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Punk rock is an anti-establishment rock music genre and movement that emerged in the mid-1970s. Preceded by a variety of protopunk music of the 1960s and early 1970s, punk rock developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, where groups such as the Ramones, Sex Pistols, and The Clash were recognized as the vanguard of a new musical movement. By 1977, punk was spreading around the world.
Punk rock bands, eschewing the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock, created fast, hard music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation and often political or nihilistic lyrics. The associated punk subculture expresses youthful rebellion and is characterized by distinctive clothing styles, a variety of anti-authoritarian ideologies, and a DIY (do it yourself) attitude.
Punk rock quickly, though briefly, became a major cultural phenomenon in the United Kingdom. For the most part, punk took root in local scenes that tended to reject association with the mainstream. By the beginning of the 1980s, even faster, more aggressive styles such as hardcore and Oi! had become the predominant mode of punk rock. Musicians identifying with or inspired by punk also pursued a broad range of other variations, giving rise to the alternative rock movement. By the turn of the century, new pop punk bands such as Green Day were bringing the genre widespread popularity decades after its inception.
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The first wave of punk rock aimed to be aggressively modern, distancing itself from the bombast and sentimentality of early 1970s rock.Robb (2006), foreword by Michael Bracewell. According to Ramones drummer Tommy Ramone, "In its initial form, a lot of [1960s] stuff was innovative and exciting. Unfortunately, what happens is that people who could not hold a candle to the likes of Hendrix started noodling away. Soon you had endless solos that went nowhere. By 1973, I knew that what was needed was some pure, stripped down, no bullshit rock \'n\' roll."Ramone, Tommy, "Fight Club", Uncut, January 2007. John Holmstrom, founding editor of Punk magazine, recalls feeling "punk rock had to come along because the rock scene had become so tame that [acts] like Billy Joel and Simon and Garfunkel were being called rock and roll, when to me and other fans, rock and roll meant this wild and rebellious music."McLaren, Malcolm, "Punk Celebrates 30 Years of Subversion", BBC News, August 18, 2006. Retrieved on January 17, 2006. In critic Robert Christgau\'s description, "It was also a subculture that scornfully rejected the political idealism and Californian flower-power silliness of hippie myth."Christgau, Robert, "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain" (review), New York Times Book Review, 1996. Retrieved on January 17, 2007. Patti Smith, in contrast, suggests in the documentary 25 Years of Punk that the hippies and the punk rockers were linked by a common anti-establishment mentality. In any event, some of punk rock\'s leading figures made a show of rejecting not only mainstream rock and the broader culture it was associated with, but their own most celebrated predecessors: "No Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones in 1977", declared The Clash.Harris (2004), p. 202. The previous year, when the punk rock revolution began in Great Britain, was to be both a musical and a cultural "Year Zero".Reynolds (2005), p. 4. Even as nostalgia was discarded, many in the scene adopted a nihilistic attitude summed up by the Sex Pistols slogan "No Future".
Punk rock bands often emulate the bare musical structures and arrangements of 1960s garage rock.Murphy, Peter, "Shine On, The Lights Of The Bowery: The Blank Generation Revisited", Hot Press, July 12, 2002; Hoskyns, Barney, "Richard Hell: King Punk Remembers the [ ] Generation", Rock\'s Backpages, March 2002. This emphasis on accessibility exemplifies punk rock\'s DIY aesthetic and contrasts with what those in the scene regarded as the ostentatious musical effects and technological demands of many mainstream rock bands of the early and mid-1970s.See, e.g., Rodel (2004), p. 237; Bennett (2001), pp. 49–50. In December 1976, the English fanzine Sideburns published an illustration of three chords, captioned "This is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a band."Savage (1992), pp. 280–281. Several sources incorrectly ascribe the illustration to the leading fanzine of the London punk scene, Sniffin\' Glue (e.g., Wells [2004], p. 5; Sabin [1999], p. 111). Savage reproduces the original image, and the Sideburns attribution is clearly correct.
Typical punk rock instrumentation includes one or two electric guitars, an electric bass, and a drum kit, along with vocals. In the early days of punk rock, musical virtuosity was often looked on with suspicion. According to John Holmstrom, punk rock was "rock and roll by people who didn\'t have very much skills as musicians but still felt the need to express themselves through music". Punk rock songs tend to be shorter than those of other popular genres—on the Ramones\' debut album, for instance, half of the fourteen tracks are under two minutes long. Most early punk rock songs retained a traditional rock \'n\' roll verse-chorus form and 4/4 time signature. However, punk rock bands in the movement\'s second wave and afterward have often broken from this format. In critic Steven Blush\'s description, "The Sex Pistols were still rock\'n\'roll...like the craziest version of Chuck Berry. Hardcore was a radical departure from that. It wasn\'t verse-chorus rock. It dispelled any notion of what songwriting is supposed to be. It\'s its own form."Blush, Steven, "Move Over My Chemical Romance: The Dynamic Beginnings of US Punk", Uncut, January 2007.
Punk rock vocals sometimes sound nasal,Wells (2004), p. 41; Reed (2005), p. 47. and lyrics are often shouted instead of sung in a conventional sense, particularly in hardcore styles.Shuker (2002), p. 159. The vocal approach is characterized by a lack of variety; shifts in pitch, volume, or intonational style are relatively infrequent—the Sex Pistols\' Johnny Rotten constituting a significant exception.Laing (1985), p. 58; Reynolds (2005), p. ix. Complicated guitar solos are considered self-indulgent and unnecessary, although basic guitar breaks are common.Chong, Kevin, "The Thrill Is Gone", Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, August 2006. Retrieved on December 17, 2006. Guitar parts tend to include highly distorted power chords or barre chords, creating a characteristic sound described by Christgau as a "buzzsaw drone".Quoted in Laing (1985), p. 62. Some punk rock bands take a surf rock approach with a lighter, twangier guitar tone. A wild, "gonzo" attack is sometimes employed, a style that stretches from Robert Quine, lead guitarist of seminal punk rock band The Voidoids, back through The Velvet Underground to the 1950s recordings of Ike Turner.Palmer (1992), p. 37. Bass guitar lines are often uncomplicated; the quintessential approach is a relentless, repetitive "forced rhythm".Laing (1985), p. 62. Some punk rock bass players such as Mike Watt emphasize more technical bass lines. Bassists often use a plectrum rather than fingerpicking due to the rapid succession of notes, which makes fingerpicking impractical. Drums typically sound heavy and dry, and often have a minimal set-up. Compared to other forms of rock, syncopation is much less the rule.Laing (1985), pp. 61–63. Hardcore drumming tends to be especially fast. Production tends to be minimalistic, with tracks sometimes laid down on home tape recorders.Laing (1985), pp. 118–119. The typical objective is to have the recording sound unmanipulated, "real", reflecting the commitment and "authenticity" of a live performance.Laing (1985), p. 53.
