2006 SCENE ALBUMS

16 scene albums from 2006 you built most of your iPod playlists from

History doesn’t lie. Consult sales charts. Ask Kevin Lyman what Warped Tour‘s box office receipts were like. For all intents and purposes, 2006 could be best described as “peak scene.” Careers were built. Fandoms became strong. The pool of Dudes Playing Guitars Quickly And Loudly grew exponentially. These are the scene albums from 2006 that cemented contemporary punk history.

This was the music of a generation who were weary of saccharine pop music and nu-metal growling. These scene albums from 2006 portend all kinds of approaches and attitudes. Some of them were pure poetry. Others wore their aching hearts on their sleeves and didn’t care how their detractors would slur them. Loud metal guitars playing pop sensibilities? Where’s the problem? Sonic gateway drugs into genres that were previously unknown? 2006 might have been the year we started seeing Joy Division shirts at Warped.

Read more: These 10 neon pop-punk bands should reunite much sooner than later

2006 was a banner year for everyone. Some well-respected artists created what would be acknowledged as career-defining records. The members of bands who fragmented turned in debut records that were readily embraced by diehards, even if high sales chart positions eluded them. A few of these bands made the crucial record and then couldn’t deliver a follow-up. In the long run, it didn’t matter. The songs would continue to run their course without the need of commercial radio and music television outlets.

But it was the fans that benefited the most. There was so much genre representation for music fans to embrace. It could only be described as “scene.” Nobody just listened to pop-punk, metalcore, hardcore or sea punk. (We think that’s a genre.) It was a community who didn’t care for the options presented to them and acted accordingly. More than a few of these scene albums from 2006 influenced people to start their own bands. This APTV video might give some viewers a blast of euphoric nostalgia. Others might discover something they missed completely. Both options are acceptable. Because there’s no wrong way to fall in love with an album from any year.