Billboard US Lists Aussies Alex Lahey & 5SOS In Top 20 Pop-punk Love Songs Of All Time

14 February 2023 | 2:13 pm | Mary Varvaris

"Ah, the song that forever changed how we think of American Apparel’s underwear line..."

(Alex Lahey by Pooneh Ghana, 5 Seconds Of Summer: Supplied)

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Pop-punk music is well and truly back in our cultural landscape. It's not just nostalgia driving it, either: "It doesn't matter if you're a pop star, it doesn't matter if you're a rock star, everybody wants to sling on a guitar and rock," Lzzy Hale, the vocalist of Halestorm shared in a recent Kill Your Stereo interview.

Her brother, drummer Arejay, added, "When that scene was first starting, the kids who were into it are adults now. I know first-hand - my girlfriend is six years younger than me, so she grew up in the Warped Tour scene following Panic! At The Disco, From First To Last and all of these bands. I listened to it, and I'm like, 'you were a metalhead, and you didn't even know it!'

"So now that all of these kids are in their late twenties and early thirties, they're likely to always have a soft spot for it." Pop-punk is now a kind of vintage cool, with artists like Olivia Rodrigo and WILLOW looking to Paramore for inspiration.

So, it's no real surprise that a publication as massive as Billboard is now tracking down the 20 Best Pop-punk Love Songs Of All Time - these songs are embedded in our subconscious, as well as the big pop ballads.

Billboard's list includes early-2000s favourites, Motion City Soundtrack, New Found Glory and Avril Lavigne, alongside 2010s darlings Man Overboard, The Wonder Years, and Yungblud. Thrillingly, they have two Aussies representing the genre, too.

At #19 is Alex Lahey with Every Day's The Weekend - an inspired choice. "When you’re freshly smitten, what’s another, ahem, personal day when you two could really go for another long morning in bed? Australian hook-slinger Alex Lahey captures all those early relationship head spins and butterflies on Every Day’s the Weekend, as each chorus hits like another pot of coffee," said writer Chris Payne.

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Hannah Dailey wrote about the #8 pick; She Looks So Perfect by 5 Seconds Of Summer: "Ah, the song that forever changed how we think of American Apparel’s underwear line. Sweet, sexy, cute and catchy, She Looks So Perfect is just an all-around delightful song. 'Your lipstick stain is a work of art / I got your name tattooed in an arrow heart' — come on, what teenage girl wasn’t swooning over the guys of 5SOS after this one?"

Check out the rest of the list here.