Green Day: "Punk, Twice Removed"

There was some discussion today after court about people's favorite/most formative albums - one of the newer DA's mentioned Green Day's "Dookie" and having been really into punk like that.

Punk like that? Green Day? Punk?

One of these bands is not like the others...

One of these bands just doesn't belong:
The Ramones - The Clash - Buzzcocks - Stiff Little Fingers - Black Flag - Circle Jerks - Dead Kennedys - Cockney Rejects - Green Day - Bikini Kill - Rancid

Rancid and Bikini Kill are about the same era as Green Day, so I don't think it's just me being old, grumpy and not open to new music (the other bands, however, are a telling 25-30 (!) years old...)

I guess Green Day could be punk in the same way Adam Ant and Avril Lavigne were/are called punk. Is punk-pop a contradiction in terms? Or maybe emo-pop, like Weezer? Or a softer version of whatever Bad Religion and Offspring are? (I guess since Suicidal Tendencies are punk, that makes The Offspring almost-punk, then Green Day could be almost-almost punk, or "punk, twice removed")

Heck, what's in a name? Whatever it is, Green Day just fades into the placid vanilla haze - "Punk" has to get your adrenaline pumping, and at its best, your brain socially and politically engaged. Green Day gets the brain going occasionally, but so did Simon and Garfunkel, occasionally.

Thus endeth the Rant.

And my formative album, after broadening beyond the Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Diamond and John Denver that mom and dad played?

Jack