Are you tired of watching good music videos that seem to have purpose and at least some form of artistic direction? Well then you’re in luck, because we have compiled a list of the top 10 pop punk music videos that will make you forget that you’re now closer to 40 than your teenage years. So, slip on your checkerboard Vans, spike up your hair, track down your old disgusting lip ring, and get ready to mispronounce random words like head, because we’re ranking the only pop punk music videos we could find that didn’t completely suck ass.
10. Yellowcard “Ocean Avenue”
First up, we have “Ocean Avenue” by Yellowcard, the hometown heroes of Jacksonville, Florida. You may remember them as the only pop punk band to somehow pull off playing a violin while whining about first-world problems like the lack of rain in California or the troubles of dealing with too many lights and sounds. It might take you a minute into watching this video to realize that it’s essentially a pop punk version of “Groundhog Day,” with the day always starting with frontman Ryan Key throwing himself through a window. I mean sure–it’s complete dogshit compared to the greatness that is “Groundhog Day,” but hey at least there’s some attempt at a theme in this video. It also includes chase scenes featuring multiple individuals dressed in skinny ties and other stupid clothing, making the video just about as pop punk as it gets.
9. Modern Baseball “Your Graduation”
We know what you’re thinking–why is there a video from 2014 on this list when pop punk rightfully died out in like 2010? Well, apparently news travels slow in Pennsylvania because Philadelphia band Modern Baseball’s song “Your Graduation” is packed with everything you’d expect from a hit 2000s pop punk single’s music video. With its high school setting and several stereotypical coming-of-age breakups, it’s the perfect shitshow of teenage angst and the petty drama that you’d expect from pop punk puppy love. We should note that upon release it took most viewers till about 2 minutes into the video to realize that the singer wasn’t Haley Joel Osment attempting to form a pop punk band a decade too late, but rather just some other kid that looks like him who can’t even see dead people. Let’s just say that there’s a reason this music video endlessly appears in pop punk fans’ YouTube algorithms. It fits right in with the best even with Modern Baseball trying to sneak in a 10th inning of pop punk relevance.
8. Paramore “Misery Business”
Everyone’s high school had that one student who looks 15-years-older than everyone else that would forcefully cut off girls’ hair and randomly assault kids right? Wait–yours didn’t? Of course not! Because this is a pop punk music video after all–a video that takes place in a world where we’re not grounded in reality and bullies could straight up merc kids in the hallway with practically zero repercussions. Paramore’s music video for “Misery Business” is the ultimate throwback to the days of high school cliques where assholes with names like Britney could make your life a living hell on a daily basis. Starring pop punk legend Hayley Williams as the ultimate outsider, we get to see the world of the popular douchebags through her eyes. Although a jail sentence for the bully would probably be more fitting, it’s hard not to feel at least a little bit triumphant when Hayley finally gets her revenge at the end of the video by leading a pop punk rebellion against the school’s biggest menace. Plus, the song is a total banger that we’ll all be singing for eternity, so it’d be a crime to not include the video in our list.
7. The Offspring “Why Don’t You Get a Job?”
The Offspring’s sense of humor is on full display in their 1999 music video for “Why Don’t You Get a Job?” Right off the bat, the video starts bizarrely with frontman Dexter Holland sporting ‘90s frosted tips and a shell necklace flying into a peaceful suburban neighborhood on a hang glider, with of course zero explanation whatsoever as to why. Comedy gold right? He then strolls down the street slowly gathering an entourage of people singing about what it’s like to have a friend with a shitty girlfriend, like some weird pop punk Mardi Gras street band. It includes a teenage fast food worker getting a milkshake dumped on his face by his girlfriend before throwing himself out of a window. Also, side note–what’s with so many kids getting thrown out of windows in pop punk music videos? We’re only 3 videos into this list and it’s already happened twice. And if that’s not enough, a BMX biker falls off a roof shortly thereafter in this video, so we’re guessing people falling off of shit is covered extensively in Pop Punk Music Video Directing 101. Anyway, the fact that the song ends up covering both shitty girlfriends and boyfriends is what makes the video stand out. Right when the jokes start to get stale we get to see the other side of the equation that’s arguably more repulsive than the girlfriend.
