500 Essential

Pop-Punk Albums

Limited Slipcased Special-Edition

Author: Paige Owens

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

"There's nothing more emo than giving a pop-punk fan the perfect gift, and 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

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.

“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

“THE quintessential encyclopedia of pop-punk! Eras, sounds, and evolution 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

About The Author

Paige Owens launched her music journalism career in 2015 as a freelancer before earning her BA in Journalism from Pennsylvania State University in 2016. She is the current Editorial & Digital Marketing Director of idobi Network and former Editor-in-Chief of Alternative Press. She is also the author of 500 Essential Pop-Punk Albums and 500 Essential Emo Albums, both released via Ruffian Books, and was a contributing editor on The Big Book of Emo Album Covers, released by Alternative Press Books in 2019. Based in Cleveland, OH, she has been a fan of “the scene” since her first pop-punk show in 2008.

ISBN: 9798218360009

Dimensions: 7.76x7.56x2.68 inches

Weight: 4.63 pounds

Length: 570 pages

Format: Hardcover

Limited Slipcased Special-Edition

Release Date: September 19, 2024 (In-Stock Now)