The Clash, performing in 1980
Punk rock lyrics are typically frank and confrontational; compared to other popular music genres, they frequently comment on social and political issues.Sabin (1999), pp. 4, 226; Dalton, Stephen, "Revolution Rock", Vox, June 1993. See also Laing (1985), pp. 27–32, for a statistical comparison of lyrical themes. Trend-setting songs such as The Clash\'s "Career Opportunities" and Chelsea\'s "Right to Work" deal with unemployment and the grim realities of urban life.Laing (1985), p. 31. Especially in early British punk, a central goal was to outrage and shock the mainstream.Laing (1985), pp. 81, 125. The Sex Pistols classics "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen" openly disparage the British political system and social mores. There is also a characteristic strain of anti-sentimental depictions of relationships and sex, exemplified by "Love Comes in Spurts", written by Richard Hell and recorded by him with The Voidoids. Anomie, variously expressed in the poetic terms of Hell\'s "Blank Generation" and the bluntness of the Ramones\' "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue", is a common theme. Identifying punk with such topics aligns with the view expressed by Search and Destroy founder V. Vale: "Punk was a total cultural revolt. It was a hardcore confrontation with the black side of history and culture, right-wing imagery, sexual taboos, a delving into it that had never been done before by any generation in such a thorough way."Quoted in Savage (1991), p. 440. See also Laing (1985), pp. 27–32. However, many punk rock lyrics deal in more traditional rock \'n\' roll themes of courtship, heartbreak, and hanging out; the approach ranges from the deadpan, aggressive simplicity of Ramones standards such as "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"Segal, David (2001-04-17). Punk\'s Pioneer. Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-10-23. to the more unambiguously sincere style of many later pop punk groups.
UK punks, circa 1986
The classic punk rock look among male U.S. 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 cover of the Ramones\' 1976 debut album, featuring a shot of the band by Punk photographer Roberta Bayley, set forth the basic elements of a style that was soon widely emulated by rock musicians both punk and nonpunk.Bessman (1993), pp. 48, 50; Miles, Scott, and Morgan (2005), p. 136. Richard Hell\'s more androgynous, ragamuffin look—and reputed invention of the safety-pin aesthetic—was a major influence on Sex Pistols impresario Malcolm McLaren and, in turn, British punk style.Isler, Scott, and Ira Robbins. Richard Hell & the Voidoids. Trouser Press. Retrieved on 2007-10-23.Colegrave and Sullivan (2005), p. 78. The range of female punk styles included "the bondage gear of [Siouxsie] Sioux and the straight-from-the-gutter androgyny of [Patti] Smith."Strohm (2004), p. 188. The former proved much more influential on female fan styles.See, e.g., Laing (1985), "Picture Section", p. 18. Over time, tattoos, piercings, and metal-studded and -spiked accessories became increasingly common elements of punk fashion among both musicians and fans. The typical male punk haircut was originally short and choppy; the Mohawk later emerged as a characteristic style.Wojcik (1995), pp. 16–19; Laing (1985), p. 109. Those in hardcore scenes often adopt a skinhead look.
The characteristic stage performance style of male punk musicians does not deviate significantly from the macho postures classically associated with rock music.Laing (1985), pp. 89, 97–98, 125. Female punk musicians broke more clearly from earlier styles. Scholar John Strohm suggests that they did so by creating personas of a type conventionally seen as masculine: "They adopted a tough, unladylike pose that borrowed more from the macho swagger of sixties garage bands than from the calculated bad-girl image of bands like The Runaways." Scholar Dave Laing describes how bassist Gaye Advert adopted fashion elements associated with male musicians only to generate a stage persona readily consumed as "sexy".Laing (1985), p. 92, 88. Laing focuses on more innovative and challenging performance styles, seen in the various erotically destabilizing approaches of Siouxsie Sioux, The Slits\' Ari Up, and X-Ray Spex\'s Poly Styrene.Laing (1985), p. 89, 92–93.
The lack of emphatic syncopation led punk dance to "deviant" forms: The characteristic style was originally the pogo.Laing (1985), pp. 34, 61, 63, 89–91. Sid Vicious, before he became the Sex Pistols\' bassist, is credited as initiating the pogo in Britain as a fan at one of their concerts.Laing (1985), p. 90. Moshing is typical at hardcore shows. The lack of conventional dance rhythms was a central factor in limiting punk\'s mainstream commercial impact.Laing (1985), p. 34.
Breaking down the distance, and even the distinction, between performer and audience is central to the punk ethos.Laing (1985), p. 82. Fan participation at concerts is thus important; during the movement\'s first heyday, it was often provoked in an adversarial manner—apparently perverse, but appropriately "punk". First-wave British punk bands such as the Pistols and The Damned insulted and otherwise goaded the audience into intense reactions. Laing has identified three primary forms of audience physical response to goading: can throwing, stage invasion, and spitting or "gobbing".Laing (1985), pp. 84–85. In the hardcore realm, stage invasion is often a prelude to stage diving. In addition to the numerous fans who started their own bands (or, like Sid Vicious, joined existing ones), audience members also became important participants via the scene\'s many amateur periodicals—in England, according to Laing, punk "was the first musical genre to spawn fanzines in any significant numbers."Laing (1985), p. 14.
