10 Greatest Pop Punk Bands Of All Time

10. Alkaline Trio

Most pop punk bands get the same criticism of being the watered-down version of punk rock. Despite some of the greatest punk acts of all time having catchy melodies, the "boy-bandification" of the genre has been following acts like New Found Glory and Simple Plan around for years. Then again, not many other pop-punk acts were willing to go as dark as Alkaline Trio.

For all of their punk rock street cred, the lyrical background behind a lot of Trio's songs are crazy dark when compared to the suburban sounds of your average pop punk act. Across records like Good Mourning and Crimson, you can tell that Matt Skiba worships at the altar of both The Cure and The Damned in equal measure, with tracks that have more than a little bit of a spooky tinge to it. Whereas most of these would fall into the hard rock spectrum with AFI, Trio has always maintained their rep as a punk act through and through.

While never hitting the massive heights of an act like Green Day, Alkaline Trio have earned their road stripes as a pop punk act, with Skiba eventually finding his way into the latest iteration of Blink-182. Even though they aren't everyone's first pick for punk giants, this brand of goth punk has held its own when put against the candy-fied version of the genre.