So I'm back on my bullshit y'all. There is no intersection of two of my interests that is too niche.
This is a list that I would love to keep expanding btw, if anyone knows of any other comic-book characters who either reference/explicitly listen to/are in some way connected to Canadian punk band Sum 41, PLEASE let me know, whether it's in adapted works or the comics themselves, send that shit to me.
Also the car thing? The only example here where Sum 41 isn't listened to in the car is the one where it's non-diegetic music. What's the deal with that? What it is about Sum 41 that it just gets played in the car?
Also, Uncle Ben. Yes, Uncle Ben. Of all the songs they could have had him be listening to they went with 'What We're All About' — "When I wake up I like a pound of bacon, start of the day with my arteries shaking, ROCK! It's what we're all about, it's what we live for! Come on and shout it out!" — This is Ben Parker's choice of music, canonically in the Spider-Man Raimiverse.
Wait.
Oh shit, just had a thought.
In that scene, Ben is trying to realte to Peter right -- so what if PETER owns the Half Hour Of Power CD, and Ben deliberately put it on in that car journey in an effort to try and connect with Peter in some way before his heart-to-heart talk shit fuck this started out as a funny silly shitpost and now I'm having feelings™ about Spider-Man fuck this always happens
me, age 15: man all these punk bands are so great!!! so angry so loud yeah!!!! weird names though :\
me, age 20:..man, this music kinda sucks huh? i dunno man I had some weird tastes as a kid....and seriously what was with the naming convention back then?
me, now, age 28: Huh. Man punk bands in the late 2000′s and early 2010′s really grabbed hold of the general sense of disappointment and disillusionment a lot of teenagers were feeling in America. Sure a lot of it was kinda latched onto by a bunch of white teenaged boys to excuse being assholes because they mistook being an angry kid for a personality trait, but honestly its a bit amazing how raw and emotional a lot of these songs are in retrospect. A bit dramatic? Sure, but they were all honest, or at least the ones that lasted more than a year did at any rate. Fact is being a teenager involves being angry at the world and people around you and even yourself, so it was overall a good thing this music existed as a way for people to use as an outlet back then.
The popular rock of the noughts remains hated. While this assessment might be way too harsh, very few groups from the time have gotten reappraised. For instance, Sum 41 have been recognized as one of the more interesting bands from the era recently, though I do agree their most known stuff does grate a bit. I am not sure on the why of this, either the noughts didn't reach the retro power of the 80's yet or the TRL-zation of the rock idiom cause us to cringe. True, I shouldn't blame any musician from then for that, since some seem to be aware of both problems, especially the latter. I mean, Sum 41 bested most of their peers with the consequent work that is anything but nostalgic, though I am sure many too visit their current tours for their greatest hits.