In the early and mid-1960s, garage rock bands that would come to be recognized as punk rock\'s progenitors began springing up in many different locations around North America. The Kingsmen, a garage band from Portland, Oregon, had a breakout hit with their 1963 cover of "Louie, Louie," cited as "punk rock\'s defining ur-text."Sabin (1999), p. 157. The minimalist sound of many garage rock bands was influenced by the harder-edged wing of the British Invasion. The Kinks\' hit singles of 1964, "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night," have been described as "predecessors of the whole three-chord genre—the Ramones\' 1978 \'I Don\'t Want You,\' for instance, was pure Kinks-by-proxy."Harrington (2002), p. 165. In 1965, The Who quickly progressed from its debut single, "I Can\'t Explain", a virtual Kinks clone, to "My Generation". Though it had little impact on the American charts, The Who\'s mod anthem presaged a more cerebral mix of musical ferocity and rebellious posture that would characterize much early British punk rock: John Reed describes The Clash\'s emergence as a "tight ball of energy with both an image and rhetoric reminiscent of a young Pete Townshend—speed obsession, pop-art clothing, art school ambition."Reed (2005), p. 49. The Who and fellow mods The Small Faces were among the few rock elders acknowledged by the Sex Pistols.Fletcher (2000), p. 497. By 1966, mod was already in decline. U.S. garage rock began to lose steam within a couple of years, but the aggressive musical approach and outsider attitude of "garage psych" bands like The Seeds were picked up and emphasized by groups that would later be seen as the crucial figures of protopunk.
For more details on this topic, see Protopunk.
In 1969, debut albums by two Michigan-based bands appeared that are commonly regarded as the central protopunk records. In January, Detroit\'s MC5 released Kick Out the Jams. "Musically the group is intentionally crude and aggressively raw", wrote critic Lester Bangs in Rolling Stone:
Most of the songs are barely distinguishable from each other in their primitive two-chord structures. You\'ve heard all this before from such notables as the Seeds, Blue Cheer, Question Mark and the Mysterians, and the Kingsmen. The difference here...is in the hype, the thick overlay of teenage-revolution and total-energy-thing which conceals these scrapyard vistas of clichés and ugly noise.... "I Want You Right Now" sounds exactly (down to the lyrics) like a song called "I Want You" by the Troggs, a British group who came on with a similar sex-and-raw-sound image a couple of years ago (remember "Wild Thing"?)MC5: Kick Out the Jams review by Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, April 5, 1969. Retrieved on January 16, 2007.
Iggy Pop, the "godfather of punk"Feldman, Elliot. "Godfather of Punk, Iggy Pop Turns 60". Associated Content. April 22, 2007.
That August, The Stooges, from Ann Arbor, premiered with a self-titled album. According to critic Greil Marcus, the band, led by singer Iggy Pop, created "the sound of Chuck Berry\'s Airmobile—after thieves stripped it for parts".Marcus (1979), p. 294. The album was produced by John Cale, a former member of New York\'s experimental rock group The Velvet Underground. Having earned a "reputation as the first underground rock band", VU would inspire, directly or indirectly, many of those involved in the creation of punk rock.Taylor (2003), p. 49.
In the early 1970s, the New York Dolls updated the original wildness of 1950s rock \'n\' roll in a fashion that later became known as glam punk.Harrington (2002), p. 538. The New York duo Suicide played spare, experimental music with a confrontational stage act inspired by that of The Stooges. At the Coventry club in the New York borough of Queens, The Dictators used rock as a vehicle for wise-ass attitude and humor.Bessman (1993), pp. 9–10. In Boston, The Modern Lovers, led by Velvet Underground devotee Jonathan Richman, gained attention with a minimalistic style. In 1974, an updated garage rock scene began to coalesce around the newly opened Rathskeller club in Kenmore Square. Among the leading acts were the Real Kids, founded by former Modern Lover John Felice; Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band, whose frontman had been a member of the Velvet Underground for a few months in 1971; and Mickey Clean and the Mezz.Andersen and Jenkins (2001), p. 12. Vaughan, Robin (June 6–12, 2003). Reality Bites. Boston Phoenix. Harvard, Joe. Mickey Clean and the Mezz. Boston Rock Storybook. Robbins, Ira. Wille Alexander. Trouser Press Guide. Retrieved on 2007-11-27. In Ohio, a small but very influential underground rock scene emerged, led by Devo in Akron and Kent and Cleveland\'s The Electric Eels, Mirrors, and Rocket from the Tombs. In 1975, Rocket from the Tombs split into Pere Ubu and Frankenstein. The Electric Eels and Mirrors both broke up, and The Styrenes emerged from the fallout.Klimek, Jamie, "Mirrors", Jilmar Music; Jäger, Rolf, "Styrenes—A Brief History", Rent a Dog. Both retrieved on November 27, 2007.
Britain\'s Deviants, in the late 1960s, played in a range of psychedelic styles with a satiric, anarchic edge and a penchant for situationist-style spectacle presaging the Sex Pistols by almost a decade.Ohtaka, Toshikazu. Interview with Mick Farren. Retrieved on 2008-01-10. “Soundwise, we wanted to be incredibly loud and violent! That says it all. The hippies wanted to be nice and gentle, but our style was the opposite of that peaceful, natural attitude.” In 1970, the act evolved into the Pink Fairies, which carried on in a similar vein.Unterberger (1998), pp. 86–91. With his Ziggy Stardust persona, David Bowie made artifice and exaggeration central—elements, again, that would be picked up by the Pistols and certain other punk acts.Laing (1985), pp. 24–26. Bands in London\'s pub rock scene stripped the music back to its basics, playing hard, R&B-influenced rock \'n\' roll. By 1974, the scene\'s top act, Dr. Feelgood, was paving the way for others such as The Stranglers and Cock Sparrer, who would play a role in the later punk explosion. Among the pub rock bands that formed that year was The 101\'ers, with lead singer Joe Strummer.Robb (2006), p. 51. Bands anticipating the forthcoming movement were appearing as far afield as Düsseldorf, West Germany, where "punk before punk" band NEU! formed in 1971, building on the Krautrock tradition of groups such as Can.Neate, Wilson. NEU!. TrouserPress.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-11. In Japan, the anti-establishment Zunō Keisatsu (Brain Police) mixed garage psych and folk. The combo regularly faced censorship challenges, their live act at least once including onstage masturbation.Anderson (2002), p. 588.
