Punk rock music has been a staple in the genre for decades. It is a rebellious sound that sought to rage with fast guitar-based songs and expel a lot of emotion and energy. But over time, some within the sub-genre have meandered their way to more of a mainstream appeal. And that is especially the case in the decade of the 2000s.
Below, we wanted to explore three such songs. A trio of tracks from some giant names within punk rock that have made songs that have managed to hit on mainstream radio. While keeping the stripped-down, rudimentary form of songwriting that defines punk, these offerings have also become so catchy that a big audience can’t deny them. Indeed, these are three classic pop-punk songs from the 2000s.
[RELATED: 3 Songs You Didn’t Know Avril Lavigne Wrote for Other Artists]
“Fat Lip” by Sum 41 from All Killer No Filler (2001)
What begins almost like a Beastie Boys rap song turns into a chunking, riffy pop-punk track. And it had all the high school kids at the turn of the century buzzing. Indeed, this track from the Canadian-born rock group Sum 41 is one-part rage and one-part commercial hit. Utilizing a catchy guitar lick, the song takes off, talking about high school, getting drunk, and partying. What else could a young punk rocker want? And it does it all with a hooky flair that made it top the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. On the tune, lead vocalist Deryck Whibley sings,
I know I’m not the one you thought you knew back in high school
Never going, never showing up when we had to
Attention that we crave
Don’t tell us to behave
I’m sick of always hearing “act your age”
I don’t wanna waste my time
Become another casualty of society
I’ll never fall in line
Become another victim of your conformity and back down
“Sk8er Boi” by Avril Lavigne from Let Go (2002)
The pop-punk song that had a whole generation fall in love with Avril Lavigne. Another Canadian-born pop-punk rocker, Lavigne released this number from her debut LP Let Go in 2002. It was a love story about two teens who were infatuated with one another but social norms kept them apart. Like The Breakfast Club, sometimes young people are pushed to opposite ends of the social spectrum. But if you listen to those instead of your heart, then you could end up in a crowd all alone watching the “sk8er boi” performing his hit song. Sings Lavigne on the Grammy-nominated track,
Five years from now
She sits at home
Feeding the baby, she’s all alone
She turns on TV
Guess who she sees
Skater boy rockin’ up MTV
She calls up her friends
They already know
And they’ve all got tickets to see his show
She tags along
And stands in the crowd
Looks up at the man that she turned down
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day from American Idiot (2004)
One of the icons of modern day pop punk music, Green Day released their seminal album American Idiot in 2004. On it was this buzzy, forlorn “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” which tells the story of Jesus of Suburbia (the album’s main character) walking a lonely journey. They say that in life, we are born alone and we die alone. And here, the main character is reconciling with that in a bleak era for America. After all, Green Day wrote the album given the dire political and war-torn landscape of the early 2000s. Sings lead vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong,
I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don’t know where it goes
But it’s home to me, and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I’m the only one, and I walk alone
I walk alone, I walk alone
I walk alone
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