20 Best Pop-Punk Love Songs

Pop-punk isn’t often associated with romance. Bitterness, heartbreak, teenage silliness, railing against conformity – these are the touchstones of a genre that was born in the late ‘70s and never really grew up. Another long-running pop-punk tradition is attracting some of the most awkward kids around; if they’re going to tell their crush how they feel, best to leave it up to a song.

Pop-punk love songs do exist, however, and some of them are even — dare we say — romantic? Pop-punk forerunners like Ramones and the Undertones were really just overgrown teenagers with a secret love of bubblegum pop, so it’s no surprise the genre developed a knack for sticky hooks and lovey-dovey lyrics to match.

By the time the ‘90s rolled around, live wire bands like Green Day and Blink-182 were ready to take pop-punk to the masses. Along with their just-dangerous-enough good looks, their superpowers included the ability to distill mushy teenage hormones into spiky, two-and-a-half-minute guitar pop songs. We still haven’t quite recovered. In the decades that followed, artists like Avril Lavigne, Paramore and 5 Seconds of Summer made sure that pop-punk’s multi-generational pull lives on.

Below, we’ve gathered our picks for the 20 best pop-punk love songs, ranging from genre classics to deep cuts. To keep the list as varied as possible, we capped it at one song per artist; while you might be missing “The Only Exception” or “First Date,” we’re feeling pretty starry-eyed about the anthems we’ve collected here. We can’t bring back the summer or the Warped Tour, but these sure jog the memories.