A new generation of Australian garage rock bands, inspired mainly by The Stooges and MC5, was coming even closer to the sound that would soon be called "punk": In Brisbane, The Saints also recalled the raw live sound of the British Pretty Things, who had made a notorious tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1965.Unterberger (2000), p. 18. Radio Birdman, cofounded by Detroit expatriate Deniz Tek in 1974, was playing gigs to a small but fanatical following in Sydney.
Preceding the mid-1970s, punk, a centuries-old word of obscure etymology, was commonly used to describe "a young male hustler, a gangster, a hoodlum, or a ruffian".Leblanc (1999), p. 35. As Legs McNeil explains, "On TV, if you watched cop shows, Kojak, Baretta, when the cops finally catch the mass murderer, they\'d say, \'you dirty Punk.\' It was what your teachers would call you. It meant that you were the lowest."Quoted in Leblanc (1999), p. 35. The first known use of the phrase "punk rock" appeared in the Chicago Tribune on March 22, 1970, attributed to Ed Sanders, cofounder of New York\'s anarcho-prankster band The Fugs. Sanders was quoted describing a solo album of his as "punk rock—redneck sentimentality."Shapiro (2006), p. 492. In the December 1970 issue of Creem, Lester Bangs, mocking more mainstream rock musicians, made ironic reference to Iggy Pop as "that Stooge punk".Bangs, Lester, "Of Pop and Pies and Fun", Creem, December 1970. Retrieved on November 29, 2007. Suicide\'s Alan Vega credits this usage with inspiring his duo to bill its gigs as a "punk mass" for the next couple of years.Nobahkt (2004), p. 38.
Patti Smith, performing in 1976
Dave Marsh was the first music critic to employ the term "punk rock"—in the May 1971 issue of Creem, he described ? and the Mysterians as giving a "landmark exposition of punk rock."Shapiro (2006), p. 492. Note that Taylor (2003) misidentifies the year of publication as 1970 (p. 16) as does Scott Woods in the introduction to his interview with Marsh: "A Meaty, Beaty, Big, and Bouncy Interview with Dave Marsh". rockcritics.com. Retrieved on December 26, 2006. In June 1972, the fanzine Flash included a "Punk Top Ten" of 1960s albums.Taylor (2003), p. 16 That year, Lenny Kaye used the term in the liner notes of the anthology album Nuggets to refer to 1960s garage rock bands such as The Standells, The Sonics, and The Seeds.Houghton, Mick, "White Punks on Coke", Let It Rock. December 1975. Bomp! maintained this usage through the early 1970s, also applying it to some of the darker, more primitive practitioners of 1960s psychedelic rock.Savage (1991), p. 131 In May 1973, Billy Altman launched the short-lived punk magazine.Laing (1985), p. 13; "Punk Magazine Listening Party # 7", PunkMagazine.com, July 20, 2001. Retrieved on March 4, 2008. Bassist Jeff Jensen of Boston\'s Real Kids reports of a 1974 show, "A reviewer for one of the free entertainment magazines of the time caught the act and gave us a great review, calling us a \'punk band.\'... [W]e all sort of looked at each other and said, \'What\'s punk?\'"Harvard, Joe, "Real Kids", Boston Rock Storybook. Retrieved on November 27, 2007.
By 1975, punk was being used to describe acts as diverse as the Patti Smith Group—with lead guitarist Lenny Kaye—the Bay City Rollers, and Bruce Springsteen. As the scene at New York\'s CBGB club (popularly referred to as "CBGB\'s") attracted notice, a name was sought for the developing sound. Club owner Hilly Kristal called the movement "street rock"; John Holmstrom credits Aquarian magazine with using punk "to describe what was going on at CBGBs".Savage (1991), pp. 130–131 Holmstrom, McNeil, and Ged Dunn\'s magazine Punk, which debuted at the end of 1975, was crucial in codifying the term.Taylor (2003), pp. 16–17 "It was pretty obvious that the word was getting very popular," Holmstrom later remarked. "We figured we\'d take the name before anyone else claimed it. We wanted to get rid of the bullshit, strip it down to rock \'n\' roll. We wanted the fun and liveliness back."
Music samples:
| "Gloria" | |
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| Sample of "Gloria" by Patti Smith, from Horses (1975) | |
| "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" | |
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| Sample of "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" by the Ramones, from Rocket to Russia (1977) | |
| "Chinese Rocks" | |
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| Sample of "Chinese Rocks" by The Heartbreakers, written by Dee Dee Ramone and Richard Hell, from L.A.M.F. (1977). The title is a heroin reference; Ramone, Hell, and Heartbreakers Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan were users. | |
The origins of New York\'s punk rock scene can be traced back to such sources as late 1960s trash culture and an early 1970s underground rock movement centered around the Mercer Arts Center in Greenwich Village, where the New York Dolls performed.Savage (1991), pp. 86–90, 59–60. In early 1974, a new scene began to develop around the CBGB club, also in lower Manhattan. At its core was Television, described by critic John Walker as "the ultimate garage band with pretensions".Walker (1991), p. 662. Their influences ranged from garage psych pioneer Roky Erickson to jazz innovator John Coltrane. The band\'s bassist/singer, Richard Hell, created a look with cropped, ragged hair, ripped T-shirts, and black leather jackets credited as the basis for punk rock visual style.Savage (1992), p. 89. In April 1974, Patti Smith, a member of the Mercer Arts Center crowd and a friend of Hell\'s, came to CBGB for the first time to see the band perform.Bockris and Bayley (1999), p. 102. A veteran of independent theater and performance poetry, Smith was developing an intellectual, feminist take on rock \'n\' roll. In June, she recorded the single "Hey Joe"/"Piss Factory", featuring Television guitarist Tom Verlaine; released on her own Mer Records label, it heralded the scene\'s do it yourself (DIY) ethic and has often been cited as the first punk rock record.Patti Smith—Biography. Arista Records. Retrieved on 2007-10-23. Savage (1991), p. 91; Pareles and Romanowski (1983), p. 511; Bockris and Bayley (1999), p. 106. By August, Smith and Television were gigging together at another downtown New York club, Max\'s Kansas City.
