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The 21 Best Pop-Punk Choruses of the 21st Century

15. Sugarcult – “Bouncing Off the Walls”

On “Bouncing Off the Walls,” Sugarcult frontman Tim Pagnotta sings in characteristically whiny vocals about a lost love, troubled parents, and Ritalin. A single off of 2001’s Start Static, the song’s hook—”I’m bouncing off the walls again (whoa) / And I’m looking like a fool again (whoa)”—will revive teen angst, not to mention make you feel like you’re rattling around inside your apartment . — Emma May


14. Taking Back Sunday – “Cute Without the ‘e’ (Cut From the Team)”

The moody, self-obsessed boys in Taking Back Sunday were emo at its most toxic—you could hear the jealousy boiling their blood, as though they might literally keel over from emotional poisoning. Every relationship they sang about was Romeo and Juliet turned up to a billion: What are you even supposed to say to a line like “And will you tell all your friends / You’ve got your gun to my head”? Healthy, it is not, but catchy? Yes, it’s extremely catchy. — JG

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ap0mqwvf7H0%3Fecver%3D2


13. Paramore – “Misery Business”

The biggest single from Paramore‘s beakthrough second album  Riot!, “Misery Business” grew out of a difficult time in the life of singer Haley Williams. Struggling to keep her Christian faith while watching a friend tortured by a toxic relationship, Williams took to song for escape. Turning a stutter of palm-muted power-chords into a blast of high-voltage volume, Williams leaps into full-on confrontation right as the chorus hits: “Woooah, I never meant to brag / But I got him where I want him now.” Like the best pop-punk, the song surfed its pettiness and melody into timelessness. — Rob Arcand


12. My Chemical Romance – “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”

It’s a joke until you realize Gerard Way just might understand you. Built up by spastically performed verses (“I never want to let you down or have you go / IT’S BETTER OFF THIS WAY”), Way belches out the chorus with the grotesqueness of Tetsuo spilling his intestines. The wind-tunnel power chords churn along to match the drama, because there’s no room for nuance when you’re this fucked up. — BJ


11. New Found Glory – “My Friends Over You”

New Found Glory’s Jordan Pundik always had a knack for soaring choruses, but on “My Friends Over You,” he truly struck pop-punk gold. With racing snares and explosive chords, Pundik turns a classic “bros before hoes” joke into a sincere anthem on the power of male friendship. With the chorus’ closing lines—”Though you swear that you are true / I still pick my friends over you”—Pundik hits just about the purest distillation of sweaty-palmed, pimple-faced masculinity, and there isn’t much more pop-punk than that? — RA


10. Sum 41 – “In Too Deep”

The band’s second TRL hit,  Sum 41‘s “In Too Deep” is emblematic of the pop-punk generation. With its whiny vocals and multi-tracked guitars, the track starts out fairly ordinarily. But when the chorus hit, its stacked voices harmonizing into some weird, boyish sneer, it soars with the specific force that makes the genre great to begin with. — RA