20 Forgotten Pop Punk classics you need to know

Long before the All Time Low guys were telling Maria to count them in and Neck Deep were getting through long, lonely Decembers, there was a pop punk renaissance of the early 2000s. These four chord anthems of heartache, teen angst and lip rings are relics most likely found on scratched up CD-Rs underneath the driver's seat of your first car and instantly make you reminisce holding hands under the High School bleachers and romantically sharing ear buds in the back of English class. These are the forgotten songs that made you pogo dance in your room, doodle anarchy symbols in the margins of your notebooks and asked the eternal question "What's the Dillio?"
Maybe these pop punk staples made it into heavy rotation on your Spotify playlist, maybe you'll immediately remember all of the lyrics and start singing along, or hell, maybe you weren't even born when these came out. Regardless, these are 20 songs that lived in the space between Blink-mania and the phenomenon of All Time Low and contain some of the absolute best choruses you'll ever hear in your life.
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[@kayainit]

The late 90s early 2000s really were a special time

[@sawgaw1982]

A lot of bad pop-punk after then.

[@scottthegreat9393]

kayainit they really were. 🙏🏼

[@zeussmith7507]

What the hell is his profile picture XD

[@thebigm]

@@sawgaw1982 Exactly - maybe if you were 12 it was good but holy hell there was a lot of garbage as this video proves.

[@leoalex2344]

No, it really wasn't.

[@alexanderisde4d]

When sugarcult came up I felt my stomach curl from nostalgia

[@madmikemike]

^wow really, spam? Sugarcult rocks especially live. I was blown away when I saw them, even like 5 years ago

[@Hakuonu]

There on the radio by me all the time

[@HerefortheOGvideos]

SAME

[@majimagor0]

Same ugh

[@SuperYoshiInvasion]

I still listen to that song all the time on Spotify xD

[@LoserKidMusic]

The early 2000s was the era of pop punk. I’m pretty sure even Disney, Nickelodeon, etc. had elements of pop punk in shows

[@WornxLipstick]

Drake & Josh was pop punk af.

[@poopoo6348]

Simple Plan made what’s new Scooby Doo’s intro

[@fergonza2362]

Claire Holland I remember a millencolin poster in their room....amazing!!!

[@andrealara994]

Dance Dance (fob) was the background music in Nick ads.

[@cullanom]

yeah early 2000s-2007 is really a good time to live on music 2008 kinda going down a little bit

[@BlondeWickAU]

Did anyone else not want this video to stop

[@PeeBottle]

How Audio Karate never blew up is crazy to me. You can hear their influence in newer bands like title fight

[@jalenforty8491]

Love seeing the love for Cartel. Honestly so far ahead of their time, they still sound so fresh even in 2021.

[@manoverboard679]

I'll give AP credit this is actually a pretty good list. I was fully expecting "forgotten" songs from like 5 years ago

[@altpress]

manoverboard679 Thank you!!! Do you have any favorites on this list?

[@lazerbeamlightningstorm5844]

A.P. was where it was at back then. It's cool they are still going.

[@adamcastillo3976]

Valencia was so great!! I use to jam them all the time along with Amber Pacific, and Spitalfield!

[@princegeminicostan7205]

Amber Pacific was really good

[@soupinthecan]

The lead singer of Gob is now part of Sum 41 And half this list is full of nostalgia for me! Some I found out about from the Punk-O-Rama collection

[@patrickbateman3944]

American Hi-Fi's Flavor of the Week and Homegrown's You're not Alone should've been on this list. :P

[@secretworldcomics]

Number one Cartel fan right here. Most underrated band of all time

[@stompingrabbit]

Allister - Somewhere on Fullerton should be on the list as well!

[@trainreck182]

Mihajlo Zorić came in here to say this

[@manoverboard679]

Homegrown too

[@stompingrabbit]

gotta love that drive thru era!

[@jennasalzan1808]

Mihajlo Zorić TRUE AS FUCK

[@cxssetteman182]

Along with Treble Charger- American Psycho

[@elizabethmcguire1366]

Damn I remember seeing a good chunk of these dudes at warped tour back in the day. Those were the days!

[@potts7494]

Elizabeth McGuire at least you went to Warped Tour T.T

[@Npc3231]

All of these remind me of the scooby doo movies

[@altpress]

COLONEL CAPSLOCK 😂😂 SCOOBY-CORE!!!

[@suryoardi7109]

Yes.. You say true

[@xxaussiegamerxx5071]

A band called Simple Plan made the Scooby Doo theme for the Tv show “What’s New Scooby Doo” in the 2000s. “What’s new Scooby Doo? We’re coming after you!” Is a lyric from the song.

[@kylehegedus5498]

ZOINKS!!!!

[@GenkinoDE]

Fenix TX was one of my favorites back then. I just dug out their old record a few weeks ago and listened to the whole damn thing again. It's still great.

