Good question.
Punk can sometimes be more easily classified by what it isn't. And in this case, punk isn't pop which you correctly classified Green Day as.
At best Green Day is pop-punk but even then it's a stretch.
The larger question of defining punk will always be contested. I like to characterize it more as an attitude than a sound but right now it is teetering on being an identity based on total bull****. This is probably one of the most depraved periods for punk music with bands like Green Day, Simple Plan, Good Charlotte and Anti-Flag all representing the genre and the belief system in a disingenuous harmful way.
Here's an interesting article highlight what is punk, it's written by Greg Graffin lead singer of Bad Religion.
http://www.badreligion.com/news/essays.php?id=5
Quote:
PUNK IS: the personal expression of uniqueness that comes from the experiences of growing up in touch with our human ability to reason and ask questions.
PUNK IS: a movement that serves to refute social attitudes that have been perpetuated through willful ignorance of human nature.
PUNK IS: a process of questioning and commitment to understanding that results in self-progress, and through repetition, flowers into social evolution.
PUNK IS: a belief that this world is what we make of it, truth comes from our understanding of the way things are, not from the blind adherence to prescriptions about the way things should be.
PUNK IS: the constant struggle against fear of social repercussions.
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