500 Essential Pop-Punk Albums | Slipcased Limited Edition
Available Now
Available & Shipping Now- Only 500 Produced
HARDCOVER – $19.95
Chords & Anthems & Stagedives
500 ESSENTIAL
POP-PUNK ALBUMS
An Album Guide to Pop-Punk History
+Hardcover Edition
+Limited Edition Slipcase
By Paige Owens
(Alternative Press & idobi.com)
- ISBN: 9798218360009
- Dimensions: 7.67 x 2.68 x 7.56 inches
- 570 Pages
- Formats:
- Hardcover
- Limited Special Slipcase Edition
- Release Date: 30 September 2024
For the punk rocker in your life, the 500 Essential Pop-Punk Albums coffee table book by Paige Owens and Ruffian Books is a must-have — especially for fans of Blink 182, Green Day, Paramore, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, and more. It even comes in a limited-edition hard slip-case.- Billboard
“The pop-punk bible. a time capsule… an ocean of nostalgia… and, most importantly, a book that made me way more emotional than I could ever have expected, in the best of ways.”— Alex DeLeon, The Cab
"There's nothing more emo than giving a pop-punk fan the perfect gift, and the 500 Essential Pop-Punk Albums anthology coffee table book will make them cry tears of joy (or just regular tears) as they read about the history of their favorite genre."- Entertainment Weekly
"This book is such a great dose of nostalgia, filled with old favorites and some albums I'd never heard of, but immediately added to my playlist. It’s a perfect gift for a music-loving guy who was all in on this era."- Romper
"Paige Owens' 500 Essential Pop-Punk Albums is the perfect gift for the millennial or Gen Z music lover in your life. The book covers a good chunk of time, tracing the roots of the genre from 1977 to the present day...It'll look just as good on your coffee table as on your record shelf. It's the same size as a 7" record, which means it'll slot perfectly into your music collection." - AV Club
“THE quintessential encyclopedia of pop-punk! Eras, sounds, and evolution are brilliantly compiled. It had me pulling record after record back out, reliving more profoundly inspired moments that changed my life. Perfect for the hopelessly nostalgic.” — Andy Rodesney, Kid Liberty
Book Description
500 Essential Pop-Punk Albums isn’t just a list — it’s a love letter to the sound that launched a million stage dives. Born in the late ‘70s from basements, garages, and DIY venues, pop-punk exploded into parking lots full of crowd-surfing teenagers at Warped Tour — and never looked back. It carved out its place in pop culture too: The Muffs’ “Kids In America” kicked off Clueless, blink-182’s “Mutt” soundtracked the chaos of American Pie, and Paramore’s “Decode” set the tone for Twilight.
This is the story of how it all happened — starting with the Ramones’ 1977 Leave Home, the album that arguably lit the first fuse, through Green Day, The Offspring, and blink-182 catapulting pop-punk into the ‘90s mainstream, to the 2000s’ golden era of Fall Out Boy, Simple Plan, The Starting Line, New Found Glory, Avril Lavigne, and dozens more. No matter the era, no matter how emo, snotty, polished, or gritty it got, three things stayed locked in: huge hooks, punk heart, and guitars turned up way past 10.
Today, a new crew is keeping the torch burning — KennyHoopla pushing skate-pop-punk into the spotlight, Machine Gun Kelly playing the black-and-pink sellout villain, Maggie Lindemann giving the genre a dark-pop edge. Whether you came up singing every word to Enema of the State or just found your anthem in Neck Deep’s 2024 self-titled record, 500 Essential Pop-Punk Albums maps the wild, messy, glorious journey of a genre that refuses to sit still.
About The Author
Paige Owens is the Editorial and Digital Marketing Director at idobi Network, and a veteran voice in the alternative music space with over 15 years of experience in the music industry, spanning independent media, editorial leadership, and professional publishing. She is the author of her debut book, 500 Essential Pop-Punk Albums (Ruffian Books, 2024), and a contributing editor to The Big Book of Emo Album Covers (Alternative Press Books, 2019). She is currently completing her second book, We’re Not Okay- The Essential Soundtrack to Emo, an in-depth exploration of emo music, set for release by Ruffian in 2026.
Owens began her career in independent music media, freelancing and contributing to zines before moving into radio full-time in 2016 and joining the Alternative Press team in 2017. She would go on to become the youngest and first female Editor-in-Chief of Alternative Press magazine and altpress.com in 2020, after previously serving as Content Director and Digital Marketing Coordinator.
In addition to editorial leadership, she has worked extensively in social media management and publicity, collaborating with artists including My Chemical Romance, its singer Gerard Way, The Interrupters, Maggie Lindemann, The Strokes, MOD SUN, Julia Wolf, and Steve Earle, among others.
With a career rooted in alternative rock, emo, pop-punk, metal, and grunge, Owens has been immersed in the scene since childhood, raised on artists like Type O Negative, The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Fall Out Boy, and Paramore—long before her first concert seeing Mayday Parade in 2008.
A Pennsylvania native, she graduated from Pennsylvania State University with degrees in Journalism and Marketing in 2016 and currently lives in Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband Derek Thorpe, their pug Levi, and two Persian cats, Bram and Niklaus.