[@shanetaylor2337]

Those guys were really good and they toured with Blink 182 a little I think. I really love the songs All my Fault and Phoebe Cates!I

[@utahgator1]

They did tour with blink. That was when I discovered them. I still love Fenix Tx

[@mattcombs]

Check out the CRE.EP album they put out in 2016. Only a few songs, but they still sounded great on it.

[@bfluker85]

Dear god this was a rush of nostalgia that I completely forgot. The late 90s-mid 2000s were a pretty great time to clone of age musically

[@avenge111]

Thanks AP for bringing back my teen-angst

[@altpress]

Aron Diaz You are quite welcome

[@fransea]

In 2009, one of the guys at Valencia’s warped tour tent asked me to listen to some of their music. I bought a CD for $2. Good times.

[@user-fc2jg9tl2y]

You remember buying any “shut up and deal” from 09?

[@OliverTheOliphant]

Same thing happened to me at Warped quite a while back. Some young girl brought a discman over and had us listen to her band Paramore's album. Bought a CD and still find it cool that the first time I heard Paramore was on Hayley Williams's discman.

[@LAKESICK]

in 2023 one of the dudes from LAKESICK asked if you'd wanna check out some of our tunes too lmao

[@CraigJukes]

These songs are still on repeat for me 20 years later

[@signaturetattoo2078]

How could anyone forget Cartel? Chroma was such a solid album!

[@RobinPagola]

Thank you very much! I've been looking for that Most song for a few years, I just didn't remember the name nor the lyrics. Again, thanks a lot!

[@thatrocker78]

SR-71 was just a forgotten band in general honestly, they had some amazing songs, but i don’t know if it’s safe to say memory by Sugarcult is forgotten

[@rowdybrothers9177]

2 years late but I just got into SR-71

[@rowdybrothers9177]

I mean they had the og 1985

[@bayleyaustin2202]

The SR-71 mention made me happy! That band is awesome!!

[@whereta3097]

My honorable mention : Matchbook Romance, I still listen to them to this day!

[@clownerypatrol4261]

Chroma by Cartel is a classic pop punk record Also who could possibly forget the ataris???

[@altpress]

Emily Merrell 100,000% agreed.

[@rhi2400]

Emily Merrell right? I still listen to them sometimes when I wanna feel nostalgic😍

[@InkAndPoet]

Emily Merrell, I was hoping The Ataris were on this list!!!!

[@IDiggPattyMayonnaise]

Cartel is still heavy in my rotation. Ill put it on with people and watch the lightbulb moment the remember

[@lucascollier8728]

No one is forgetting chroma, ever.

[@helloifailed]

I got excited when I saw Honestly and Beating Heart Baby because I was in a show called It's Not A Phase for the School of Rock I go to and we had both of those songs in the show. Amazing songs!

[@WheresWaldo05]

One of the best, more obscure playlists for green day-like pop rock, i have ever seen.

[@samb1232]

Oh my god I actually jumped when I heard Midtown. I love that band so much

[@isetmfriendsofire]

Same, so why'd they pick their only non pop punk album for this list? xD

[@GlassheartRecords]

Tsunami Bomb was super under-rated. I found them through a PS2 demo disc, they provided their song "The Invasion From Within" for the game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. 10/10 game & 10/10 song

[@genericusername1245]

Matt Perez yessss!! I loved Agent M so much! Still follow her on Facebook lmao

[@aslifae1849]

Tsunami Bomb- Lemonade = my life anthem

[@ns671fr]

Like the lemonade song

[@drkilgore6661]

Zebrahead, SR-71, and Sugarcult take me back to middle school!!!😊

[@SymphanyinSorrow]

I'll never forget Sugarcult! I still check once a month if anything new is happening!

[@true2dagame]

I still listen to all of these on a regular basis lmao, allister and the movielife should be on here too!

[@cpd182js]

GOB, Mest, Fenix TX, Sugarcult, The Ataris, Unwritten Law.... right in the nostalgia. Guess I know what I'm listening to today.

[@sabrinacastrodale]

THE NOSTALGIA HIT AND IT HIT *HARD*

[@ceirwan]

Are you kidding? These have never left my playlist :D

[@rofflesvanwagon]

The matches were terribly underrated their second album is absolutely amazing

[@ryanlee122787]

Paris Campos E Vandal is still my shit

[@TiddiesMcgee]

Listened to decomposer today. Still an amazing album.

[@drakedopp8474]

Paris Campos the matches are the shit in so many levels. I've been a fan since the first listen and I still rep them to this day!

[@omegasiferx100]

Hell yes! Bought plane tickets to see them on all three of their most recent 10-year anniversary tours

[@90sPunkRockCovers]

Pretty dope list. Glad to see The Matches in there.

