If you’ve ever walked into a Hollister store at your local mall, you probably noticed a few things: it’s dark as fuck, they spray a lot of their “So Cal” scent, and a lot of hot slutty girls shop there. And also the music, which often causes a moment of cognitive dissonance when you’re like “oh cool, what up-and-coming new pop-punk band is this and how did they end up playing in a store for upper-middle-class popular kids,” but then you realize that although it SOUNDS like a band you should know about, it isn’t. And that’s HOLLISTERCORE: wholesome, super polished bands that SEEM like they’re pop-punk but have no roots in DIY culture. The kind of stuff your little sister’s hot friend listens to– you know, the one who always wears Pink yoga pants and says FALL OUT BOY is her favorite band but she only has the singles on her iPhone and couldn’t care less about them playing in basement hardcore bands when she was in 3rd grade.
Like I said in my post about I CALL FIVES a while back, the reason I like this stuff so much is that it’s basically “pop-punk without the sleepy eyes and bony knees”– all the good parts like upbeat posi songs about summer and girls, without the dumb parts like self-pity, low self-esteem, and crying about how your pussy hurts because you don’t fit in at college. And I back that hard, because the last fucking thing the world needs is more skinnyfat white guys with low testosterone and bad posture encouraging kids to feel sorry for themselves. I mean lettuce be cereal, anyone who spends their time at college writing songs about how lonely they are instead of getting fucked up and trying to smash as many freshman as possible is probably better off just getting smothered with a pillow (for their good and ours).
This WE THE KINGS song/video is maybe the perfect example of HOLLISTERCORE: unremarkable-but-good upbeat rock song set to footage of cleancut, 7/10 white girl doing homework on her Macbook, resisting the urge to go to a G-rated house party (no alcohol, that’s illegal– not to mention against her school’s honor code!!) with the non-threatening singer of the band.
You will notice a theme here: lots of white girls. What grassy fields are to 2009 risecore, 7/10, G-rated white girls are to HOLLISTERCORE. In this case, the white girl is even wearing a Hollister sweater! (peep the shot at :35). While you could argue that A LOSS FOR WORDS is slightly too edgy to be Hollistercore (they are on Rise and our buddy Andrew Wade recorded this album), I feel like their wholesome, all-American good looks make them a fit for this important genre.
7/10 white girl being angsty and sad until the guys from the band arrive to cheer her up. Singer who looks like he would play in the church rock band. Teenagers frolicking in a suburban home with no adult supervision but still not doing anything bad. THIS IS HOLLISTERCORE. Side note, SING IT LOUD is probably my favorite band in this genre– some really great songs.
Video starts with a shot of a plain, “pretty but not TOO pretty” white girl. Singer’s scruffy beard and slouchy beanie say “I’m a bad boy,” but when the chorus of “I’m no angel, I’m just me, but I will love you endlessly,” you can tell that he really MEANS it– he just needs the right girl and he can change!!! And maybe– just maybe– that girl is you.
And on the singer-songwriter side of things, we have the posterchild for HOLLISTERCORE Chris Drew aka NEVERSHOUTNEVER. I have become a huge, 100% non-ironic fan of NSN lately, not only because of great songs like this one (which is basically saying “fuck you, butthurt old people”), but because Chris seems like a guy who very truly does not give a fucking shit about being “famous” or whatever and just wants to make art, and I can pretty much always get behind people like that. For example, when he made that dork Bryan Stars cry, and his moshcore side project EATMEWHILEIMHOT which has awesome songs like “xBURRITOx” and “xDESTROYx.” He’s a cool kid and I back him hard.
And last but certainly not least, speaking of 7/10 white girls, please meet my HOLLISTERCORE crush CADY GROVES. I like to think of her as the mallcore version of Demi Lovato– super cute, average-looking white girl with juuuuuuuust a hint of “bad girl.” But not like the “bad girl” that anyone reading this site is probably familiar with (“Well right now I’m doing porn, but only because the money is so good– I’m gonna quit as soon as I save up enough money to open my vegan cupcake truck”). More like “bad girl” as in “Omg I put a 1″ wide red streak in my hair with temporary dye that I bought at hot topic my mom is gonna FREAK lol but whatever i don’t even care lol” aka THE PERFECT KIND OF GIRL <3
and then there is Aeropostale… guess who shops there.