Fall Out Boy takes pop route

The group earned a Grammy nomination for best new artist.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Fall Out Boy had every intention of following in the footsteps of the aggressive, earsplitting rock bands that they grew up listening to.
Really they did.
But a funny thing happened along the way -- the more hard-core they tried to be, the more they realized it didn't fit their vibe.
"When you're playing hard-core music and you're screaming every night, it just grates on your ears, and at some point, the grass is always greener. You want to be doing something different," explains Pete Wentz, the 26-year-old bassist and lyricist for the Chicago-based quartet.
Although they didn't switch to *NSync mode, Fall Out Boy did infuse their music with a pop sensibility. The result is a melodic pop-punk and rock mixture that has helped turn Fall Out Boy into the breakout band of the year.
"At a time when a lot of artists and bands sound alike, when you listen to their album, you feel like you're feeling and hearing something a little bit different," says Rob Weiss, head of entertainment at the music network Fuse. "They are kind of special."
Album sales
A lot of people agree. Fall Out Boy has sold more than one million copies of the album "From Under the Cork Tree," released earlier this year, and the band's clever but weird video for "Sugar We're Goin' Down" -- which might best be described as a star-crossed lovers story involving antlers -- was one of the year's most popular, helping Fall Out Boy nab a moonman at the MTV Awards.
Last week, Fall Out Boy was nominated for a Grammy for best new artist, and the band plans to close out 2005 by performing at MTV's New Year's Eve bash.
The group (comprising Wentz; 21-year-old lead singer and melody maker Patrick Stump; guitarist Joe Trohman, 21; and drummer Andy Hurley, 24) got its start performing about four years ago.
Back then, what people would have heard at early Fall Out Boy shows was a punk band trying to fit into the Chicago hard-rock scene, which Stump remembers as violent, homophobic, racist and just plain "horrible."
"We wanted out of it. It was the most negative thing in the world," Stump says.
"It's just not cool when people are on stage and yelling 'faggot' and stuff like that and making people feel uncomfortable," adds Wentz.
In leaving the hard-core scene, Fall Out Boy was forced to developed its own identity after searching for it in other people's music.
"I think you feel safe in your own skin. That's the thing," says Wentz of the group's evolution. "When you're sitting there and you're writing and you're trying to imitate these bands, like, eventually, you look in the mirror .... and you say, 'O.K.', it's all right to be Fall Out Boy and it's all right to sing these songs."'
The band dropped the more aggressive rock stance for more pop fare, anchored by Stump's music; the emo-angle came from Wentz's pen, fueled by bitter breakups and other relationship drama.
"It's like a bunch of hard-core kids who decided they were going to write pop music," says Wentz.
Their debut album, "Take This to Your Grave," was released in 2003. It sold slowly at first, but eventually sold an estimated 200,000 copies.
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