Punk rock

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Punk rock is an anti-establishment rock music genre and movement that emerged in the 1970s. While the genre had been preceded by various forms of protopunk music from the 1960s and the early 1970s, the genre's immediate origins lie in a number of artists that emerged from the United Kingdom,^[1][2] the United States,^[3][4] and Australia,^[5][6] between 1974 and 1975 — as exemplified by bands such as the Ramones^[7] and Sex Pistols.^[8]

Punk rock rejected many of the perceived excesses of 1970s rock music and placed emphasis on music that was fast, short in duration, and simple — often accompanied by a political or social outlook. The associated punk subculture involves youthful aggression, specific clothing styles, ideologies, and a DIY (do it yourself) attitude.

Punk rock became a major phenomenon in the United Kingdom during the late 1970s, but its popularity was more sporadic elsewhere. Over the course of the 1980s, various forms of punk rock emerged in small scenes around the world, often outright rejecting commercial success or association with mainstream culture. By the end of the 20th century, punk rock's legacy had resulted in the formation of the alternative rock movement, while new punk bands popularized the genre decades after its initial heyday.

Contents 1 Characteristics 2 Early history 2.1 Origin of the term Punk 2.2 New York 2.3 Emergence of other scenes 2.4 London and the U.K. 2.5 The second wave 3 Subgenres and derivative forms 3.1 New Wave and post-punk 3.2 Hardcore 3.3 Oi! 3.4 Pop punk 4 Legacy and recent developments 5 See also 6 References 7 Notes 8 External links

[edit] Characteristics

Punk rock served as a reaction against 1970s popular music forms^[9] including disco music, heavy metal, and progressive rock.^[10] Punk also rejected the remnants of the 1960s hippie counterculture.^[11] Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren recalled feeling "punk rock had to come along because the rock scene had become so tame that bands 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."^[9] The cultural critiques and strategies for revolutionary action of the European Situationist movement of the 1950s and 1960s influenced the vanguard of the British punk movement, particularly members of the Sex Pistols clique.^[2] McLaren consciously embraced Situationist ideas, which are also reflected in the clothing – designed for the band by Vivienne Westwood – and in the band's promotional artwork, much of it designed by the Situationist-affiliated Jamie Reid.^[12]

Punk bands often emulate the bare musical structures and arrangements of 1960s garage rock bands.^[13][14] This emphasis on accessibility exemplified punk's DIY aesthetic, and contrasted with the ostentatious musicianship of many of the mainstream rock bands popular in the years before the advent of punk. In 1976, the English punk fanzine Sideburns included drawings (later reproduced in Sniffin' Glue) of three chords, captioned: "This is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a band".^[15] Typical punk instrumentation includes a drum kit, one or two electric guitars, an electric bass and vocals. Drums typically sound heavy and dry, and often have a minimal set-up — with a snare drum, one mounted or standing tom, one floor tom, one bass drum, hi-hats, one or two crash cymbals and a ride cymbal.

In the early days of punk rock, musical virtuosity was often looked on with suspicion. According to Punk magazine founder John Holmstrom, punk 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".^[9] Complicated guitar solos were considered self-indulgent and unnecessary, although basic guitar breaks were still common.^[16] Bass guitar lines are often basic and used to carry the song's melody, although some punk bass players such as Mike Watt put greater emphasis on more technical bass parts. Guitar parts tend to include highly-distorted power chords, although some bands take a surf rock approach with lighter, twangier guitar tones. Production is minimalistic, with tracks sometimes laid down on home tape recorders. Punk vocals sometimes sound nasal, and are often shouted instead of sung in a conventional sense.

Punk songs are normally around two to two and a half minutes long, though many last for less than a minute. Most early punk songs retained a traditional rock & roll verse-chorus form and 4/4 time signature, however second wave punk bands, including bands from both the post-punk and hardcore sub-genres, often sought to break from that format. "The Sex Pistols were still rock'n'roll", remembers US author Steven Blush, "they were 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.^[17] In hardcore punk the drumming is considerably faster, with lyrics often half shouted over monochrome guitars.^[18]

By the mid-1970s, punk lyrics began to involve confrontational frankness and commentaries on social and political issues.^[19][20] Songs such as The Clash's "Career Opportunities" and "London's Burning" and Chelsea's "Right to Work", dealt with unemployment, boredom, and other grim realities of urban life. The Sex Pistols songs "God Save the Queen" and "Anarchy in the U.K." were openly disparaging of the British political system. Others were violent or anti-romantic in depictions of sex and love, such as The Voidoids' "Love Comes in Spurts".

