10 Amazing Albums That Will Make You Love Pop Punk Music

Before pop punk was even a thought in our mind, most of the '90s scene was still immersed in irony. After the death of Kurt Cobain though, it was time for people to move on to something that was a little more optimistic than Seattle's finest singing songs that felt like odes to depression. We needed something upbeat, and Dookie was the flame that started a damn forest fire.

While Green Day didn't set out to be the kings of pop punk, their unique brand of adolescent antics and bulletproof hooks made them irresistible to every single kid growing up in the mid '90s. It's not hard to see why their original indie label head called them the punk version of the Beatles, as Billie Joe Armstrong puts together one killer hook after another and still hitting you right in the chest.

These songs aren't meant to be just your standard punk odes to nihilism either. Going through these tracks, you're practically reading the diary of what it's like to be a punk kid in the '90s, from not wanting to settle for a desk job on Burnout to the wonders of striking it out on your own and living in squats on Welcome to Paradise. In between that, Billie also gives us a look into his own psyche, with Basket Case being the most tuneful song about suffering from panic attacks. Above all else, this is the kind of record that captured a moment in time that can never really be reproduced. They might have not looked like your everyday rock stars, but Dookie was our reminder that being a misfit can be pretty damn awesome too.