Out in Forest Hills, Queens, several miles from lower Manhattan, the members of a newly formed band adopted a common surname. Drawing on sources ranging from the Stooges to The Beatles and The Beach Boys to Herman\'s Hermits and 1960s girl groups, the Ramones condensed rock \'n\' roll to its primal level: "\'1-2-3-4!\' bass-player Dee Dee Ramone shouted at the start of every song, as if the group could barely master the rudiments of rhythm."Savage (1991), pp. 90–91. The band played its first gig at CBGB on August 16, 1974. Another new act, Blondie, also debuted at the club that month. By the end of the year, the Ramones had performed seventy-four shows, each about seventeen minutes long.Bessman (1993), p. 27. "When I first saw the Ramones," critic Mary Harron later remembered, "I couldn\'t believe people were doing this. The dumb brattiness."Savage (1991), pp. 132–133. The Dictators, with a similar "playing dumb" concept, were recording their debut album. The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! came out in March 1975, mixing absurdist originals such as "Master Race Rock" and loud, straight-faced covers of cheese pop like Sonny & Cher\'s "I Got You Babe".Deming, Mark. "The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!" (review). All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
That spring, Smith and Television shared a two-month-long weekend residency at CBGB that brought major attention to the club.Bockris and Bayley (1999), p. 119. During this time, Richard Hell wrote "Blank Generation", which would become the scene\'s emblematic anthem of escape.Savage (1992), p. 90. Soon after, Hell left Television and founded a band featuring a more stripped-down sound, The Heartbreakers, with former New York Dolls Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan. The pairing of Hell and Thunders, in one critical assessment, "inject[ed] a poetic intelligence into mindless self-destruction". In August, Television—with Fred Smith, former Blondie bassist, replacing Hell—recorded a single, "Little Johnny Jewel", for the tiny Ork label. In the words of John Walker, the record was "a turning point for the whole New York scene" if not quite for the punk rock sound itself—Hell\'s departure had left the band "significantly reduced in fringe aggression".
Facade of legendary music club CBGB, New York
Other bands were becoming regulars at CBGB like Mink DeVille and Talking Heads, which moved down from Rhode Island. More closely associated with Max\'s Kansas City were Suicide and the band led by drag queen Wayne County, another Mercer Arts Center alumna. The first album to come out of this downtown scene was released in November 1975: Smith\'s debut, Horses, produced by John Cale for the major Arista label.Walsh (2006), p. 27. That same month, Sire Records put out the first recording by the Ramones, the single "Blitzkrieg Bop". The inaugural issue of Punk appeared in December.Savage (1991), p. 132. The new magazine tied together earlier artists such as Velvet Underground lead singer Lou Reed, the Stooges, and the New York Dolls with the editors\' favorite band, The Dictators, and the array of new acts centered around CBGB and Max\'s.Walsh (2006), pp. 15, 24; for Punk, Wayne County, and punk homosexuality, see McNeil and McCain (2006), pp. 272–275; Savage (1992), p. 139; for CBGB\'s closing in 2006, see, e.g., Damian Fowler, "Legendary punk club CBGB closes", BBC News, October 16, 2006. Retrieved on December 11, 2006. That winter, Pere Ubu came in from Cleveland and played at both spots.Savage (1992), p. 137.
Early in 1976, Hell was ousted from the Heartbreakers; he soon formed a new group that would become known as The Voidoids, "one of the most harshly uncompromising bands" on the scene.Pareles and Romanowski (1983), p. 249 That April, the Ramones\' debut album was released. According to a later description, "Like all cultural watersheds, Ramones was embraced by a discerning few and slagged off as a bad joke by the uncomprehending majority." Isler, Scott, and Ira Robbins. Ramones. Trouser Press. Retrieved on 2007-10-23. At the instigation of Ramones lead singer Joey Ramone, the members of Cleveland\'s Frankenstein moved east to join the New York scene. Reconstituted as the Dead Boys, they played their first CBGB gig in late July.Adams (2002), p. 369; McNeil and McCain (2006), pp. 233–234. In August, Ork put out an EP recorded by Hell with his new band that included the first recording of "Blank Generation".Richard Hell—Another World/Blank Generation/You Gotta Lose. Discogs. Retrieved on 2007-10-23. Buckley (2003), p. 485.
The term punk initially referred to the scene in general, more than the sound itself—the early New York punk bands represented a broad variety of influences. Among them, the Ramones, The Heartbreakers, Richard Hell and The Voidoids, and the Dead Boys were establishing a distinct musical style; even where they diverged most clearly, in lyrical approach—the Ramones\' apparent guilelessness at one extreme, Hell\'s conscious craft at the other—there was an abrasive attitude in common. Their shared attributes of minimalism and speed, however, had not yet come to define punk rock.Walsh (2006), p. 8.
At the same time, a similar music-based subculture was beginning to take shape in various parts of Australia. A scene was developing around Radio Birdman and its main performance venue, the Oxford Tavern (later the Oxford Funhouse), located in Sydney\'s Darlinghurst suburb. In December 1975, the group won the RAM (Rock Australia Magazine)/Levi\'s Punk Band Thriller competition.Buckley (2003), p. 3; McFarlane (1999), p. 507. By 1976, The Saints were hiring Brisbane local halls to use as venues, or playing in "Club 76", their shared house in the inner suburb of Petrie Terrace. The band soon discovered that musicians were exploring similar paths in other parts of the world. Ed Kuepper, coleader of The Saints, later recalled:
One thing I remember having had a really depressing effect on me was the first Ramones album. When I heard it [in 1976], I mean it was a great record...but I hated it because I knew we’d been doing this sort of stuff for years. There was even a chord progression on that album that we used...and I thought, "Fuck. We’re going to be labeled as influenced by the Ramones," when nothing could have been further from the truth.Australian Broadcasting Corporation (October 2, 2003). "Misfits and Malcontents". abc.net.au. Retrieved on November 1, 2006.