Punk rock was influenced by the attitude, aggression, and political confrontation of artists such as The Who, the Rolling Stones, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, The Velvet Underground,^[21] Alice Cooper, The Stooges, the MC5, The Deviants, and the New York Dolls. Other influences include the English pub rock scene, and British glam rock and art rock acts of the early 1970s, including David Bowie, Gary Glitter and Roxy Music. Early punk rock often displays influences from other musical genres, including ska, funk, and rockabilly.

The British punk movement may have drawn upon the do-it-yourself attitude of the Skiffle music craze that emerged amid the post-World War II austerity in Britain.^[22] Punk rock in Britain coincided with the end of post-war consensus politics which preceded the rise of Thatcherism, leading to many British punk bands expressing an angry attitude based on social alienation.^[2]

[edit] Early history

[edit] Origin of the term Punk

The phrase punk rock (from punk, meaning a hoodlum or ruffian, or a worthless person)^[23][24] was originally applied to the untutored guitar-and-vocals-based rock of United States bands of the mid-1960s such as The Standells, The Sonics, and The Seeds—bands that are now often categorized as garage rock.

The term punk rock was coined by rock critic Dave Marsh, during a live review of ? and the Mysterians for a 1970 issue of Creem magazine,^[25] and was adopted by many rock music journalists in the early 1970s. In the liner notes of the 1972 anthology album Nuggets, Lenny Kaye uses the term punk-rock to refer to the 1960s garage rock bands,^[26] as well as some of the darker and more primitive practitioners of 1960s psychedelic rock. Shortly after he wrote those notes, Kaye formed a band with avant-garde poet Patti Smith. Smith's group, and her first album, Horses (released 1975), directly inspired many of the mid-1970s punk rockers.^[4]

[edit] New York

The first ongoing music scene assigned the "punk" label appeared in New York in 1974-1976, and centered around bands playing regularly at the clubs Max's Kansas City^[19] and CBGB,^[27] including the Ramones, Television, Blondie, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, The Voidoids, and Talking Heads. The scene had been preceded by a nascent underground rock movement at the Mercer Arts Center, which had formed from the demise of The Velvet Underground. Beginning in 1971, the Mercer scene featured the New York Dolls and Suicide, though it came to an abrupt end in 1973, when the building collapsed.^[28] The "punk" title was applied to these groups by early 1976, when John Holmstrom, Legs McNeil and Ged Dunn's Punk first appeared,^[29] featuring these bands alongside articles on some of the immediate role models for the new groups, such as Lou Reed and Patti Smith (who were the cover subjects of the first and second issues, respectively). At the same time, a less celebrated, but influential, scene had appeared in Ohio, comprising The Electric Eels, Devo, and Rocket from the Tombs (who in 1975 split into Pere Ubu and The Dead Boys).

[edit] Emergence of other scenes

During this same period, bands that would later be recognized as "punk" were formed independently in other locations, such as The Saints in Brisbane, Australia, The Modern Lovers in Boston, and The Stranglers and the Sex Pistols in London. There was no unified, international subculture connecting these bands in the early 1970s and many were amazed or even dismayed to discover like-minded musicians exploring similar sounds. Ed Kuepper of The Saints said: Template:Cquote

These early bands also operated within small "scenes", often facilitated by enthusiastic impresarios who either operated venues, such as clubs, or organised temporary venues. In other cases, the bands or their managers improvised their own venues, such as a house inhabited by The Saints in an inner suburb of Brisbane. The venues provided a showcase and meeting place for the emerging musicians (the 100 Club in London, CBGB in New York, and The Masque in Hollywood are among the best known early punk clubs).

As punk spread internationally, scenes began to emerge around the world. In Germany, the rise of the Neue Deutsche Welle was led by bands such as DAF and Einstürzende Neubauten.

[edit] London and the U.K.

Template:Sound sample box align right Template:ListenTemplate:Sample box end The London punk scene would come to define and epitomize the rebellious punk culture. After a brief period managing the New York Dolls at the end of their career in the US, Englishman Malcolm McLaren returned to London in May 1975. He started a clothing store called SEX that was instrumental in creating the radical punk clothing style.^[12] He also began managing The Swankers, who would soon become the Sex Pistols. The Sex Pistols soon created a strong cult following in London, centered on a clique known as the Bromley Contingent (named after the suburb where many of them had grown up), who followed them around the country.^[30]

An oft-cited moment in punk rock's history is a July 4, 1976 concert by the Ramones (with The Stranglers) at the Roundhouse in London.^[12] Many of the future leaders of the UK punk rock scene were inspired by this show, and almost immediately afterward, the UK punk scene found its feet.^[7] By the end of 1976, many fans of the Sex Pistols had formed their own bands, including The Clash, Joy Division, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Adverts, Generation X, The Slits, and X-Ray Spex. Other UK bands to emerge in this milieu included The Damned (the first to release a single, the classic "New Rose"),^[31] The Jam, The Vibrators, Buzzcocks, and the appropriately named London.