[@benjaminmikell6386]

Yeah. That's really the one that made the list for me.

[@jonat8089]

These were the days. Watch and learn kids.

[@ShadowCat1321]

OMFG I CAN'T BELIEVE SPILL CANVAS MADE THIS LIST. I figured they'd be left off like Allister was. And Glasseater...and Mae...and the Audition...o_O This video brings back good memories...gooooood memories. I keep coming back to add more bands. I need to go away.

[@thegameshowgame9107]

Fenix Tx is a criminally underrated band. Good humor and better talent.

[@adambaranek]

After they broke up in 2002, Will and Chris played in a great band called "Denver Harbor": kzbin.info/www/bejne/enqwmYmAnNiZe5o They never really took off though which is a shame. I guess all's well that ends well because Fenix TX is back together.

[@jasunhayhurst6975]

Hell yeah for The Spill Canvas! Their new EP this year is the hype

[@WhoaItsSam]

New EP? What?

[@kyeoptawerk93ah]

Wait they still put out music? Well theres another high school band i need to get back into

[@WhoaItsSam]

I’m either not looking hard enough, or Bus Boy is trolling.

[@noelle4460]

Thank you for giving me more bands to listen to!! 💕💕💕

[@altpress]

an expensive mistake Thanks for watching!!!

[@user-mx3ej5tz6f]

Thank you guys

[@Renav21]

Sugarcult is the most underrated band of all of those! Memory, Los Angeles and Out of Phase are incredible

[@haroldpierce1987]

No love for worst December?

[@thepunkrawkguru4794]

Unwritten Law is actually

[@taylorcrook7202]

Wow this shows me how I need to listen to more underrated songs in Pop Punk. I only know one! "All over you" by The Spill Canvas great song I love it!

[@Honeybee1649]

Never will be 100% forgotten I loved these bands and songs growing up and will never stop loving them!

[@chYnaRIP]

Sugarcult is definitely not forgotten. And I have that Audio Karate song on playlist I listen too about 4x a week.

[@shakzestampador5617]

Nice thanks uploader! 😊😊

[@brianthealien1825]

SR-71, Sugarcult, Zebrahead yessss

[@Char98]

Wow I only knew one of these 😂🙃 It was SR-71 “right now”

[@altpress]

The Realest Did you like any of the others?

[@Char98]

Alternative Press yea they all sound like stuff I would listen to now

[@kylehegedus5498]

The Realest Or as I call it the song from “Dude, Where’s My Car?”

[@BlueHouseofficial_]

Same though, and I'm a huge late 90's early 00's popunk/punkrock fan.

[@zims50]

Listen to the ataris. Especially looking back on today.

[@seansim4799]

audio karate nintendo 89. omfg you just reminded me of one of my favorite songs. That was when I started play pro paintball, thank you.

[@stryprks]

Good list, AP! 🍻

[@moebacca]

Totally forgot about Meg & Dia. Loved that group so much back in the day.

[@GolfCoyote]

Holy shit do I feel old right now...

[@theshack87]

When The Spill Canvas said "I'm all over you, I'm not over you", I felt that shit.

[@kayleighhadley200]

Pfft forgotten most of these I still listen to today, its the stuff I grew up with! Love a good nostalgia trip

[@altpress]

Kayleigh Hadley So happy you enjoyed it!! Thanks for watching! We love this music so much too. Any favorites on the list?

[@thebige7302]

So glad i got into this genre of music even all these years later, burnout 3 was a big part of my childhood and it had what i would argue is still the best video game ost ever

[@Hairlesswookie62]

"I'm sure I remember all these songs... HOLY SMOKING HELL, AUDIO KARATE!"

[@megankaczmarczyk]

So many songs that were always on repeat during my high school years! The Matches are still one of my faves

[@SakuraK123]

A majority of these songs hit me like freight train because of the nostalgia!

[@pantsnjacket381]

How can you forget ALLISTER?!?!

[@altpress]

Antoni C. Astacio Mistakes were made...

[@Nate-by5fq]

Midtown SR-71 Sugarcult The matches The Pink Spiders Valencia Zebrahead These are the only ones I Know 😂 I will definitely listen to the others though

[@fergonza2362]

Band Trash I recommend fenice Tx and audio karate

[@sanfranpunk]

Tsunami Bomb is a must!

[@chandlerjordan2123]

Glad to see midtown get some love!

[@mca..]

I was hoping to see RUFiO on this list :/

[@altpress]

Mike Carb Wooooow did we drop the ball on that.

[@cptchimpo]

I agree. Eve 6, and goldfinger too.

[@shotgunh2o139]

Alternative Press where was gold fingered

[@johnyoung2475]

@@altpress Massive kudos for acknowledging that you missed Rufio. I would have liked to see them to, but I am glad to see the admission that things will be over looked sometimes. Truly rare these days. Awesome list!

