Download Punk Song
Esperance Calderin
Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll[2][3][4] and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced short, fast-paced songs with hard-edged melodies and singing styles, stripped-down instrumentation, and often shouted political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produce recordings and distribute 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. Certain late 1960s and early 1970s Detroit acts, such as MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges, and other bands from elsewhere created out-of-the-mainstream music that became highly influential on what was to come. Glam rock in the UK and the New York Dolls from New York have also been cited as key influences. Between 1974 and 1976, when the genre that became known as punk was developing, prominent acts included Television, Patti Smith, and the Ramones in New York City; the Saints in Brisbane; and the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the Damned in London, and the Buzzcocks in Manchester. By late 1976, punk had become a major cultural phenomenon in the UK. It gave rise to a punk subculture that 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.
In 1977, the influence of the music and subculture spread worldwide. It took root in a wide range of local scenes that often rejected affiliation with the mainstream. In the late 1970s, punk experienced a second wave, when new acts that had not been active during its formative years adopted the style. By the early 1980s, faster and more aggressive subgenres, such as hardcore punk (e.g., Minor Threat), Oi! (e.g., the Exploited) and anarcho-punk (e.g., Crass), became the predominant modes of punk rock. Many musicians who identified with punk or were inspired by it went on to pursue other musical directions, giving rise to movements such as post-punk, new wave, and alternative rock. Following alternative rock's mainstream breakthrough in the 1990s with Nirvana, punk rock saw renewed major-label interest and mainstream appeal exemplified by the rise of the California bands Green Day, Social Distortion, Rancid, the Offspring, Bad Religion, and NOFX.
The first wave of punk rock was "aggressively modern" and differed from what came before.[5] 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."[6] 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."[7] According to Robert Christgau, punk "scornfully rejected the political idealism and Californian flower-power silliness of hippie myth."[8]
Hippies were rainbow extremists; punks are romantics of black-and-white. Hippies forced warmth; punks cultivate cool. Hippies kidded themselves about free love; punks pretend that s&m is our condition. As symbols of protest, swastikas are no less fatuous than flowers.
Technical accessibility and a do it yourself (DIY) spirit are prized in punk rock. UK pub rock from 1972 to 1975 contributed to the emergence of punk rock by developing a network of small venues, such as pubs, where non-mainstream bands could play.[10] Pub rock also introduced the idea of independent record labels, such as Stiff Records, which put out basic, low-cost records.[10] Pub rock bands organized their own small venue tours and put out small pressings of their records. In the early days of punk rock, this DIY ethic stood in marked contrast to what those in the scene regarded as the ostentatious musical effects and technological demands of many mainstream rock bands.[11] Musical virtuosity was often looked on with suspicion. According to Holmstrom, punk rock was "rock and roll by people who didn't have very many skills as musicians but still felt the need to express themselves through music".[7] In December 1976, the English fanzine Sideburns published a now-famous illustration of three chords, captioned "This is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a band".[12]
British punk rejected contemporary mainstream rock, the broader culture it represented, and their musical predecessors: "No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones in 1977", declared the Clash song "1977".[13] 1976, when the punk revolution began in Britain, became a musical and a cultural "Year Zero".[14] As nostalgia was discarded, many in the scene adopted a nihilistic attitude summed up by the Sex Pistols' slogan "No Future";[5] in the later words of one observer, amid the unemployment and social unrest in 1977, "punk's nihilistic swagger was the most thrilling thing in England."[15] While "self-imposed alienation" was common among "drunk punks" and "gutter punks", there was always a tension between their nihilistic outlook and the "radical leftist utopianism"[16] of bands such as Crass, who found positive, liberating meaning in the movement. As a Clash associate describes singer Joe Strummer's outlook, "Punk rock is meant to be our freedom. We're meant to be able to do what we want to do."[17]
The early punk bands emulated the minimal musical arrangements of 1960s garage rock.[19] Typical punk rock instrumentation is stripped down to one or two guitars, bass, drums and vocals. Songs tend to be shorter than those of other rock genres and played at fast tempos.[20] Most early punk rock songs retained a traditional rock 'n' roll verse-chorus form and 4/4 time signature. However, later bands often broke from this format.[21]
Punk rock lyrics are typically blunt and confrontational; compared to the lyrics of other popular music genres, they often focus on social and political issues.[32] 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.[33] Especially in early British punk, a central goal was to outrage and shock the mainstream.[34] The Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen" openly disparaged the British political system and social mores. Anti-sentimental depictions of relationships and sex are common, as in "Love Comes in Spurts", recorded by the Voidoids. Anomie, variously expressed in the poetic terms of Richard Hell's "Blank Generation" and the bluntness of the Ramones' "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue", is a common theme.[35] The controversial content of punk lyrics has frequently led to certain punk records being banned by radio stations and refused shelf space in major chain stores.[36] Christgau said that "Punk is so tied up with the disillusions of growing up that punks do often age poorly."[37]
Young women in punk demolished the typical female types in rock of either "coy sex kittens or wronged blues belters" in their fashion.[42] Early female punk musicians displayed styles ranging from Siouxsie Sioux's bondage gear to Patti Smith's "straight-from-the-gutter androgyny".[43] The former proved much more influential on female fan styles.[44] Over time, tattoos, piercings, and metal-studded and -spiked accessories became increasingly common elements of punk fashion among both musicians and fans, a "style of adornment calculated to disturb and outrage".[45] Among the other facets of the punk rock scene, a punk's hair is an important way of showing their freedom of expression.[46] The typical male punk haircut was originally short and choppy; the mohawk later emerged as a characteristic style.[47] Along with the mohawk, long spikes have been associated with the punk rock genre.[46]
The early to mid-1960s garage rock bands in the United States and elsewhere are often recognized as punk rock's progenitors. The Kingsmen's "Louie, Louie" is often cited as punk rock's defining "ur-text".[48][nb 1] After the success of the British Invasion, the garage phenomenon gathered momentum around the US.[51] By 1965, the harder-edged sound of British acts, such as the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Who, became increasingly influential with American garage bands.[52] The raw sound of U.S. groups such as the Sonics and the Seeds predicted the style of later acts.[52] In the early 1970s some rock critics used the term "punk rock" to refer to the mid-1960s garage genre,[24] as well as for subsequent acts perceived to be in that stylistic tradition, such as the Stooges.[53]
In Britain, largely under the influence of the mod movement and beat groups, the Kinks' 1964 hit singles "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night", were both influenced by "Louie, Louie".[54][nb 2] In 1965, the Who released the mod anthem "My Generation", which according to John Reed, anticipated the kind of "cerebral mix of musical ferocity and rebellious posture" that would characterize much of the later British punk rock of the 1970s.[56][nb 3] The garage/beat phenomenon extended beyond North America and Britain.[58] In America, the psychedelic rock movement birthed an array of garage bands that would later become influences on punk, the Austin Chronicle described the 13th Floor Elevators as a band who can lay claim to influencing the movement, "the seeds of punk remain blatant in the howling ultimatum Erickson transferred from his previous teen combo to the Elevators"[59] as well as describing other bands in the Houston, Texas psychedelic rock scene as "a prime example of the opaque proto-punk undertow at the heart of the best psychedelia". Hippie proto-punk David Peel of New York City's Lower East Side was the first person to use the word "motherfucker" in a song title and also directly influenced the Clash.[60]
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