On the other side of Australia, in Perth, germinal punk rock act the Cheap Nasties, featuring singer-guitarist Kim Salmon, formed in August.McFarlane (1999), p. 548. In September, The Saints became the first punk rock band outside the U.S. to release a recording, the single "(I\'m) Stranded". As with Patti Smith\'s debut, the band self-financed, packaged, and distributed the single.Lucy Beaumont (2007-08-17). "Great Australian Albums [TV review]" . The Age. Retrieved on 2007-09-22. Ben Gook (2007-08-16). "Great Australian Albums The Saints – (I\'m) Stranded [DVD review]" . Mess+Noise. Retrieved on 2007-09-22. "(I\'m) Stranded" had limited impact at home, but the British music press recognized it as a groundbreaking record.Stafford (2006), pp. 57–76. At the insistence of their superiors in the UK, EMI Australia signed The Saints. Meanwhile, Radio Birdman came out with a self-financed EP, Burn My Eye, in October.McFarlane (1999), p. 507. Trouser Press critic Ian McCaleb later described the record as the "archetype for the musical explosion that was about to occur."McCaleb (1991), p. 529.
Music samples:
Sample of "Anarchy in the U.K." (single, 1976) by the Sex Pistols, later issued on Never Mind the Bollocks, Here\'s the Sex Pistols (1977)
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After a brief period unofficially managing the New York Dolls, Englishman Malcolm McLaren returned to London in May 1975, inspired by the new scene he had witnessed at CBGB. He opened Sex, a clothing store specializing in outrageous "anti-fashion"."The Sex Pistols", Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock \'n\' Roll (2001). Retrieved on September 11, 2006; Robb (2006), pp. 83–87; Savage (1992), pp. 99–103. Among those who frequented the shop were members of a band called The Swankers. In August, the group was seeking a new lead singer. Another Sex habitué, Johnny Rotten, auditioned for and won the job; McLaren became the band\'s manager. Adopting a new name, the group played its first gig as the Sex Pistols on November 5, 1975, at St. Martin\'s School of ArtColegrave and Sullivan (2005), p. 19. and soon attracted a small but ardent following."The Bromley Contingent", punk77.co.uk. Retrieved on December 3, 2006. In February 1976, the band received its first significant press coverage; guitarist Steve Jones declared that the Pistols were not so much into music as they were "chaos."Savage (1992), pp. 151–152. The quote has been variously ascribed to McLaren (e.g., Laing [1985], pp. 97, 127) and Rotten (e.g., "Punk Music in Britain", BBC, October 7, 2002), but Savage directly cites the New Musical Express issue in which the quote originally appeared. As no contemporary evidence has been put forward in contradiction, the Jones attribution is clearly correct. The band often provoked its crowds into near-riots. Rotten announced to one audience, "Bet you don\'t hate us as much as we hate you!"Quoted in Friedlander and Miller (2006), p. 252. McClaren envisioned the Pistols as central players in a new youth movement, "hard and tough".Quoted in Savage (1992), p. 163. As described by critic Jon Savage, the band members "embodied an attitude into which McClaren fed a new set of references: late-sixties radical politics, sexual fetish material, pop history,...youth sociology."Savage (1992), p. 163.
Bernard Rhodes, a sometime associate of McLaren\'s and friend of the Pistols\', was similarly trying to make stars of the band London SS. In spring 1976, the group broke up, spinning off two new bands: The Damned and The Clash, which was joined by Joe Strummer, The 101\'ers former lead singer.Savage (1992), pp. 124, 171, 172. On June 4, 1976, the Sex Pistols played Manchester\'s Lesser Free Trade Hall in what came to be regarded as one of the most influential rock shows ever. Among the approximately forty audience members were the three locals who had organized the gig—they soon began performing as the Buzzcocks. Others in the small crowd would go on to form Joy Division, The Fall, and—in the 1980s—The Smiths."Sex Pistols Gig: The Truth". BBC (2006-06-27). Retrieved on 2007-12-29.
In July, the Ramones crossed the Atlantic for two London shows that helped spark the nascent UK punk scene, an impact that would later be exaggerated by the band\'s members.Taylor (2003), p. 56; McNeil and McCain (2006), pp. 230–233. On July 4, they played with the Flamin\' Groovies and The Stranglers before a crowd of 2,000 at the Roundhouse.Robb (2006), p. 198. That same night, The Clash debuted, opening for the Sex Pistols in Sheffield. On July 5, members of both bands attended a Ramones club gig.Taylor (2003), p. 56. The following night, The Damned played their first show, as a Pistols opening act in London. In critic Kurt Loder\'s description, the Pistols purveyed a "calculated, arty nihilism, [while] the Clash were unabashed idealists, proponents of a radical left-wing social critique of a sort that reached back at least to...Woody Guthrie in the 1940s."Kurt Loder (2003-03-10). "The Clash: Ducking Bottles, Asking Questions". MTV.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. The Damned built a reputation as "punk\'s party boys."Taylor (2004), p. 80. This London scene\'s first fanzine appeared a week later. Its title, Sniffin\' Glue, derived from a Ramones song. Its subtitle affirmed the connection with what was happening in New York: "+ Other Rock \'n\' Roll Habits for Punks!"Laing (1985), p. 13; "This Week in 1976", towerblock.co.uk. Retrieved on march 4, 2008.
Another Sex Pistols gig in Manchester on July 20, with the Buzzcocks debuting in support, gave further impetus to the scene there.Cummins, Kevin, "Closer to the Birth of a Music Legend," The Observer, August 8, 2007, p. 12. In August, the self-described "First European Punk Rock Festival" was held in Mont de Marsan in the southwest of France. Eddie and the Hot Rods, a London pub rock group, headlined, while the Sex Pistols were excluded for "going too far" and The Clash backed out in solidarity. The only band from the new punk movement to appear was The Damned.Savage (1992), p. 216.
