10 Greatest Pop Punk Albums In Rock History

The entire concept of pop punk had to have felt weird for the people who were there at punk's inception. After years of trying to be the antithesis to the mainstream, how dare these kids on major labels call themselves punk while playing some of the catchiest songs in the world? Well, not every pop punk band needs to be on a major label to kick ass.

Coming out of Bad Religion's label Epitaph, Smash by the Offspring is one of the few pop punk albums that seems to leave the pop part of punk behind a lot of the time. Compared to something like Yellowcard that would come a few years later, this is a straight up punk rock album that has a few traces of pop friendly songs on it, like the slacker song about broken love Self Esteem, where Dexter Holland makes the one and only good use of the word 'dweeb' in a punk rock song.

This album isn't afraid to take some chances either, like the weird exotic style riff that leads the charge on Come Out and Play, or stretching out the final track to over 10 minutes. The Offspring may have left this period of their career in the past since then, but Smash is enough to get the punkier side of the rock scene to pay attention.