From: Orange County, California

Active: 1986–present

I first heard them: when Live 105 started playing “Come Out and Play” incessantly

Sound: The Offspring and Green Day were the big hits of 1994, and were treated in the press as interchangeable⁠—at most, articles would specify that Green Day were skate punk and the Offspring were surf punk⁠—but they didn’t sound very much alike to me.  Count me on Team Offspring.  While Green Day played very simplistic and even boring pop-punk (they’ve since improved a bit), the Offspring offered up a thrashier sound with surf and novelty-song elements.  Most Offspring songs sound very similar, yet the minor variations make a huge difference.  Some are skippable, but others end up safely in the pantheon, or close to it.

Further listening: I see that the Offspring still have three songs in the top 100, though the last two are kinda hangin’ on by a thread.  I don’t know whether these are necessarily the next best five, but they make for a nice mini career retrospective.

		“Smash” (1994)
		“Pay the Man” (1998)
		“You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid” (2008)
		“This Is Not Utopia” (2021)
		“The Fall Guy” (2024)