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.
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New Found Glory, "My Heart Will Go On" (Céline Dion cover)
You could make a case that New Found Glory perfected modern pop-punk; not even up for debate is their stranglehold on the pop-punk covers album. The Florida band has released three collections of movie song covers, beginning with the 2000 EP From the Screen to Your Stereo, which peaked with this over-caffeinated, endearingly sincere ode to Jack and Rose. Listen here. – Chris Payne
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Alex Lahey, “Every Day’s the Weekend”
When you’re freshly smitten, what’s another, ahem, personal day when you two could really go for another long morning in bed? Australian hook-slinger Alex Lahey captures all those early relationship head spins and butterflies on “Every Day’s the Weekend,” as each chorus hits like another pot of coffee. – C. Payne. Listen here.
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The Wonder Years, "Flowers Where Your Face Should Be"
By the late 2010s, one of pop-punk’s most beloved bands was settling down into adulthood. The Wonder Years had built their reputation on endless charisma and the best lyrics ever fueled by pizza and PBR, but frontman Dan Campbell was ready to grow up alongside his fans. “Flowers Where Your Face Should Be” is a gorgeous slow-burner that finds a just-married Campbell recalling his picturesque wedding and hallucinating his longtime love’s face while dreaming on tour. Listen here. – C. Payne
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Man Overboard, "I Like You"
What’s sweeter than a song about falling in love with your best friend? “I Like You” is a tribute to that magical feeling of liking someone just as much as you love them. It’s for couples who are as just as excited about hand-holding as big romantic gestures. Best lyric goes to: “I like your face. That’s why I stare.” So damn cute. Listen here. – Hannah Dailey
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The Get Up Kids, "I'll Catch You"
Life on the road is tough enough for an early twenty-something; toss in ever-shifting time-zones and a long-distance relationship and you’ve got the recipe for one of emo’s most heartwarming love songs. On the closer to their 1999 classic Something to Write Home About, the Get Up Kids trade their pop-punk pogo hooks for this tender love letter-via-piano. Mixtapes exchanged between third-wave emo kids were never the same. Listen here. – C. Payne
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Something Corporate, "Punk Rock Princess"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo For Something Corporate, we could have gone with their epic-length tearjerker “Konstantine,” but this list’s more pop-punk than emo, and 10-minute songs are a risky bet on mixtapes, anyway. “Punk Rock Princess” is all hooks and power chord fireworks, with piano-pounding frontman Andrew McMahon imploring early 2000s high schoolers to make their first steps into Hot Topic and gather the courage to IM their crush. Listen here. – C. Payne
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Yungblud, "Cotton Candy"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Just because you don’t practice monogamy doesn’t mean you don’t deserve a love song. For those who don’t believe that less is more and like having a few more options, Yungblud’s got the perfect polyamory-positive song for you (and you, and you, and you). Listen here. — H. Dailey
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Motion City Soundtrack, "The Future Freaks Me Out"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo What year is it? Don’t bother asking Motion City Soundtrack frontman Justin Courtney Pierre and his heroine Betty – they’re so terminally nerdy and afraid to leave the apartment in this 2003 synth-punk jam that they’re having trouble keeping track of late ’90s culture (Will & Grace, drum and bass music), let alone the present. Today, “The Future Freaks Me Out” is so hopelessly dated that it’s practically timeless for couples feeling a little out of step… and because Pierre’s oh, oh-oh-oh hook is a slacker-rock all-timer. Listen here. – C. Payne
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The Starting Line, "The Best of Me"
Love can be complicated. No one knows that better than The Starting Line, whose youthful 2003 hit examines how mature conversations, forgiveness and time spent apart are sometimes needed to make a long-term relationship work. Frontman Kenny Vasoli sings it best: “We got older but we’re still young / We never grew out of this feeling that we won’t give up.” Listen here. — H. Dailey
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We the Kings, "Check Yes Juliet (Run Baby Run)"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Of course, at least one song based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is going to be on this list. We The Kings’ breakthrough hit about the cross-crossed, ill-fated lovers walked so that, just a few months later, Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” could run (baby run). Listen here. — H. Dailey
