The band Sum 41 announced Monday they were disbanding after 27 years, unleashing a ton of nostalgia for the early 2000s, pop-punk ubiquity on MTV’s Total Request Live and memorable scenes in blockbuster movies seemed.
The Canadian group, led by spiky singer Deryck Whibley, was part of a pop-punk wave that included Blink-182, Simple Plan, Good Charlotte and Avril Lavigne. Their hits included “Fat Lip” and “In Too Deep,” which fans loved snapping at in their car or jumping up and down at shows.
The band’s music was also featured in popular films of the early 2000s, including Spider-Man, Dude, Where’s My Car?, and Bring It On.
In a statement on Twitter, Sum 41 didn’t explain why it broke up. It said it plans to wrap up its tour this year and release a final album, Heaven :x: Hell, and announce a final tour to celebrate the end of its run.
“Being with Sum 41 since 1996 has given us some of the best moments of our lives,” the band members wrote. “We are forever grateful to our fans, old and new, who have supported us in every way. It’s hard to articulate the love and respect we have for you all and we wanted you to hear that first from us.”
News of the band’s decision caused fans to mourn the end of an era. While many punk fans despised Sum 41 and other bands as safe and conventional, pop punk fans said the music was part of the soundtrack of their youth.
“Fat Lip” reached #1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart after the release of Sum 41’s groundbreaking album “All Killer No Filler” in 2001. It features heavy eyeliner accented with tri-color wrist sweatbands.
“Sum 41 is definitely on Mount Rushmore of early 2000’s pop-punk,” said Finn McKenty, creator of the YouTube series The Punk Rock MBA, which includes an episode on “The Strange History of Sum 41.”
“Being able to ride the wave of MTV hype that they’ve had and turn it into a career with real longevity and respect is a rare thing that they’ve been able to pull off,” Mr. McKenty said.
The band’s music seemed to capture the spirit of teenage exuberance in the suburbs.
In a 2021 interview with Billboard, Mr. Whibley said that when the band, which formed in 1996 in suburban Toronto, tried to garner attention, its members filmed themselves doing “silly things, like drive-by Water splash, shelling houses with eggs and cut it with a movie of our shows.
The band’s manager then sent a three-minute version of the video to record labels.
“And then it was a matter of weeks,” said Mr. Whibley. “Every label in the US was trying to sign us, and a big bidding war ensued.”
Mike Damante, author of “Hey Suburbia: A Guide to the Emo/Pop-Punk Rise,” said that Sum 41 was one of the first popular pop-punk bands to fuse metal and hip-hop, and that they evolved while “a really nostalgic time for that time in music.”
In recent years, Sum 41 have toured with Simple Plan and The Offspring.
Mr McKenty said the band has recently been producing music “as good or better” than their music from the early 2000s.
“I always like to see people go to the top instead of being sad,” he said.