In December of 1976, the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, and The Heartbreakers united for the Anarchy Tour, a series of gigs throughout the UK. Many of the gigs were cancelled by venue owners, after tabloid newspapers and other media seized on sensational stories regarding the antics of both the bands and their fans.^[32] The notoriety of punk rock in the UK was advanced by an infamous televised incident that was widely publicised in the tabloid press: on Thames Today, a London TV show, guitarist Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols was goaded into a verbal altercation by the host, Bill Grundy, swearing at him on live television in violation of then-accepted standards of propriety.^[33]

One of the first books about punk rock — The Boy Looked at Johnny by Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons (December 1977) — declared the punk movement to be already over: the subtitle was The Obituary of Rock and Roll. The title echoed a lyric from the title track of Patti Smith's 1975 album Horses.^[34]

[edit] The second wave

A second wave of bands emerged around 1978, including The Misfits and Black Flag in the U.S., and Wire and Crass in the U.K. While these new bands harnessed the energy and aggression of punk, they also developed its sound. Incorporating different tempos and more complex instrumentation, the second wave began to infuse their sound with elements of synth, dub, and noise.^[35]

Some of these bands would go on to develop the hardcore subgenre, while in London, bands such as The Clash, The Police and The Slits interacted with the Jamaican reggae and ska subcultures.^[36] By the end of the 1970s, punk had spawned the 2 Tone ska revival movement, formed around bands such as The Beat, The Specials, Madness, and The Selecter.

Gradually, punk became more varied and less minimalist,^[37] with bands such as The Clash and The Police incorporating other underground musical influences such as reggae, dub and rockabilly into their music.^[38][39] However, the message remained the same; it was subversive, counter-cultural, rebellious, politically incorrect and often anarchist. Punk rock dealt with topics including problems facing society, the oppression of the lower classes, and the threat of a nuclear war. Often it was personal but no less critical: many songs concerned the individual's personal problems, such as being unemployed, or having particular emotional and/or mental issues. Punk rock was a message to society that all was not well and all were not equal.

[edit] Subgenres and derivative forms

As the early media hype surrounding punk ebbed in the late 1970s, the movement went underground and fragmented into subgenres. The early unity between arty, middle class bohemians and working class kids began to fracture, leading to the rise of New Wave and post punk on one side, and hardcore punk and its U.K. equivalent Oi! on the other.^[37]

[edit] New Wave and post-punk

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New Wave and its attendant subculture arose along with the earliest punk groups; indeed "punk" and "New Wave" were originally interchangeable terms. Soon after the term gained popularity, a division emerged between the two genres:^[40] music that tended more toward experimentation, lyrical complexity, or more polished production, notably bands such as Talking Heads, Television and Devo, were called "New Wave" rather than "punk".^[37] Combining elements of early punk music and fashion with a far more pop oriented and less "dangerous" style in the early 1980s, typified by artists such as The Cars, Blondie, Elvis Costello, and The Police, New Wave became one of the most popular music movements of its time.

In the UK diverse post-punk bands emerged, such as Throbbing Gristle, The Fall, Gang of Four, and Public Image Ltd. Sometimes described as New Wave, post-punk was closely tied with the emerging indie scene, and independent record labels such as Rough Trade and Factory. The music was often dark, abrasive, and experimental, and drew inspiration from such sources as Krautrock, electronic music, and David Bowie.^[37]

[edit] Hardcore

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The United States saw the emergence of hardcore punk, known for its fast, aggressive beats, and often politically and socially aware lyrics.^[19] According to US author Steven Blush, "Hardcore comes from the bleak suburbs of America. Parents moved their kids out of the cities to these horrible suburbs to save them from the "reality" of the cities and what they ended uo with was this new breed of monster".^[17]

Hardcore developed in both the east and west coasts. Early east coast bands include Bad Brains, Social Distortion and The Replacements; while the west coast saw the emergence of Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, The Germs and The Descendents. In New York, a large hardcore punk movement emerged, led by bands such as Agnostic Front, The Cro-Mags, Murphy's Law, and Sick of it All. The lyrical content was often critical of commercial culture and middle-class values,^[41] typified by songs such as "Holidays In Cambodia" by Dead Kennedys and "Straight Edge" by Minor Threat.

Hardcore developed throughout the 1980s, via bands such as Minor Threat, Minutemen and Hüsker Dü. By the end of the decade and early 90s the movement began to diverge into new genres including metalcore, straight edge and emo.

[edit] Oi!

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In the U.K. the Oi! movement sought to align punk with a working-class, street-level following,^[42] and featured bands such as Cock Sparrer, The Exploited, The 4-Skins, and Sham 69. Though many of the prominent bands predated the naming of the genre by a few years, in the 1980s journalist Garry Bushell gave Oi! its name, partly derived from the Cockney Rejects' habit of shouting Oi! Oi! Oi! before each song, rather than the usual 1, 2, 3, 4!.

