‘Punk Goes Pop’, radio tunes with a twist

“Punk Goes…” albums are a compilation of hit songs covered by various ‘punk’ bands. It has been 14 years since the launch of the very first “Punk Goes…” release with over 700,000 albums sold.

The latest released album “Punk Goes Pop Volume 6,” includes songs by Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Lil’ Jon, Zedd, Pharrell Williams, and many more that have been covered by popular ‘punk’ bands. These bands include “Crown the Empire,” “Palisades,” “Set It Off,” “We Came As Romans” and many more.

The band covers are great, most times even better than the original song. However, some covers are worse than the original songs. I believe that some bands are not properly matched to certain songs song to cover.

The song ‘Burn’ by Ellie Goulding covered by Crown the Empire from Punk Goes Pop Volume 6 is better than the original song, in my opinion. In the original song, Goulding had very high pitched vocals and an overall fast tempo. Because of this, it is hard to understand what she is saying. I found the original song annoying because of the repeated word ‘burn’. However, Crown the Empire tones down the song a bit and adds deeper, clearer vocals while slowing down the instruments in general.

Like I said before, most of the songs are better than their original. However, ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’, from Punk Goes 90’s, was covered by Falling In Reverse, and overall was pretty awful. Anyone who grew up around the 90’s should know of this song, and its serious tone. However, I don’t think that the cover was taken seriously. The vocals are very strange and almost monotone and don’t match the overall meaning the song had originally. I don’t think this band was properly paired with that song.

Albums include “Punk Goes Pop Volumes 1-6,” “Punk Goes Christmas,” “Punk Goes 80’s,” “Punk Goes 90’s Volumes 1 and 2,” “Punk Goes Acoustic” and many more. All songs covered range in genre and artist from country to rap and everything in between.

The majority of the songs are great to listen to, however a few of them could use a little bit of work.