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No Doubt, "Bathwater"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Why do the good girls always want the bad boys? Just as swing mixes with ska in No Doubt’s “Bathwater,” romance mixes with toxicity as Gwen Stefani confesses to being in love with someone who actively chases other women. Instead of finding real intimacy in her relationship, Stefani finds unusual ways to feel close to her untamable man: sharing his toothbrush and bathing in his used bathwater. Who said love was hygienic? Listen here. — H. Dailey
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The Undertones, "Teenage Kicks"
“Teenage Kicks” is one of punk’s first great love songs. The Undertones loved Ramones, harmonies and handclaps, but not as much as a certain girl in the neighborhood that inspired this 1978 classic. Sexual longing, telephone calls, a big, syrupy chorus: “Teenage Kicks” picked up what the girl groups and boy bands were putting down, and proved punks could do it, too. Listen here. – C. Payne
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5 Seconds of Summer, "She Looks So Perfect"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Ah, the song that forever changed how we think of American Apparel’s underwear line. Sweet, sexy, cute and catchy, “She Looks So Perfect” is just an all-around delightful song. “Your lipstick stain is a work of art / I got your name tattooed in an arrow heart” — come on, what teenage girl wasn’t swooning over the guys of 5SOS after this one? Listen here. — H. Dailey
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Dead Milkmen, "Punk Rock Girl"
Back in 1988, Philly’s Dead Milkmen knew just the sort of girl hordes of young wannabes were dreaming of when they crafted this clever parody of punk-rock romance. The song’s narrator desperately tries to keep up with its titular badass as she slamdances and shouts “ANARCHY!” inside a pizzeria; it hardly matters when he learns she’s secretly been a rich girl slumming it all along. Listen here. – C. Payne
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Yellowcard, "Ocean Avenue"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Yellowcard’s “Ocean Avenue” is pop-punk’s best take on the “two lovers skipping town and running away together” fantasy. Filled with pining, angst and nautical metaphors, this track boosted the band into mainstream fame by giving them their first Billboard Hot 100 hit, peaking at No. 37 in 2004. Listen here. — H. Dailey
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Green Day, "2,000 Light Years Away"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Well before Dookie hit MTV, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong was just a Bay Area teenager writing songs to try and impress a girl he’d met once on tour in Minnesota (approximately 2,000 light years from California). But even back then, Armstrong had a killer knack for lovelorn choruses, as the band’s first great song shows. It even came to a happy ending: Billie Joe and the song’s subject, Adrienne, married in 1994. Listen here. – C. Payne
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Ramones, "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"
Pop-punk can be simple and sweet without becoming saccharine. Who knew? “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” is the Ramones’ “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” a buoyant, early Beatles-esque hook anchored by edgier guitars and Joey Ramone’s lumbering vocals. Listen here. – H. Dailey
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Blink-182, "Josie"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo For a band that’s been Punk Rock 101 to so many, Blink-182’s “Josie” similarly set the mold for the modern pop-punk love song. Juvenile but sincere, Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge sing the praises of a made-up, idealized girlfriend who’s way more independent and cooler than they are, but still takes time to bring them Mexican food and pick them up when they’re too drunk to drive. She likes cool bands and doesn’t mind when they’re “lacking in the bulge.” A holy text for pop-punk, and unsurprisingly, an enduring fan favorite. Listen here. – C. Payne
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Paramore, "Still Into You"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo “Still Into You” is one of the most joyous, blood-pumping musical celebrations of wholesome love in any genre, but especially pop-punk. Hayley Williams’ electric vocals, combined with one of Paramore’s catchiest hooks ever, makes for a candy heart sugar rush that lasts from start to finish, just as addictive as the steadfast romance described in the song’s lyrics. Listen here. — H. Dailey
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Avril Lavigne, "Sk8er Boi"
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo He was a boy, she was a girl; can we make it any more obvious? Avril Lavigne’s iconic “Sk8er Boi,” a single off her equally revered 2002 debut album Let Go, is the punk love story to end all punk love stories. A tale of love lost and found, this track’s got it all — angst, vengeance, shoutouts to MTV and the baggy clothing trends of the time (plus, a faint, more digestible trace of “other woman” blaming à la “Misery Business” by Paramore). Listen here. — H. Dailey