Listen to this rockin' Canadian playlist while watching skateboarding's Olympic debut
Skateboarding is one of four new sports being introduced to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games
Four new sporting events will be introduced at this year's Olympic Games in Tokyo: karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding.
Skateboarding, created in the 1940s, has become a multi-billion dollar industry and with millions of skateboarders worldwide, its introduction to the Olympics will surely draw in many new viewers.
While music doesn't factor into the sport of skateboarding — unlike sports like figure skating and synchronized swimming where it's a crucial component — music is still deeply connected to skate culture. Born out of the sport of surfing, skateboarding embraced more alternative music to shape its own unique identity, like reggae in the '80s and punk rock in the '90s.
In the late '90s, skateboarding superstar Tony Hawk launched his blockbuster video game series, and every release was accompanied by a stellar soundtrack that drew from punk and its adjacent genres like pop-punk or metal as well as hip hop, which has its own long-running relationship with skateboarding culture. (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater soundtracks included Canadian songs by Sum 41, Billy Talent and Death From Above 1979.)
It's fitting that, just as skateboarding enters a new global arena, the subgenre of pop-punk is making a resurgence, too. Thanks to the ubiquitous mentorship of Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and the continued influence of 2000s acts like Paramore and Avril Lavigne, we are once again seeing guitar rock collide with pop charts in the form of Willow Smith, Lil Uzi Vert and Machine Gun Kelly. Olivia Rodigo, arguably one of the biggest artists of the year for her hit debut single "Driver's License," draws just as much from pop-punk on her debut album Sour as she does from artists like Taylor Swift.
To celebrate both the debut of skateboarding at the Olympics and the revival of pop-punk in the mainstream, CBC Music has put together a playlist of Canadian songs that we think today's skateboarding fans would love. While not every act below identifies as pop-punk, the spirit and influence of pop-punk exists in many of the songs below.
What songs would you add to this list? Share your favourite new pop-punk songs with us @CBCMusic.