When looking across contemporary rock music festivals, pop punk bands are beginning to replace classic rock artists at the top of festival line-ups. To many, the likes of Billie Joe Armstrong, Jeff Rosenstock and Tom Delonge are the guitar heroes of their generation. Much like Nu Metal, it is about damn time that the genre got its respect.
Throughout the years, pop punk has provided more variety than most believe. Incorporating heavier art forms like American hardcore or Deathcore, getting theatrical, or inspiring new generations with new approaches, pop punk’s popularity shows no sign of slowing down. These are the 10 essential zero-skip classics from the world of pop punk.
10
Blink 182
Enema Of The State (1999)
It is no exaggeration to say Blink 182 improved on every level when they released 1999’s global smash, Enema Of The State. They upgraded their drummer by replacing original drummer Scott Raynor with Aquabats drumming god, Travis Barker, and while the likes of “Carousel,” “Pathetic” and “Dammit” had hinted that they had greatness in them, nobody saw Enema Of The State coming. It changed punk rock forever, and every song on it crushes.
The singles speak for themselves but it’s on the album tracks that Enema really shines. Way before he was badgering the U.S. government about little green men, “Aliens Exist” became Tom Delonge’s calling card. The bittersweet “Going Away To College” tugs on heartstrings to this day, and the final run of tracks, including the circle-pit starting “The Party Song,” is skate punk at its most mainstream and catchy. They have many great albums, but Enema Of The State remains Blink 182’s most consistent work.
9
AFI
The Art Of Drowning (2000)
Leaning far more on the latter than the former when it comes to pop-punk, AFI came of age on this goth-tinged classic. Smarter, harder and spookier than so many of their contemporaries, AFI channeled Bay Area hardcore and horror punk made famous by The Misfits to create something unique for their era. They began to concoct this irresistible package on Black Sails Set In The Sunset, but AFI came of age on The Art Of Drowning.
Lead by an anthem of a single with “Days Of The Phoenix”, The Art Of Drowning is a fearless and dramatic masterpiece that sounds like a band trusting their improving instincts. Probably the last punk rock record of their career, the scope of AFI’s musical ambition and the phenomenal command of Davey Havok went to all manner of musical terrains after this. There are other 10/10 albums in the band’s canon, but this is the AFI album every Pop Punk fan needs.
8
NOFX
Punk In Drublic (1991)
For their honesty, humor and oceans of great music, NOFX are the punk rocker’s pop-punk band. At a time when even Bad Religion signed to a major label and every band with a pair of tartan trousers and a distortion pedal were being offered sacks of cash by men in suits, NOFX always felt above commercialism. “The Cause” is more than just a 10/10 song on a 10/10 record.
Opening with “Linoleum,” the song Fat Mike would regularly call “the best song we’ve ever written” at their live shows, Punk In Drublic is a jagged and confrontational take on the more melodic side of punk rock. Confrontational enough to still write songs called “Don’t Call Me White” and taking aim at the “Perfect Government,” Punk In Drublic also contains lashings of the kind of humor that Blink would shine up and package for MTV nearly a decade later. All this and “Leave It Alone” is one of the best rock singles of the ’90s.
7
Good Charlotte
The Young And The Hopeless (2002)
Despite their music being as parent-friendly as the genre has ever sounded, Good Charlotte understand punk rock more than most of the bands trying to convince audiences of their credibility. Listen to Joel Madden pour his heart and soul into the words in the second verse to the title-track, as he tells you “it’s not a game, it’s not an act” and when righteous punks “see (him) on the streets they got nothing to say.” The Young And The Hopeless defined the superstar era of pop-punk, but don’t let that cheapen how phenomenal this collection of songs is.
“Girls And Boys” and “Lifestyles Of The Rich And The Famous” grab the headlines, but the sugar rush of “Riot Girl,” the connection shared between singer and audience on the gut-wrenching “The Story of My Old Man,” and chant-along power of “Movin’ On” are all every bit as perfect. And when the album kicks off with “The Anthem,” it establishes its brilliance from the very beginning. Good Charlotte never got close to repeating the quality of this album, but it’s a greater achievement than most bands manage.
6
The Story So Far
Under Soil And Dirt (2011)
Pop punk has had a rough run of things since it owned rock music in the early 2000s. Bands like All Time Low and Waterparks can feel a little too weighted on the pop side of the genre’s equation, and a lot of the bands simply copied The Story So Far’s Under Soil And Dirt without the nous or originality. It felt like The Story So Far made pop-punk cooler than it’d been in a long time, alongside The Wonder Years, Balance & Composure and others.