6. Jimmy Eat World “The Middle”
Die hard fans of Jimmy Eat World might be surprised by their inclusion in this list. After all, they are known as one of the bands that invented emo right? Well, pop punk’s arguably most popular band blink-182 have even stated on the record that their first albums were sort of copying Jimmy Eat World’s earlier stuff, and it’s hard not to picture the music video for their number one hit “The Middle” when discussing the genre. Now Jimmy Eat World is often dubbed as pop punk or alternative. Maybe they saw emo bands like Hawthorne Heights that blew up in the 2000s and were smart enough to distance themselves from that shit. When we first watched this video back in the day it made it seem like their home state of Arizona was just one giant naked pop punk pool party 24/7, which looked far more exciting than the frozen hellhole many of us were stuck living in. Now that we’re older and eat way less crayons, it’s obvious the music video is a metaphor for picturing everyone else naked to make yourself feel more confident, seeing how the main character isn’t sporting the Marky Mark look the rest of guys seem to be shooting for. The video was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video in 2002 but lost to “In the End” by Linkin Park, which is beyond hilarious because that video now looks like a freshman film major’s first attempt at fucking with a green screen.
5. Green Day “Brain Stew/Jaded”
If you’re not into watching sad dudes in guy-liner solemnly walk an endless boulevard of shitty early 2000s green screens, then you’re most likely going to be disappointed by Green Day’s music videos. You’d think songs with such controversial political commentary as “Holiday” or “American Idiot” would have cool, or at least funny videos–right? Wrong. They just include more dogshit green screen or wild performances for no one in empty production studios. Way to swing for the fences guys! Green Day’s only saving grace is the weird as fuck video for “Brain Stew/Jaded.” Maybe its inclusion is a bit cheating since it’s technically two songs packed into one, but that’s what makes the video shine. It kicks off with Billy Joe Armstrong singing from a couch getting dragged through a junkyard by a bulldozer, perfectly matching the sludginess and trashy rhythm of the repeating riff in “Brain Stew.” Right when we think we know the gist of the video, Hawaiian luau girls randomly come out dancing on cue to the drums kicking in, which oddly just works. It’s like the video telling us that the iconically simple riff playing on repeat is in fact the whole song, so we should get over waiting for a chorus and jam to that. That, with cuts to a freaky old lady angrily mouthing the lyrics and a redneck that looks straight out of Deliverance driving the bulldozer makes for one wild ride of a music video. And, finally when the black and white footage of “Brain Stew” starts to wear its welcome, “Jaded” pops off in full color with insanely shaky camera work, ending the video with a much-needed bang. The video is overall a bizarrely classic throwback to probably one of the first songs most wanna-be pop punk bands across the world learned to play terribly, securing it a solid spot on our list.
4. Fountains of Wayne “Stacy’s Mom”
No list of top pop punk music videos would be complete without “Stacy’s Mom” by one-hit wonders Fountains of Wayne. The video covers a teenage boy’s hormone-fueled encounters with his neighbor Stacy’s hot mom, played perfectly by Rachel Hunter, and is filled with just about every shot you can expect from a storyline so stupid. Throughout the video, Stacy’s mom is shown doing ridiculous shit like stripping down through a window and playfully showering herself with a hose in plain sight of children. It’s unclear how to separate what the kid is imagining and what’s actually going down until Stacy’s mom is fully working a stripping pole that randomly appears in her kitchen towards the end, which is a great addition, because let’s be honest this whole video would be weird as fuck if this adult woman was purposely giving a kid signals that she wants to get freaky. Also, once you find out that the song was originally supposed to be about Stacy’s grandma, this shit can start to feel really weird. However, the video for “Stacy’s Mom” is all-in-all a hilarious tribute to suburban lust and teenage longing, which are very pop punk. It’s also a reminder that sometimes the dumbest ideas can make for the most entertaining songs that drunk people will be shouting at bars for eternity.
3. Fall Out Boy “Sugar We’re Going Down”
Fall Out Boy’s album “From Under The Cork Tree” bombarded the MySpace profiles of kids who weren’t invited to sit in the back of the bus in 2005, lamenting the fact that pop punk’s rise in popularity was only getting started. With that, the pressure was on for the band to create some stupid music videos, as that is what pop punk bands do after all. The music video for “Sugar, We’re Going Down” accomplished just that, but in their very own weird Fall Out Boy way. The video follows a socially outcast boy with antlers and hooves and his attempts to win the love of the girl next door. The only problem is that the girl’s dad is clearly too into hunting or some shit, because he tries to shoot the boy with an arrow before getting hit by a car. When the boy rushes to help the dad, he finds that the dingus has hooves too. Projecting much? They end up connecting and the dad lets the boy date his daughter. This story combined with cuts of the band playing in a hunting lodge full of taxidermy really sets the vibe somehow of what it’s like to grow up in the Midwest and made us question Patrick Stump’s hat choices.
