6 Best Pop-Punk Bands

4. The Offspring

19735 Offspring Photo4

Though they had minor punk hits with "Jennifer Lost the War" and "Kick Him When He's Down" in the late '80s/early '90s, The Offspring didn't really explode onto the pop-punk scene until 1994's multiplatinum "Smash," which spawned the ubiquitous singles "Self Esteem," "Come Out and Play," and - my favorite from this album - "Gotta Get Away." Proving they weren't just a one-album wonder though, they continued their chart-topping hits with the underrated "Ixnay on the Hombre," my favorite album of theirs, and then -conversely - the overrated "Americana," which became their most popular album with "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)," "The Kids Aren't Alright," and the curiously familiar "Why Don't You Get a Job," which I mentioned in my article on Musical Déjà Vu. It's true they've been criticized for adding too many "Heys" and "Woahs" to their choruses (their contemporaries and former label-mates NOFX even mocked them with their snarky song "Woah on the Woahs"), but The Offspring, a band name I still believe would sound better as simply Offspring, have never sold out - even after 2 and a half decades.
Contributor

Michael Perone has written for The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore City Paper, The Island Ear (now titled Long Island Press), and The Long Island Voice, a short-lived spinoff of The Village Voice. He currently works as an Editor in Manhattan. And he still thinks Michael Keaton was the best Batman.