<em>Ramones – </em>Ramones

No genre can be invented in one moment. There were a slough of heavy bands before Black Sabbath became the fathers of metal, and the biggest names in grunge like Melvins and Mudhoney paved the way before Nirvana came in. And while everyone likes to think about pop-punk gaining traction in the 1990s, it was actually right there with the titans of the genre all along.

Now I know many people would like to pretend that Ramones is a punk band through and through, but all of the bones of a pop-punk band are there in their debut. All the songs are about adolescent angst and feelings of being bored, dejected, and unlucky in love, and with the boots and leather jacket, they also practically invented the idea of what pop-punk fashion could look like years before anyone got a hold of it.

The four non-brothers never bothered with using labels throughout their career, but even if they have influenced everyone from Green Day to Black Flag, the most hardened punks would know that there would be no version of Blink-182, Yellowcard, or even All Time Low without Ramones breaking down the door right alongside The Clash. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

<em>Does This Look Infected – </em>Sum 41

Most pop-punk bands didn’t need to worry about their chops to become one of the biggest acts in the world. If you were lucky, you could maybe parse out what sounded like a guitar solo in a handful of songs, and then it would be back to straight power chords throughout the rest of the tune. But in the middle of pop-punk’s reign in the early 2000s, Sum 41 dared to ask the question, ‘what happens if we actually learn how to play these instruments?’

Although their landmark album All Killer No Filler might not be the top-to-bottom masterpiece that the title would lead you to believe, Does This Look Infected took all of that potential and increased it tenfold. By bringing in influences from genres like heavy metal, songs like ‘Still Waiting’ took all of the brattiness of their early years and channelled it into pure anger, all while still keeping up the pop hooks on tunes like ‘The Hell Song’.

Their next album, Chuck, nearly pivoted away from pop-punk altogether, and their final run of albums saw them become more hard rock than punk half the time, but Does This Look Infected is that perfect sweet spot that makes for one hell of a ride. Not many people would have thought that the Canadian brats had it in them, but it turns out people can go a long way when they’re focusing on the riffs rather than the type of hair gel they’re using. 

<em>Riot! – </em>Paramore

For all of the great music Paramore has made, it’s hard to put them in any set box. Sure, they have pop tendencies in all of their songs, but judging by how different their self-titled record sounds next to After Laughter and This is Why, there’s a good chance that they could have put out a straight-up ska album and still made it sound great. But while Brand New Eyes was the bold, mature record after their breakout, Riot has everything that a pop-punk album needed circa 2007.

But one of the quirks of Paramore is how well they play with atmosphere in their songs. The hits are the hits for a reason, but the beautiful guitar work in ‘When It Rains’ and the more rootsy approach on ‘Fences’ were proof that they didn’t need to be the same band that sang about their problems. And for anyone still calling the band “that pop-punk band with the girl”, Hayley Williams put every single pop-punk singer to shame whenever she took the mic.

Not many people could boast sounding like a singer underneath all that whining back in the day, but Williams’s Mariah-esque vocal range was what kept people attuned to them whenever they changed genre. They were far from the brightest star at the time, but whereas bands like Simple Plan have aged like fine yoghurt over the past few years, Paramore were a great band on all fronts, and pop-punk was only one of the genres they mastered.

<em>Take Off Your Pants and Jacket – </em>Blink-182

If there was ever a punching bag for the golden age of pop-punk, it was bound to be Blink-182. There were far more juvenile bands that had begun whining whenever they got in the vocal booth, but rarely had any other act managed to reach the greatest heights with videos all about refusing to grow up and with songs that could have been punk-rock nursery rhymes. But if Enema of the State broke down the door, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket is where the depth comes in.

You wouldn’t think so with an album title like that, but this feels like the other side of what their previous outing was supposed to be. Tom DeLonge had already started hatching the idea for albums like Box Car Racer, and you can feel the urge to make something heavier on this outing, especially when they start making social commentary tracks like ‘Anthem Pt. 2’ or ‘Reckless Abandon’.

They may have been forced to make more commercial material like ‘The Rock Show’ and ‘First Date’ for the record, but there’s a reason why they made a third instalment in the ‘Anthem’ series of songs when they got back together. Because if you look at all of the best Blink albums, the ones that last the longest are the ones that strike that perfect balance of musical snideness and earnest emotions.

<em>Dookie – </em>Green Day

When Green Day first began, they never sought to be the kings of a new genre or anything. They had grown up in the underground punk scene in California, and a lot of their early records were all about them trying to make the catchiest melodies they could while still being respectable enough to play at 924 Gilman Street. But even if their core fanbase was pissed the minute they heard Dookie, the rest of the world saw a genre getting born before their eyes with every single track.

Not every song was the most thoughtful thing in the world, but Dookie provided the perfect answer to grunge when it came out. Most people didn’t need to hear about the same feelings of depression that had become all too real since Kurt Cobain’s death, and now that they had a band who were writing the occasional love song like ‘When I Come Around’ and an ode to masturbating out of boredom like ‘Longview’, they had found three kids that they felt like they knew personally.

And musically speaking, the album is absolutely perfect pop-punk, taking the model that Ramones started with and adding the biggest names in power-pop into the mix, whether that be the odd Cheap Trick-style guitar tone in a few songs or a melody so sweet that it could have been lifted from The Beatles. The rest of the genre had a lot more work to do, but for anyone slightly interested in pop-punk, this is ground zero where all other bands built their legacy.