A more popular form of a Punkish type of Rock. It loses (most or all of) the additutde of Punk while keeping its 1 2 3 rhythm. Good Pop-Punk bands would be old Blink-182, Old Sum 41, American Hi-Fi, Zebrahead, and Motion City Soundtrack. Bad Pop-Punk bands would be new Sum 41, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

Pop-Punk was a style that was around in the 80's but made a bigger spring in the late 90's and early 21st century. Pushing away the horrible Madonna and Britney influenced techno which clouded up the 90's.

Characteristics of Pop-Punk include

A 1 2 3 Rhythm

Clean vocals

By the way to all you guys who say Punk was anti-mainstream it really wasn't. Because The Ramones and The Sex Pistols and The Clash were mainstream so how they be anti-mainstream?

Anyway more recently Pop-Punk has taken a turn to more emotional types of lyrics, usually from the point of view of a boy who is observing problems that a girl is having or problems he is having with a girl.

Starting with bands such as propaghandi and the vandals, true pop punk today is much more accessible and centered around bands such as Fireworks, Transit, The Wonder Years, Polar Bear Club, and to a lesser extent Title Fight.

New Found Glory is considered to be the band which brought Pop Punk into the spotlight and influenced all of the bands above to some extent.

Fall out boy, Sum 41, Simple Plan, ect. are not pop punk. They are no different than mainstream top 40 artists like brittney spears or miley cirus. They use the same gimmicky pop hooks and overproduction except with guitars and awful fucking clothing.