Ever since “Quicksand” blew a hole in the punk rock stratosphere, The Story So Far have dictated trends and Parker Cannon is the most emulated vocalist in pop-punk. Their stoner take on the genre felt fresh and mature; songs like the hazy “Swords And Pens” and “Rally Cap” had an indie cool feel that the genre had rarely portrayed previously. Pop-punk for the Pitchfork generation, Under Soil And Dirt is as perfect a first impression as any band could wish to make.
5
The Offspring
Smash (1994)
Setting a record that is unlikely to ever be broken, The Offspring’s Smash is the biggest-selling independent album of all time. Kickstarting the band’s career after years of trading the boards with jaunty greatness like “Beheaded” and “Jennifer Lost The War,” “Self Esteem” and “Come Out And Play” catapulted The Offspring to superstardom as part of the post-Dookie wave of pop punk popularity. Gleefully declaring it wasn’t a “trendy asshole” on its title-track, Smash is as killer as they come.
Helped by a raw and unpolished production job from Thom Wilson, The Offspring felt more dangerous than Green Day and Rancid at this point in their respective careers. “Genocide,” “So Alone” and the expletive-ridden brilliance of “Bad Habit” slash away with reckless abandon, “Gotta Get Away” had an irresistible cool factor, and even the jaunty ska of “What Happened To You?” lands like an uppercut. They still play to tens of thousands of people, and it’s basically fueled by the songs on this collection and 1998’s Americana.
4
Four Year Strong
Enemy Of The World (2010)
With one foot in the easycore movement and the other in pop punk, Four Year Strong had everything on Enemy Of The World. In an era that was desperately lacking in the kind of hits, FYS unloaded the keyboard accompanied adrenaline rush of “Tonight We Feel Alive (On A Saturday)”, headbang-worthy riffing of “It Must Really Suck To Be In Four Year Strong Right Now” and percussive pummeling sealed out on the album’s catchiest number, “Wasting Time (Eternal Summer).” All that and there was yet more to come on the album tracks.
The dual-pronged vocal attack of Alan Day and Dan O’Connor added extra dimensions to Four year Strong’s catchiness, especially on “Find My Way Back” and “What the Hell Is A Gigawatt.” The band’s popularity was fleeting but Four Year Strong are in the midst of a creative resurgence. If nostalgia has you reaching for FYS, their latest run of albums are all really brilliant.
3
A Day To Remember
For Those Who Have Heart (2007)
Any of the first run of albums from the Floridians could be considered a 10 and there would be no arguments, as A Day To Remember are the best pop punk band of their generation. Hitting audiences with hulking metallic breakdowns that can please a Hatebreed or Suicide Silence fan, and choruses that need to be surgically removed, For Those Who Have Heart was a perfect first impression for the band to make. A fully realized original concept that was firing on all cylinders from the early part of their career.
Garnering attention for their sensational cover of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” A Day to Remember knew who they were instantly. “The Plot To Bomb The Panhandle” bounces and explodes with riffs and excitement, with a chorus from the gods, “The Danger In Starting A Fire” sounded like a pop-punk As I Lay Dying (and it worked), and Jeremy McKinnon has written elite vocal lines on everything he touched from this moment on.
2
New Found Glory
Sticks And Stones (2002)
Of the tens of thousands of artists who’ve graced the genre with their brilliance, no band loves pop punk like New Found Glory. Raised on every part of the genre and perfecting the ingenious twist of adding hardcore breakdowns to pop punk, New Found Glory’s self-titled album set them on their path to immortality. Its follow-up is the reason NFG are one of pop-punk’s best-loved bands.
Bursting with energy, pace, enthusiasm and quality, every song on Sticks And Stones feels like a single. “My Friends Over You” is pop-punk perfection, “Understatement” has the perfect blend of crunchy riffing and pop nous, and every single band member compliments one another superbly in NFG. Sticks And Stones is an album where the band feel like they’re having as much fun as the listener, and that energy makes this a timeless record.
1
Green Day
Dookie (1994)
The album that changed everything, Dookie isn’t given enough credit for its songs. The band was unquestionably in the right place at the right time, but Green Day were writing timeless songs for fun at this point in their career. In their outstanding book, The Hepatitis Bath Tub, NOFX admit that after hearing Dookie they knew everything was going to change. Some may cheapen it down to the MTV placement of “Basket Case” and guitar music needing a pick-me-up after Kurt Cobain’s death, but NOFX’s anecdote tells you these songs were undeniable, whether the stars aligned for its success or not.
Like The Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers, the Undertones and The Descendents before them, Green Day wrote pop songs using punk rock without diluting either concept. The guitars sound like the hum of a Marshall stack and the hack-and-slash style of Billie Joe Armstrong is undeniable. The songs are a mix of slacker cool and passionate sincerity, and every one of them rips out of the speakers with vitality and good vibes. The early albums are fantastic and loaded with some of the band’s greatest songs, but Dookie was the album that started Green Day’s Hall Of Fame-worthy career. The document speaks for itself.