2. Sum 41 “Fat Lip”
Ah, Sum 41, also known as the Canadian blink-182. Everyone remembers their great music video for “In Too Deep,” but it’s the quintessentially pop punk clusterfuck “Fat Lip” that nears the top of our list. You could be 70 years old and this music video would still bring out the punk-ass teenager in you. We could get really deep and tell you that the video is a glimpse into the life of an individual who learned that their dentist had advised their mother to undergo an abortion, and how that experience shaped their growth and development. But apparently, that would be giving the director far too much credit, because he has stated, “The only idea for the video was to literally show up, play, and film a bunch of stupid shit.” This, to the surprise of no one, worked better than playing for an empty room in front of a green screen. From opening with the band spewing the worst rap freestyle at a confused gas station cashier to heads getting shaven and punks riding shopping carts through skate parks, it’s like Jackass the music video. The video’s stupid shenanigans truly matched the anthem’s call to break every rule possible at all times, and for that, we put it at number two on our list.
1. blink-182 “What’s My Age Again?”
And finally we top our list with “What’s My Age Again?” blink-182 must know humor is their greatest strength when it comes to music videos. While plenty of pop punk bands try incredibly hard to be funny, blink-182 just naturally are hilarious. From videos featuring the band in stupid throwback looks of the 70s to parodies of every single boy band known at the time, it’s hard to decide which blink-182 video makes for the most laughs. There’s a reason why the dumb as hell video for “What’s My Age Again?” has been popular for so long though. Because let’s be real–when most people think about pop punk music videos, the first thing that comes to mind is blink-182 and their blurred-out dicks swinging through Los Angeles. Sure, it’s cool that the video features the nurse from the album cover of “Enema of the State” that we’ve all grown to love, but the band’s contagious self-deprecating humor is what works so well here, such as when they run by someone that has to use a magnifying glass to spot Mark Hoppus’ assumably tiny dong. And we know what you’re going to say–the band plays in a studio in this video too, but you’re wrong as this is entirely different because they do it parodying fashion chain commercials of the time by playing naked on the screen of an ancient television watched by a weird old bearded guy. The video is weird, stupid, and pointless, but impossible not to enjoy–just like a lot of both blink-182 and pop punk’s best music.
“This goes against Americans’ First Amendment right to shitpost online.”
“I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. The governor just wants to keep us safe from foreign authoritarian regimes by implementing authoritarian-like bans.”
“It seems like nobody is thinking of the influencers of Montana. How are we city folk supposed to know what shampoo is best for our horses?”
“Great, now I’m going to have to drive all the way to North Dakota to get my daily social media dopamine hits.”
“If China doesn’t know what songs Montana teens are lip-syncing to it could be the start of World War 3”
“They ban TikTok but not military-grade rifles? It’s almost like the government doesn’t have your best interest at heart.”
“Hard to believe they’re worried more about your personal and private data going to China than your personal and private data going to US corporations trying to sell you shit and take all your money.”
“It’s like we’re living in 1984, whatever that means.”
This one is a bit confusing. I guess it’s just my fault for expecting a compilation called Punk-O-Rama to actually feature punk music and not just a random assortment of emo outfits, cringe white dudes rapping, and whoever was signed to Tim Armstrong’s label at the time. This was an hour of your life you will never get back if you’re foolish enough to actually listen to this entire thing.
Remember when you were in school when you were assigned a paper and had like three months to write it and it’s the night before it’s due and you haven’t written a word so you stay up the entire night to write and just pray you get a C when you turn it in? Well, here’s that in compilation album form.
Much like the beloved family dog that couldn’t really walk up the stairs or hear too well anymore, Epitaph put the Punk-o-Rama compilations out of their misery after this one. An improvement on the previous one, this one is still cursed by being punk in name only thanks to the heavy emphasis on metalcore, hip-hop, and emo. The mid-aughts were truly a terrible time. Thanks Myspace.
After listening to “Punk-O-Rama 7” you might expect each subsequent compilation to get progressively worse. Fun fact: this was the first entry in the Punk-O-Rama series I hadn’t bought since I started buying them in ‘98. Though this one is definitely of its time though which can be either good or bad depending on your outlook of punk music circa 2003. (Which did not age well.)
