‘… And Out Come the Comps’: Punk-O-Rama, Pro Skater, and Their Roles as Peak Music Experiences in a Current Punk Identity

As a result of the success of bands such as Green Day and the Offspring in the mid-1990s, and the continued rotation of these bands on radio stations and MTV, punk rock had joined the ranks of commercial alternative music. With demand high, record labels and video game developers saw an opportunity to bring this music to the masses. With Epitaph’s initial release of its Punk-O-Rama compilation series in 1994 and the release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater in 1999, these compilation CDs and video games, which were accessible at chain box and video game stores, became the gateway to punk rock for many. Drawing on Green’s (Sociology, 50(2), 333–348, 2016) discussion of “peak music experiences,” this chapter will be an expansion of prior research conducted on this phenomenon as it relates to listeners’ early introductions to punk rock (Bernhard, Contemporary Punk Rock Communities: Scenes of Inclusion and Dedication, Lexington, 2019). This study investigates the ways Punk-O-Rama and Pro Skater proved to be “pivotal” (Green, 2016, p. 333) for those who were introduced to punk rock in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and how this exposure prevailed as a gateway into deeper exploration of the genre. This chapter examines the role punk rock compilations and soundtracks played in establishing a continued punk rock identity in adulthood. Through a thematic analysis of 44 in-depth interviews, this chapter explores participants’ experiences of purchasing and listening to these albums and considers themes across the interview data to make a larger conclusion about the ways in which these recordings remain particularly relevant for current fans of punk rock.