bands attempting to relate to their young audience through high energy music and lyrics
often centered on ideas like heartbreak, a number of commonalities can be found in each bands
music. My heart is heavy and it keeps me to the ground. My eyes are swollen cause I cant

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have you around. All ripped away from me. I cant be anything you want me to be, sings Jordan
of This Wild Life (Quotes From Lyrics). While the bands music does include some of the same
themes and catchy melodies as the bands criticized for lack of diversity (as seen in the lyrics),
This Wild Life adds a new layer to pop-punk with their largely acoustic style and draws
inspiration from artists of genres outside the pop punk scene. Sara Bareilles is one of my
favorites. Maybe people wouldnt expect that. Or maybe they would (Voss), Jordan shared in an
interview with Girlfriend Magazine.
The Boston area is one of the largest college regions in the US, with 81 universities
within a 25-mile radius of the city, and, thus, millions of young adults (Study.com). For this
reason, Bostons thriving music scene is constantly changing and growing. These schools offer
not only a large population of students, but with music organizations like Northeastern
Universitys Green Line Records production label and Boston Universitys WTBU radio, Boston
area schools play a large role in discovering and promoting new talent in the music industry.
Thus, local bands have a number of opportunities for growth, while larger, more well-known
bands can expand their fan-bases in unique venues like Out of the Blue Too: Art Gallery &
More, The Middle East, the Sinclair, and Wallys Caf (Rogers and Agnew). The Middle East
Downstairs hosted This Wild Lifes recent Boston show. The small size of the venue added a
more personal vibe to the show, allowing fans to connect with the band and other fans. This
connection between band and audience is a huge factor in the growth of a fan-base. Often in
alternative music bands are criticized for going mainstream and selling out as they rise in
popularity. However, if a fan feels he or she has a relationship with a band, he or she will be less
likely to lose interest as the band grows.

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Not only are the relations formed through music important on a fan/artist basis, but music
is a medium which connects people of all backgrounds. At a concert, its fairly easy to make
friends because everyone in the room shares a common interest. Music has been used as a
symbol of unification throughout history, from The Star Spangled Banner representing America
as a whole or military march songs to foster unity and nationalism in soldiers. This Wild Lifes
show was no different as the crowd shouted along with the band, Youre break, breaking your
word, I dont care what youve heard. 'Cause youve f***** up, there was an obvious energy
and feeling of unity in the room. Music is powerful medium which is amplified in strength
during live performances.

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Works Cited
Bartelt, Megan. "No Future: The Conception and Evolution of Punk Music and Culture in the
United States and Great Britain from 1965 to the Present." Academic.mu.edu. N.p., n.d.
Web. 9 Oct. 2016.
Britton, Luke Morgan. "Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong Explains Why He Wants 'Pop-punk' to
Die." NME Magazine. Time Inc., 5 Oct. 2016. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.
Cook, Greg. "A Brief History Of Boston Punk Rock In 18 Vintage Photos." WBUR 90.9, 23
Apr. 2014. Web. 9 Oct. 2016.
Cooper, Ryan. "The History of Punk Rock." About Entertainment. N.p., 31 Aug. 2016. Web. 9
Oct. 2016.
"List of Colleges in Boston Massachusetts." Study.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2016.
Pop punk. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 30 Sept. 2016.
Web. 10 Oct. 2016.
Rogers, Jessie, and Meaghan Agnew. "A Guide to the Best Live Music in Boston." TimeOut
Boston. Time Out Group Plc., 18 Aug. 2016. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.
"This Wild Life Quotes." Quotes from Lyrics. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2016.
This Wild Life: About Facebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.
Voss, Danielle. "This Wild Life Answer GF Reader Questions." Girlfriend. Pacific Magazines,
n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.
Youngs, Ian. "A Brief History of Punk." BBC News. BBC, 2002. Web. 9 Oct. 2016.

Acknowledgements
Thank you to This Wild Life for an awesome show and to The Middle East Downstairs for
hosting such a great band.