Over the next several months, many new punk rock bands formed, often directly inspired by the Pistols.See, e.g., Marcus (1989), pp. 37, 67. In London, women were at the center of the scene—among the initial wave of bands were the female-fronted Siouxsie & the Banshees and X-Ray Spex and the all-female The Slits. The Adverts had a female bassist. Other groups included Subway Sect, Eater, The Subversives, the aptly named London, and Chelsea, which soon spun off Generation X. Farther afield, Sham 69 began practicing in the southeastern town of Hersham. In Durham, there was Penetration, with lead singer Pauline Murray. On September 20–21, the 100 Club Punk Festival in London featured the four primary British groups (London\'s big three and the Buzzcocks), as well as Paris\'s female-fronted Stinky Toys, arguably the first punk rock band from a non-Anglophone country. Siouxsie & the Banshees and Subway Sect debuted on the festival\'s first night; that same evening, Eater debuted in Manchester."Eater". Detour Records. Retrieved on 2007-12-29.
Some new bands, such as London\'s Alternative TV and Edinburgh\'s Rezillos, identified with the scene even as they pursued more experimental music. Others of a comparatively traditional rock \'n\' roll bent were also swept up by the movement: The Vibrators, formed as a pub rock–style act in February 1976, soon adopted a punk look and sound.Savage (1992), pp. 221, 247. A few even longer-active bands including Surrey neo-mods The Jam and pub rockers The Stranglers and Cock Sparrer also became associated with the punk rock scene. Alongside the musical roots shared with their American counterparts and the calculated confrontationalism of the early Who, journalist Clinton Heylin describes how the British punks also reflected the influence of the "glam bands who gave noise back to teenagers in the early Seventies—T.Rex, Slade and Roxy Music."Heylin (1993), p. xii. One of the groups openly acknowledging that influence were The Undertones, from Derry in Northern Ireland.Robbins, Ira. Undertones. Trouser Press. Retrieved on 2007-10-23. Reid, Pat (May 2001). Alive and Kicking. Rhythm Magazine. Undertones.net. Retrieved on 2007-10-23. Another punk band formed to the south, Dublin\'s The Radiators From Space.
In October, The Damned became the first UK punk rock band to release a single, the romance-themed "New Rose".Griffin, Jeff, "The Damned", BBC.co.uk. Retrieved on November 19, 2006. The Sex Pistols followed the next month with "Anarchy in the U.K."—with its debut single the band succeeded in its goal of becoming a "national scandal".Anarchy in the U.K.. Rolling Stone (2004-12-09). Retrieved on 2007-10-22. Jamie Reid\'s "anarchy flag" poster and his other design work for the Pistols helped establish a distinctive punk visual aesthetic.Pardo (2004), p. 245. On December 1, an incident took place that sealed punk rock\'s notorious reputation: On Thames Today, an early evening London TV show, Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones was goaded into a verbal altercation by the host, Bill Grundy. Jones called Grundy a "dirty fucker" on live television, triggering a media controversy.Lydon (1995), p. 127; Savage (1992), pp. 257–260; Barkham, Patrick, "Ex-Sex Pistol Wants No Future for Swearing", The Guardian (UK), March 1, 2005. Retrieved on December 17, 2006. Two days later, the Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, and The Heartbreakers set out on the Anarchy Tour, a series of gigs throughout the UK. Many of the shows were cancelled by venue owners in response to the media outrage following the Grundy confrontation.Savage (1992), pp. 267–275; Lydon (1995), pp. 139–140.
In 1975, Suicide Commandos formed in Minneapolis—one of the first U.S. bands outside of New York to play in the Ramones-style harder-louder-faster mode that would define punk rock.Unterberger (1999), p. 319. As the punk movement expanded rapidly in the United Kingdom in 1976, a few bands with similar tastes and attitude appeared around the United States. The first West Coast punk scenes emerged in San Francisco, with the bands Crime and The Nuns,Unterberger (1999), p. 426. and Seattle, where the Telepaths, Meyce, and The Tupperwares played a groundbreaking show on May 1.Humphrey, Clark. "Rock Music—Seattle". HistoryLink.org, May 4, 2000. Retrieved on November 26, 2007. Rock critic Richard Meltzer cofounded VOM (short for "vomit") in Los Angeles. In Washington, D.C., raucous roots-rockers The Razz helped along a nascent punk scene featuring Overkill, the Slickee Boys, and The Look. Around the turn of the year, White Boy began giving notoriously crazed performances.Andersen and Jenkins (2001), pp. 2–13. In Boston, the scene at the Rathskeller—affectionately known as the Rat—was also turning toward punk, though the defining sound retained a distinct garage rock orientation. Among the city\'s first new acts to be identified with punk rock was DMZ.Robbins, Ira. DMZ. TrouserPress.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-01. Donnelly, Ben, "DMZ", Dusted. Both retrieved on November 29, 2007. In Bloomington, Indiana, The Gizmos played in a jokey, raunchy, Dictators-inspired style later referred to as "frat punk".Lovell, Paul (1978). Interview with Kenne Gizmo. Boston Groupie News. Retrieved on 2007-12-28. Eddy, Chuck (2005-07-15). Eddytor\'s Dozen. Village Voice. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
Like their garage rock predecessors, these local scenes were facilitated by enthusiastic impresarios who operated nightclubs or organized concerts in venues such as schools, garages, or warehouses, advertised via inexpensively printed flyers and fanzines. In some cases, punk\'s do it yourself ethic reflected an aversion to commercial success, as well as a desire to maintain creative and financial autonomy.Ross, Alex. "Generation Exit: Kurt Cobain". The New Yorker, April 1994. Retrieved January 2, 2007. As Joe Harvard, a participant in the Boston scene, describes, it was often a simple necessity—the absence of a local recording industry and well-distributed music magazines left little recourse but DIY.Harvard, Joe, "Willie "Loco" Alexander and the Boom Boom Band", Boston Rock Storybook. Retrieved November 27, 2007.
