From hitmakers like Machine Gun Kelly and Olivia Rodrigo to comparatively under-the-radar bands, pop punk is having a big moment right now. This edition of 'In Defense of the Genre' looks at 10 of the best recent songs that pop punk has to offer.
Pop punk has never gone away, but it's in the air right now and it's more popular than it's been in a very long time. You can really argue that pop punk has existed as long as punk itself, as pioneering punk bands like the Ramones and the Buzzcocks were writing songs with pop melodies since day one, but I would say pop punk as we know it began to take shape in the 1980s with bands like Descendents and Bad Religion, exploded in the mid '90s with bands like Green Day, The Offspring, Rancid, and NOFX, exploded even more at the turn of the millennium with blink-182 and the bands who blew up in their wake like Sum 41 and New Found Glory, and hit one last commercial peak in the mid 2000s with bands like Fall Out Boy, Paramore, and All Time Low. As pop punk receded from the mainstream in the late 2000s, it became an underground phenomenon thanks to defenders like The Wonder Years, The Story So Far, and Man Overboard.
Even as pop punk became a thing of the past to the general public, the genre lived on as an influence on many of the past decade's critically acclaimed indie rock bands, and it began re-entering the mainstream in the late 2010s as hip hop, pop, and electronic artists began interacting with it, and subgenres like emo-rap and hyperpop gained steam. It's no exaggeration to say that we wouldn't be talking about a mainstream pop punk revival today without the influence of emo-rap trailblazers like Lil Peep and Juice WRLD, both of whom had their lives tragically cut short at 21 years old. Hip hop and pop punk had interacted before -- Travis Barker's rap album, Fall Out Boy's song with Lil Wayne, the entire existence of Gym Class Heroes -- but now-iconic songs like Peep's "Witchblades" and Juice WRLD's "Lucid Dreams" blurred these genre lines more effectively than their forebears, and they did so with a fresh perspective that appealed to a generation who only experienced Enema of the State as a historical document.
In the past year or so, pop punk's presence in the mainstream has gone from a lingering influence to a full-blown revival. It's been aided not just by the new genre-fluid versions of pop punk, but also by TikTok, where nostalgic millennials and music-hungry Gen Z-ers can all agree that "Dear Maria, Count Me In" slaps. There's been a rapidly-growing number of breakout songs, including one that topped the Billboard Hot 100, and there's also been an exciting new wave of comparatively underground pop punk bands. Some of those bands may not remain underground for long, especially if the increased attention on the genre creates a demand for small punk bands to take the mainstream leap like it once did.
With the pop punk revival in full effect, I've picked 10 songs from the past year or so that prove the genre is alive and well. Some of these you've probably heard just from walking out your front door or opening TikTok, and others are a little more under the radar. Regardless of the differences in popularity, they're all equally worth hearing. Read on for the list (in no particular order) and let us know your favorite new pop punk songs in the comments...