Epitaph’s second compilation could’ve easily been referred to as their sloppy seconds, which per my more online friends is not a sexist term. While it added more artists including the Descendents and Millencolin that weren’t on the first, much like one’s sloppy seconds, this one is just kind of forgettable.
Sometimes it’s just best to quit while you’re ahead. This comp isn’t terrible, but then it has its fair share of duds and you get the sense that some of the bigger bands were just phoning it in due to a contractual obligation. A pre-conspiracy theory Exene Cervenka shows up to do a cover of “We’re Desperate” with Pennywise so it’s got that going for it.
This is the only comp in the series to feature the Offspring before they signed with Columbia and that seemingly gave record stores such as Sam Goody and FYE an excuse to charge $20 for this the fucking thing while still keeping the ‘dirt cheap’ sticker on it. Of course, they’re out of business now, so guess we had the last laugh. But strangely we still yearn for the days when we got gouged on physical media at the mall.
With a little bit of everything under the punk umbrella circa 1998 (so, yes, there’s ska) this compilation could be the Golden Corral of the Punk-O-Rama collections. Though unlike Golden Corral, this won’t leave you spending the remainder of the evening with the trots.
Stylistically and quality-wise on par with Punk-O-Rama III. What gives this comp the edge is its inclusion of Tom Waits and Refused. And if you’re going to get into a whole ‘Tom Waits isn’t punk’ argument with me, you can kick rocks. Being a pedantic nerd is for posers and accountants.
Am I making this one number one because it features The Hives before they got big? Maybe. I mean, what other compilation featuring some kick-ass tracks by Millencolin, Dropkick Murphys, and The Bouncing Souls is going to teach you about the metric system? Well, maybe a Metric LP, but they’re not punk technically, and yes I understand that now I look like the pedantic nerd..
This Happy Gilmore ripoff is a vehicle for everyone’s second favorite racist podcaster, Adam Carolla. This generic underdog sports movie came out in 2007 and is based on his background in boxing and carpentry. The story offers nothing, but has a surprisingly good soundtrack featuring Bad Religion, The Offspring, and two Social Distortion songs. “Story of My Life” is featured over the closing credits, so you don’t need to support this anti-vax right-wing nutjob by digging into the film to listen to how it’s used.
Not only is Benadryl over-the-counter, but they also don’t even check your ID for it. But here’s the tricky part: you need to power through the exhaustion to push your fever dream into the conscious realm in the form of horrifying, waking sleep paralysis. When you finally see the Hat Man staring in your doorway, tell him that you are in a jam, and he’ll help you brainstorm. Just be sure to have a legal pad handy when you lock your gaze into his crimson eyes, and make sure that you don’t prick your finger to write down all your great ideas with your own blood this time.
I want you to familiarize yourself with the concept of the “blackout rage submission.” This one is really easy to pull off if you’re okay with losing track of alarming amounts of time. All you have to do is pour caffeine into your caffeine, let your soul explode into your spreadsheet, and grind your teeth into powder as you submit projects with reckless abandon. If you really want to level up, just make sure you have some smelling salts handy because you really shouldn’t have constricted sinuses when you get started. Time is money, and you can only swallow so much mucus when your stomach is already a hotbed of ramen noodles and Imodium.
When you’re ready to take your five-minute scroll through Upwork, you don’t want to over-commit, so it’s best if you slow down with some cold medicine to regain some lucidity. But here’s the trick: you’ve got to take the night-time formula during daylight hours, because you’ve already got nine gamer drinks gestating in your gut, and you’re about to go into orbit. I strongly recommend those blue Nyquil capsules. But just like in “The Matrix,” you might find yourself trying to peel off the wallpaper in your apartment because you think the seams are hiding the world outside the simulation, and you really can’t afford to be distracted right now. So make sure you have a totem handy so you can reliably discern between reality and hallucination.
If you follow all of the above tips faithfully, and without variation, you’re going to have to power through some diarrhea. It’s also worth noting that the store brand eucalyptus-infused facial tissues are not only surprisingly affordable but also an excellent way to soothe your anus after yet another “freelancer’s blowout.” And through the searing pain of trying to convince yourself that “being your own boss” allows you to have the best work/life balance you’ve ever had, just remember that one of the best parts about working in a gig economy is that you can cry in the comfort of your own bathroom for as long as you want.