By 1977, a second wave of the punk rock movement was breaking in the three countries where it had emerged, as well as in many other places. Bands from the same scenes often sounded very different from each other, reflecting the eclectic state of punk music during the era.Reynolds (2005), p. 211. While punk rock remained largely an underground phenomenon in North America, Australia, and the new spots where it was emerging, in the UK it briefly became a major sensation."Punk Rock", All Music Guide. Retrieved on January 7, 2007.
Music samples:
Sample of "Waterslide" by The Dickies, from The Incredible Shrinking Dickies (1979)
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The California punk scene was in full swing by early 1977. In Los Angeles, there were The Zeros, The Germs, The Weirdos, X, The Dickies, The Bags, and the relocated Tupperwares, now dubbed The Screamers.Spitz and Mullen (2001), passim. San Francisco\'s second wave included The Avengers, Negative Trend, The Mutants, and The Sleepers.Stark (2006), passim. The Dils, from Carlsbad, moved between the two major cities.Unterberger (1999), p. 398. The Wipers formed in Portland, Oregon. In Seattle, there was The Lewd.Keithley (2004), pp. 31–32. Often sharing gigs with the Seattle punks were bands from across the Canadian border. A major scene developed in Vancouver, spearheaded by the Furies and Victoria\'s all-female Dee Dee and the Dishrags. The Skulls spun off into D.O.A. and The Subhumans. The K-Tels (later known as the Young Canadians) and Pointed Sticks were among the area\'s other leading punk acts.Keithley (2004), pp. 24, 35, 29–43, 45 et seq.
In eastern Canada, the Toronto protopunk band Dishes had laid the groundwork for another sizable scene,Miller, Earl. "File Under Anarchy: A Brief History of Punk Rock\'s 30-Year Relationship with Toronto\'s Art Press". International Contemporary Art, December 22, 2005. Retrieved on November 25, 2007 and a September 1976 concert by the touring Ramones had catalyzed the movement. Early Ontario punk bands included The Diodes, The Viletones, The Demics, Forgotten Rebels, Teenage Head, The Poles, and The Ugly. Along with the Dishrags, Toronto\'s The Curse and B Girls were North America\'s first all-female punk acts.Worth, Liz. "A Canadian Punk Revival". Exclaim, June 2007. Retrieved on November 27, 2007; Keithley (2004), pp. 40–41, 87, 89. In July 1977, the Viletones, Diodes, and Teenage Head headed down to New York City to play a four-day showcase at CBGB. Punk rock was already beginning to give way there to the anarchic sound of what became known as No Wave, although several original punk bands continued to perform. Leave Home, the Ramones\' second album, had come out in January. September saw Richard Hell and The Voidoids\' first full-length, Blank Generation.Smith, Sid. "Richard Hell and The Voidoids: Blank Generation", BBC, April 24, 2007. Retrieved on December 8, 2007. The Heartbreakers\' debut, L.A.M.F., and the Dead Boys\', Young, Loud and Snotty, appeared in October; the Ramones\' third, Rocket to Russia, in November. The Cramps, whose core members were from Sacramento by way of Akron, had debuted at CBGB in November 1976, opening for the Dead Boys. They were soon playing regularly at Max\'s Kansas City.Porter (2007), pp. 48–49; Nobahkt (2004), pp. 77–78. The Misfits formed in nearby New Jersey; by 1978, they had developed a style known as horror punk.
The Ohio protopunk bands were joined by Cleveland\'s The Pagans,Adams (2002), pp. 377–380. Akron\'s Bizarros and Rubber City Rebels, and Kent\'s Human Switchboard. Bloomington, Indiana, had MX-80 Sound and Detroit had The Sillies. The Feederz formed in Arizona. Atlanta had The Fans. In North Carolina, there was Chapel Hill\'s H-Bombs and Raleigh\'s Th\' Cigaretz.Aaron, Charles, "The Spirit of \'77", Spin, September 20, 2007. Retrieved on November 27, 2007. The Chicago scene began not with a band but with a group of DJs transforming a gay bar, La Mere Vipere, into what would become known as America\'s first punk dance club. Tutu and the Pirates and Silver Abuse were among the city\'s first punk bands.Raymer, Miles, "Chicago Punk, Vol. 1", Chicago Reader, November 22, 2007; Austen, Jake, "Savage Operation", Time Out Chicago, November 22, 2007. Both retrieved December 18, 2007. In Boston, the scene at the Rat was joined by the Nervous Eaters, Thrills, and Human Sexual Response. In Washington, D.C., the Controls played their first gig in spring 1977, but the city\'s second wave really broke the following year with acts such as Urban Verbs, Half Japanese, D\'Chumps, Rudements, and Shirkers.Andersen and Jenkins (2001), pp. 11–15, 23–26, 32, 35, 39, 41, 49, 59, 60, 68, 84, 91, 93 et seq. By early 1978, the D.C. jazz-fusion group Mind Power had transformed into Bad Brains, one of the first bands to be identified with hardcore punk.Simmons, Todd, "The Wednesday the Music Died", The Villager, October 18–24, 2006. Retrieved on November 27, 2007; Wells (2004), p. 15.
In February 1977, EMI released The Saints\' debut album, (I\'m) Stranded, which the band recorded in two days.McFaarlane, p. 547. The Saints had relocated to Sydney; in April, they and Radio Birdman united for a major gig at Paddington Town Hall.Cameron, Keith. "Come the Revolution". Guardian, July 20, 2007. Retrieved on November 25, 2007. Last Words had also formed in the city. The following month, The Saints relocated again, to Great Britain. In June, Radio Birdman released the album Radios Appear on its own Trafalgar label.
The Victims became a short-lived leader of the Perth scene, recording the classic "Television Addict". They were joined by The Scientists, Kim Salmon\'s successor band to the Cheap Nasties. The Hellcats and Psychosurgeons (later known as the Lipstick Killers) in Sydney;Gardner, Steve. "Radio Birdman". Noise for Heroes, summer 1990. Retrieved on November 25, 2007. The Leftovers, The Survivors, and
