10 Greatest Pop Punk Albums In Rock History
6. Singles Going Steady - Buzzcocks
When you're thinking of the traditional pop punk bands everyone knows, things normally start to take shape in the mid '90s. After bands like Nirvana had made way for something more authentic, that was when things started to sound a lot more fun and punk officially got its radio friendly makeover, right? Not exactly. Turns out we had to go back a little bit further than that.
While the Buzzcocks were definitely there during the golden age of punk, their singles always felt a little bit different than something like the Clash from around the same time. Complete with some of the catchiest hooks on songs like What Do I Get?, Singles Going Steady is practically a crash course for what pop punk would look like in the coming decades, sounding more like straight ahead pop songs that just happened to have some punk style production.
Since this is a compilation, you can basically cherry pick any song off of this record and find the seeds of some pop punk trope, like the preoccupation with sex on songs like Orgasm Addict or the complicated relationship problems going on in songs like Ever Fallen in Love. The Buzzcocks themselves may not have considered themselves pop punk at the time, but it wouldn't be surprising if half of the pop punk we know today borrowed from their songbook.