Top 10 Most Unforgettable Pop-Punk Songs

The pop-punk scene ruled the early 2000’s and there’s no denying it anymore: it’s back, at least for now. Get ready to sing your teenage heart out because here are the top 10 pop-punk songs chosen by the MEB staff that you’ve probably not forgotten about, but we’ll just say you did to make it sound good.

10) “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” – Panic! at The Disco

What a wild and entertaining music video, I must say. A marriage between a family that is prim and proper and a family full of literal clowns is quite the combination. However, this song is immediately know the second the “duh-duh-duh” of the opening chords begin. Not to mention the entire first verse is iconic and one that has to be belted out at the top of your lungs. All in all, this song is what I personally grew up with on the radio and it made my love for Panic! stronger through the years.

Oh, well imagine
As I’m pacing the pews in a church corridor and I can’t help but to hear,
No, I can’t help but to hear an exchanging of words:
“What a beautiful wedding! What a beautiful wedding!” says a bridesmaid to a waiter,
“And, yes, but what a shame, what a shame the poor groom’s bride is a whore.”

9) “Best Of Me” – The Starting Line

“Best Of Me” is a summer record in the classic sense. It’s about young love and living out the dreams you had when you were 13. I remember listening to this song on my old pink iPod during my last class in high school, waiting for the bell to ring. The lyrics below are the song, they are what we all took away from this song. This line is what gets stuck in heads for the rest of the day and it’s right, we won’t give up on anything.

We got older but we’re still young
We never grew out of this feeling that we won’t give up

8) “The Anthem” – Good Charlotte

This is literally the anthem of our childhood; it says so in its name. Featured in many iconic movies like The Pacifier and American Pie Presents Band Camp, “The Anthem” is the loser’s anthem. It’s the song that makes losers seems cool, which obviously they always were anyway. This song just makes you want to get up, jump around, and be proud of who you are.

You, don’t wanna be just like you
What I’m sayin’ is, this is the anthem
Throw all your hands up
Y’all got to feel me, sing if you’re with me

7) “Ocean Avenue” – Yellowcard

When we hit our early 20s and go to college, we always think about our old stomping ground of where we used to grow up. We think about the people and the places that we’ve been to like sitting outside our high school on stone benches or at the park with feet dangling off the edges of the monkey bars – or was I just that crazy to climb the monkey bars and pray I didn’t fall down? That’s what this song is about. It’s not a girl in particular; instead, it’s about a scene and wanting to get that feeling of hanging out back. It’s easy to get lost in memories like that and that’s why this song is on this list.

There’s a piece of you that’s here with me
It’s everywhere I go, it’s everything I see
When I sleep, I dream and it gets me by
I can make believe that you’re here tonight

6) “American Idiot” – Green Day

We all know the song. It’s hard not to right as the song starts. The familiar power chords and the not-so-subtle jabs at conservatism in post-9/11 America go on to make this song legendary. It’s hard to not love a song that tells the truth and it’s not just another song about a relationship gone wrong. It talks of the reality of the United States as it went through wars and how being a redneck was a good thing. We’ll just stop there because Billie Joe Armstrong said it all: “Oh my God, why would you be proud of something like that?’ This is exactly what I’m against.”

Don’t want to be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It’s calling out to idiot America.

5) “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” – Fall Out Boy

We’ll start off with this: what even is this video? Even with this weird video, anyone with a brain knows exactly what song is playing by the first few guitar chords. A pounding anthem and a song that glorifies sex as emotional warfare, Fall Out Boy’s first hit song made its way onto the radio. I remember countless hours spent in the car with my dad trying to understand the lyrics of the chorus before we gave up and Googled it, making this song perfect for a classic pop-punk list.

I’m just a notch in your bedpost
But you’re just a line in a song

4) “The Middle” – Jimmy Eat World

“The Middle” literally sounds like a pep talk from a big sibling when life gets tough and feels just as comforting as if getting that pep talk in real life. The power-pop guitar, the Cheap Trick-esque solo, and the perfectly placed breaths between lines are the reasons this song made the list. When played today, it gives a rush of elation and bittersweet nostalgia for the reassuring lyrics and happy-sad melody that everyone, and I mean everyone, knew the moment it started playing.

Hey, you know they’re all the same.
You know you’re doing better on your own, so don’t buy in.
Live right now, yeah, just be yourself.
It doesn’t matter if it’s good enough for someone else.

3) “Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From The Team)” – Taking Back Sunday

There’s this energy when it comes to “Cute Without The ‘E’. It becomes bigger than what it actually is, bringing in a vibe that you only access when it comes to this song. When I think of this song, I think of blame and pointing a finger at someone, not that it’s a very good thing to think about. However, it’s the right song to play when you’re angry and need something off your chest.

Hoping for the best just hoping nothing happens
A thousand clever lines unread on clever napkins
I will never ask if you don’t ever tell me
I know you well enough to know you never loved me 

2) “My Friends Over You” – New Found Glory

This is an anthem song, plain and simple. New Found Glory stated that this song is always played last at live concerts to end the show with a bang. It’s a fun, party song that gets their audiences jumping to the beat. “My friends over you” is a very sarcastic, straightforward, bros before hoes line, proving that though it’s that time in your life that the opposite sex tries to outweigh your friends, you’ll always choose your friends no matter what.

Though you swear that you are true
I still pick my friends over you

1) “What’s My Age Again?” – Blink-182

This is definitely a no brainer as to why this song is number one. Deemed a classic punk-pop song, “What’s My Age Again” revolves around the onset of maturity and lack of behavioral changes. But, let’s be real, what teenager wants to let go of the times when they could run around – naked, I might add – and not care about what they’re doing? This song also gave the unwanted reputation of nudity to Blink-182, leading them to take more creative control in later years.

That’s about the time that she broke up with me
No one should take themselves so seriously
With many years ahead to fall in line
Why would you wish that on me?
I never wanna act my age
What’s my age again?