Reacting to a perception that many of the participants in the early punk scene were "trendy university people using long words, trying to be artistic...and losing touch",^[43] Oi! emerged as a belief that the music needed to remain unpretentious and accessible.^[37] "Punk was meant to be of the voice of the dole queue", Bushell later commented, "and in reality most of them were not. But Oi was the reality of the punk mythology. In the places where [these bands] came from, it was harder and more aggressive and it produced just as much quality music." ^[12]

While most of the founder members of Oi! were left wing or apolitical, the movement became tarred with a far right tag, and a perception grew in the U.K. music press that Oi! represented an exclusive white working class view point.^[12]

[edit] Pop punk

Bands sharing the Ramones' bubblegum pop influences formed their own subgenre, based around melody and lyrics often more focused on relationships and simple fun than the typical nihilism and anti-establishment stance. Along with the Ramones, such bands as the Buzzcocks,^[44] The Undertones and Bad Religion^[45] led the way to pop punk. The genre further developed by way of the Descendents, who fused punk rock with pop melodies,^[46] and later by groups such as Screeching Weasel.

[edit] Legacy and recent developments

The underground punk movement in the United States and the United Kingdom produced countless bands that either evolved from a punk rock sound, or applied its spirit and DIY ethics to a completely different sound. By the end of the 1980s, these bands had largely eclipsed their punk forebearers and were termed alternative rock.^[47] As alternative bands like Sonic Youth and the Pixies started to gain larger audiences, major labels sought to capitalize on a market that had been growing underground for the past 10 years.^[48]

In 1991, Nirvana achieved huge commercial success with their album, Nevermind. The band cited punk as a key influence on their music.^[49] Although they sometimes labelled themselves as punk rock, and championed many unknown punk icons (as did many other alternative rock bands), Nirvana's music was equally akin to other forms of garage rock, indie rock and heavy metal. Nirvana's success fueled the alternative rock boom that had been underway since the late 1980s, and helped define that segment of 1990s popular music.^[47] The resulting shift in popular taste was chronicled in the film 1991: The Year Punk Broke, which featured Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr, and Sonic Youth.^[50]

Praise for previously obscure punk acts by the popular alternative rock artists helped to lead a punk rock resurgence in the 1990s, particularly in North America. In 1994, bands like Green Day, The Offspring, Rancid, and Bad Religion experienced massive crossover success with the aid of MTV, and major radio stations like KROQ-FM.^[51] While some bands signed to major labels (Green Day signed to Reprise Records in 1994),^[52] indie labels like Epitaph Records (started by Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion, and the home of the skate punk sound of The Offspring, Pennywise, NOFX, and Rancid), also benefited from punk's resurgence. Green Day's commercial success paved the way for a wave of pop-punk at the turn of the century. Examples of bands labelled as pop punk include blink-182, Simple Plan, Good Charlotte and Sum 41. The late 1990s also saw a ska punk revival, which continued into the 2000s with bands like Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

Some in the punk community were wary of the music being co-opted by the mainstream.^[51] By the late 1990s, punk rock was so ingrained in Western culture that punk trappings were being used to position commercial bands as rebels. Some punk rockers complained that by signing to major labels and appearing on MTV, punk bands were buying into the system that punk was created to rebel against, though punk's earliest pioneers also released work on major labels. However, numerous underground punk scenes still exist worldwide.

[edit] See also

• List of forerunners of punk music (ca. 1968-1976)
• List of punk bands (by geography)
• List of musicians in the first wave of punk music (ca. 1976-1985)
• List of musicians in the second wave of punk music (ca. 1985-present)
• Timeline of punk rock
• List of punk styles/artists
• List of punk movies

[edit] References

• Azerrad, Michael, Our Band Could Be Your Life, Little Brown, 2001. ISBN 0-316-78753-1
• Bangs, Lestor, Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, Anchor Press, 1988. ISBN 0-679-72045-6
• Burchill, Julie & Parsons, Tony, The Boy Looked At Johnny: The Obituary of Rock and Roll, Pluto Press, UK, 1978. ISBN 0-86104-030-9
• Glasper, Ian, Burning Britain - A History Of UK Punk 1980 to 1984. Cherry Red Books. ISBN 1-901447-24-3
• McNeil, Legs & McCain, Gillian, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk. Penguin Books, 1997. ISBN 0-14-026690-9

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• A History of Punk
• Southend Punk History Punk history and band list
• Punk 77 History of UK punk
• Punk & Oi! in the UK Band interviews, news, reviews and more
• Punk Zine Archive - read out-of-print punk zines online
• Punk Flyer Gallery - original punk flyers viewable online

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