10 Greatest Bass Players In Rock Music History

Out of all the adjectives you can use to describe pop punk, virtuoso is way too far down the list to even mention.

Since most of these songs are dead simple to learn when just picking up your guitar, any joker can get by in a pop punk band with a weeks' worth of guitar classes and a few splotches of hair dye in their hair. Still, there are always those few punk legends that will leave the posers in the dust.

Despite being a part of one of the biggest punk bands in the world, Green Day's Mike Dirnt has a much more sophisticated approach to the bass than you would normally assume. Looking at it more as the a lead instrument, much of Green Day's early records have him flying all over the four string, even playing with the melody here and there to keep the groove moving.

While Mike did go back to a more straight ahead support role at the turn of the century, the songs that we will remember from this man is the walking bassline that drives Longview or the amazing bass break in the middle of the song Stuck With Me. When put up against all of his pop punk peers, Mike Dirnt seems to be the only bass player who has actually done his homework.