10 Greatest Pop Punk Bands Of All Time

Falling into the category of pop punk often comes with its fair share of hangups. Regardless of how much attention you get on MTV or otherwise, there's always that contingency of punk fans who see these acts as nothing more than a mockery of what they were building towards. If there was any exception to that rule though, it would have to have been the Offspring.

That is, in the early days. Long before the actual pop punk genre started to take off, the Offspring were already making waves in the skate punk scene of California, going so far as to play the legendary venue 924 Gilman Street and being signed to punk label Epitaph Records. Once the punk scene started to pick up steam though, the songwriting of Dexter Holland hit a raw nerve on MTV, making their record Smash one of the highest selling independent records ever made.

Instead of just dipping into obscurity, there was more than enough gas in the tank to carry them over, knocking it out of the park again with Americana on the strength of songs like The Kids Aren't Alright. Even some of the lower lights of their catalog like Days Go By are still miles better than an act like Good Charlotte could ever hope to be. While there's always a ton of manufacturing in pop punk, The Offspring is what happens when you're so good that the labels come to you.