Proto-pop punk is a term used to describe a number of pop-influenced punk rock (often new wave, melodic hardcore or first wave punk) bands and/or songs that were important precursors of pop punk, or who have been cited by early pop punk bands as influential This tag also includes early pop punk songs from before it was a full scene.

Punk rock has long shared sensibilities with pop music, especially since the late 1970s. In his book Rock and Roll: A Social History (2018), author Paul Friedlander lists the following English artists as representative of the "new wave of pop punk synthesis" that occurred in the late 1970s: Elvis Costello and the Attractions, the Police, the Jam, Billy Idol, Joe Jackson, the Pretenders, UB40, Madness, the Specials, the English Beat. Likewise, among American acts, Friedlander references Talking Heads, Blondie, the B-52s, the Motels and Pere Ubu.

Vice's Jason Heller said that the Ramones crafted a blueprint for pop-punk with their 1976 debut album, but 1978 was the year that the genre "came into its own". He noted that some bands "were unmistakably pop punk bands by today's definition of the term, but in 1978, the distinction wasn't so clear. Plenty of punk groups of the era threw a token pop tune or two into their set—sometimes for ironic effect, other times earnestly." Heller also acknowledged that many "burgeoning pop punk groups in 1978 bordered on power pop, a parallel genre on the rise at the time. But power pop began earlier, and it was a more American phenomenon". Among the influential pop-punk bands of the late 1970s were the Buzzcocks. An LA Weekly writer later referred to the band's 1979 compilation album Singles Going Steady as "the blueprint for punk rock bands preferring tuneful tales of lost love and longing to rage against the machine." Cooper similarly cited the album as one of punk's most influential and added that Buzzcocks' "pop overtones them to be a primary influence on today's pop punk bands.". Heller referred to the Undertones as "the most subversive band" of the genre during this period, particularly their 1978 single "Teenage Kicks", "one of the most striking and definitive pop punk classics."

Bad Religion, formed in 1979, helped to lay the groundwork for the pop-punk style that emerged in the 1990s. They and some of the other leading bands in Southern California's hardcore punk scene emphasized a more melodic approach than was typical of their peers. According to music journalist Ben Myers, Bad Religion "layered their pissed off, politicized sound with the smoothest of harmonies". Myers added that another band, the Descendents, "wrote almost surfy, Beach Boys-inspired songs about girls and food and being young(ish)". Their positive yet sarcastic approach began to separate them from the more serious hardcore scene. The Descendents' 1982 debut LP Milo Goes to College provided the template for the United States' take on the more melodic strains of first wave punk. Many pop-punk bands, including Blink-182, cite the Descendents as a major influence. Descendents paved the way for future pop-punk bands with themes of hating parents, struggling to find a romantic partner, and social alienation. Horror punk band The Misfits also influenced pop-punk with their 1982 album Walk Among Us, which was a forerunner to later pop-punk music with the album's vocal harmonies and pop-inspired melodies. The Misfits' gothic image inspired later pop-punk bands like Alkaline Trio and My Chemical Romance. Marginal Man was a Washington D.C. hardcore punk band who mixed hardcore punk with melodic chord progressions and clean, melodic singing, being influenced by power pop, jangle pop and new wave music.