Punk Rock 101

Punk Rock Genre: A Summary

• Punk rock is a music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s, rooted in 1960s garage rock, and rejected the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock music.

• Punk bands produced short, fast-paced songs with hard-edged melodies, stripped-down instrumentation, and often shouted political, anti-establishment lyrics.

• Punk embraces a DIY ethic, with many bands self-producing recordings and distributing them through independent record labels.

• The term "punk rock" was previously used by American rock critics in the early 1970s to describe the mid-1960s garage bands.

• Punk rock experienced a second wave in the late 1970s, with new acts adopting the style and faster and more aggressive subgenres, such as hardcore punk, emerging in the early 1980s.

• Punk rock gave rise to movements such as post-punk, new wave, and alternative rock.

• Punk rock lyrics often focus on social and political issues, with anti-sentimental depictions of relationships and sex being common.

• The punk subculture expressed youthful rebellion through distinctive styles of clothing, such as T-shirts with deliberately offensive graphics, leather jackets, studded or spiked bands and jewellery, safety pins, and bondage and S&M clothes.

• The classic punk rock look among male American musicians harkens back to the T-shirt, motorcycle jacket, and jeans ensemble favored by American greasers of the 1950s associated with the rockabilly scene and by British rockers of the 1960s.

• The early punk bands emulated the minimal musical arrangements of 1960s garage rock, with typical instrumentation stripped down to one or two guitars, bass, drums, and vocals.

• Punk rock lyrics are typically blunt and confrontational, often focusing on social and political issues, and trend-setting songs deal with unemployment and the grim realities of urban life.

• The punk rock subculture values authenticity and technical accessibility, with production being minimalistic, and tracks sometimes laid down on home tape recorders or four-track portastudios.The Early History of Punk Rock

• Punk rock was anticipated by bands such as Neu! in Germany, Zunō Keisatsu in Japan, and Australian garage rock bands inspired by the Stooges and MC5.

• The term "punk" originally referred to prostitutes and later to young male hustlers, gangsters, hoodlums, or ruffians.

• The first use of the phrase "punk rock" was in 1970 by Ed Sanders, co-founder of New York's anarcho-prankster band the Fugs, to describe his solo album as "punk rock – redneck sentimentality".

• Lester Bangs mockingly referred to Iggy Pop as "that Stooge punk" in the December 1970 issue of Creem magazine, which Suicide's Alan Vega credited with inspiring his duo to bill its gigs as "punk music" or a "punk mass".

• The term "punk rock" was used in several articles written in the early 1970s by Lester Bangs and others to refer to mid-1960s garage acts and was used by Lenny Kaye in the liner notes of the 1972 anthology LP, Nuggets.

• The early New York punk bands included Television, the Ramones, Patti Smith, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and the Heartbreakers, among others, who represented a broad variety of influences.

• The Sex Pistols, managed by Briton Malcolm McLaren, played their first gig in November 1975 and soon attracted a small but dedicated following in London.

• Other punk rock bands in the UK included the Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees, X-Ray Spex, the Slits, Sham 69, and Penetration.

• The 100 Club Punk Festival in London in September 1976 featured the Sex Pistols, Clash, Damned, Buzzcocks, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Subway Sect, and Stinky Toys, among others.

• Some new bands identified with the punk scene even as they pursued more experimental music, while others of a comparatively traditional rock 'n' roll bent were also swept up by the movement.

• The early punk bands shared attributes of minimalism and speed, and an abrasive attitude, but their shared attributes had not yet come to define punk rock.

• The emergence of punk rock in the mid-1970s coincided with a broader cultural shift and was a response to the perceived excesses of mainstream rock music.The Evolution of Punk Rock: A Historical Overview

• Punk rock began in the mid-1970s in the United Kingdom and Australia.

• The Sex Pistols' debut single "Anarchy in the U.K." caused controversy and helped establish a punk visual aesthetic.

• The Sex Pistols' infamous interview with Bill Grundy on live television led to media outrage and many cancelled gigs during the Anarchy Tour.

• A punk subculture also began in Australia around the same time, centered around Radio Birdman and the Oxford Tavern in Sydney's Darlinghurst suburb.

• A second wave of punk rock emerged in 1977, with bands sounding very different from each other.

• The California punk scene included bands like the Weirdos, the Germs, X, and the Dickies, while San Francisco's second wave included the Avengers and The Nuns.

• The punk rock phenomenon helped spark a full-fledged ska revival movement known as 2 Tone, with bands like The Specials, The Beat, Madness, and The Selecter.

• In the UK, a moral panic was sparked by the swearing during the Grundy interview and the controversy over "God Save the Queen".

• Many new punk groups formed around the UK, with some surviving only briefly, while others set off new trends, like Crass and Sham 69.

• By 1979, the hardcore punk movement was emerging in Southern California, leading to a split in the punk rock movement along cultural and musical lines.

• New wave artists became very popular on both sides of the Atlantic, with bands like Blondie, Talking Heads, and The Police incorporating dance-oriented rhythms and more polished production.

• Post-punk bands emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, such as Joy Division, The Fall, and Magazine, with sounds that were more dark and abrasive and often musically experimental.A Brief History of Punk Rock

• Indie music scene in the mid-1980s, with bands like New Order and The Cure crossing over to a mainstream audience.

• Television's debut album Marquee Moon is a seminal album in the punk rock field.

• Hardcore punk emerged in 1978 with bands like the Germs and Fear in Southern California, followed by Minor Threat and State of Alert in D.C.

• Oi! movement aimed to realign punk rock with a working-class, street-level following, but was linked to the far-right due to racist skinheads disrupting concerts.

• Anarcho-punk developed with bands like Subhumans and Conflict that were as concerned with anarchist and DIY principles as they were with music.

• Pop-punk emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with bands like Buzzcocks and Bad Religion.

• Punk rock crossed lines with other popular music genres, such as deathrock, punk blues, and folk punk.

• The punk rock movement inspired countless bands that evolved from a punk rock sound or brought its outsider spirit to different kinds of music.

• Alternative rock emerged in the mid-to-late 1980s, encompassing a diverse set of styles unified by their debt to punk rock.

• Nirvana's success in the early 1990s opened the door to mainstream popularity for alternative rock bands.

• New alternative forms of punk rock began to fuse with heavy metal and hip hop music in the early 1990s, with bands like Rage Against the Machine.

• The queercore movement developed in the 1990s around punk bands with LGBTQ+ members.