[@Lupen1993]

Long live Pop punk!😎

[@altpress]

Mc Bet POP PUNK FOREVER AND EVER.

[@imthebause]

Midtown, SR-71, and Sugarcult back to back to back brings me back. Classics

[@SINOWred]

props on adding midtown. still one of my favorite bands of all time

[@DamnDstryr]

After all these years I'm still listen Sugarcult :)

[@marcosnew9256]

i came here just for the Cartel's thumbs!!!

[@jimmymccord4121]

Great list AP but missed quite a few: Allister, No Use for a Name, Saves the Day, Home Grown, Punchline, Riddling kids, Goldfinger, Motion City Soundtrack, Lucky Boys Confusion, American Hi-Fi, MXPX, Millencolin, Never Heard of It, the starting line. That’s just a few of them!

[@svenkiH]

I hear you Calling really brings me back some

[@kikihammel3340]

Cartel - Say Anything (else) is a real classic, it should be there inda video.

[@ramandayura5116]

So much nostalgia

[@RyanRBibiw]

drive-thru records album, nostalgic af!

[@TheDavemaster300]

This was a good list

[@skj500]

Give It Up by Midtown is one of my all time favorites ❤

[@gothichorrorcliche]

I LOVE HONESTLY BY CARTEL IM SO HAPPY ITS ON HERE

[@marchelinho6492]

I’ve never forgotten Midtown!

[@PIEMANRUES]

The best thing about this for me is I only knew about 3 of these songs. So thank you for enlightening me :)

[@123bored3]

One does not simply forget about Ashley Parker Angel,Cartel,The Ataris, or Sugarcult.

[@altpress]

ppp 101010 You’re damn right. Which was your favorite?

[@123bored3]

Alternative Press Has to be Sugarcult for sure. I didn’t even notice the band was that old with how often I listen to them

[@jordons606]

The Spill Canvas 💕

[@kmw5100]

Never forgot most of these. Been a pop punk die hard since I was just a skater kid in the late 90s listening to punk and found pop punk along the way.

[@mattjohnson5568]

Im still rocking most of these songs!

[@goodobaggins]

Lol unwritten law is still a huge band and that’s still a massively played radio song

[@altpress]

Zachary Weissenberger And it definitely should be.

[@mistyrush6609]

Zachary Weissenberger hands down one of my favorites

[@IDiggPattyMayonnaise]

Not forgotten, its just the majority of the "fans" back day were scene kids. They changed scenes with whatever trend was next. Ill always play 00s pop punk/emo like people play 80s.

[@whereta3097]

IDiggPattyMayonnaise same

[@LT72884]

Facts! This was all music from my high school days

[@duanehicks6962]

Totally agree with Gob. That song is awesome!

[@nierohsplaylist]

I still listen to the spill canvas and a few others on this list lol makes me think of MySpace

[@Pinewellgaze]

I think it's sad that no one even thinks about, let alone remembers the swellers In my opinion, they were THE underappreciated band

[@altpress]

R. Harrison Holt We LOVE The Swellers!! They were just a little too modern for this particular list.

[@Pinewellgaze]

Punk Guy thanks Although ups and downsizing is my fav

[@jtittle88]

Duuuuuuude I listen to the swellers on the regular!!

[@narveysworld7412]

I still rock Audio Karate

[@aaron_b_1824]

Narvey's World me too

[@ChristopherPaulOder]

Cauterize, Allister, STUN were so forgotten, they couldn't even make the forgotten list.

[@mikealext]

Pop punk is a strong word to describe most of these bands.

[@aaronchamberlain4698]

Wow this was a good list. My take aways: 1. Music videos used to have a budget. 2. Some songs did not age well. I forgot "What's the Dillio" was even a phrase so having a single named after it was just asking to be forgotten.

[@covert1253]

Best music Genre hands down, better than the crap we have now.

[@sixty-nine3574]

It’s nice they could fit in 4 or 5 pop punk bands in between the other 15 alt rock bands

[@user-bd6oo2jf4i]

Great list!!! I’ll add some honorable mentions: 1.) Finch-What it is to Burn 2.) Lagwagon-May 16 3.) Mest-Rooftops 4.) The Story So Far-Quicksand 5.) Danger is my Middle Name-Here We Go 6.) Madina Lake-Here I Stand 7.) Juliana Theory-If I Told you this was killing me, Would you stop? 8.) Love Me Butch-Come Out, Come Out 9.) Red Jumpsuit Apparatus-Face Down 10.) +44-When your Heart Stops Beating

[@blanket101]

Meg and Dia!!!!! =)

[@ruanalvesc]

Gob!!!!!!

[@paynefool8350]

this could be one hell of a playlist \m/

[@luqmanmahfodz9458]

The ataris and useless id still relevant till this day.

[@kayblinky]

That Cartel song is still 🔥