Punk rock

### Declined

Became mainstream in 1977 against it's wishes but continued to evolve and thus never really could be considered to have "declined" since being mainstream wasn't it's goal

### Stylistic origins

50s rock n roll, pub rock, 60s garage, glam rock, rockabilly, proto-punk

### Subgenres

Hardcore punk, pop punk, grunge, anarcho punk, post punk, horror punk, gothic rock, garage punk, ska punk, cowpunk, new wave, indie rock, post-hardcore, etc.

**Punk rock** is a genre of rock music that came about during the mid 1970s in mostly the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, although the foundation was set in the mid 1960s-early 1970s with garage rock, MC5 and the Stooges.

## Before the 1970s

Punk rock can easily be traced back to the bands you hear on the Nuggets compilations. The Shadows Of Knight, the Standells, the La De Das, and more obscure groups like The Bluestars (whose song Social End Product is easily punk as fuck as it is hard-hitting, about being alienated from society and includes the line 'I don't stand for the Queen').

In 1969, two bands had records out that would ultimately be extremely influential. MC5 put out their live album Kick Out The Jams that year (although it was recorded on October 30-31 1968) and The Stooges put out their self-titled debut in August that year. In fact, Kick Out The Jams is so punk that it is possibly the only pre 1970s thing to be classified as punk rock on Wikipedia.

## Development

In the beginning, punk in the US and the UK were different, but at the same time had the same goal.

Punk in the United States developed with a poetic slant, with Richard Hell (the first dude to spike his hair with the idea of punk) and Patti Smith (highly influential in bringing about more girl bands). Both were already active by 1974: Richard Hell was playing with his band Television, while Patti put her own group together and did the same thing, all at a venue named the CBGB. Bands like Blondie (who are more known for being new wave) were also becoming a thing.

However, it was The Ramones that stuck out the most like a sore thumb. They were playing highly energetic, simple and short music influenced by Motown girl groups and the like as early as 1974, and there is footage of them, IN 1974.

They had put out their debut album in April 1976, and it would become highly influential.

In the UK, it was an extremely shitty working class place. Trash piled up on the street, apparently London was a nasty place in 1975. Until this one dude.

Malcolm McLaren was a guy who briefly managed the New York Dolls before they imploded and he went back to London and ran a fashion boutique on Kings Road with his wife Vivienne Westwood. They are credited as the ones who pretty much defined what we know as punk fashion today because they favored ripped shit and safety pins, although Richard Hell is credited with wearing that shit long before and the story goes that Malcolm saw Richard wear that shit in the street and was like holy shit.

So they put a bunch of dudes who worked at/frequented the shop to become the Sex Pistols. You had Johnny Rotten, opinionated as fuck, Steve Jones, with a libido as high as the Berj Khalifa, Glen Matlock, who liked bands that most punks then were against which is actually quite punk in itself, and Paul Cook, Steve's longtime buddy.

They started gigging in November 1975 and by that same time the year after had built up a following of other ragtag misfits; Billy Idol and Siouxsie Sioux are the most notable, as the Bromley Contingent. In December 1976, Queen couldn't appear on one Bill Grundy's show because Freddie Mercury had a tooth ache. So they brought the Sex Pistols in. Grundy didn't like the Pistols and tried being smartasses to them, but the Pistols and their contingent won and made national headlines for swearing on national television. It was so bad that some stupid ass dickhead kicked in his new TV just because the Sex Pistols said no no words.

Pretty soon, shitloads of bands were popping up. The Clash, the Damned and the Buzzcocks were already a thing before the Grundy incident, but many other bands rose. Subway Sect, Generation X, X-Ray Spex, Chelsea, and even pub rockers got in on that shit: The Stranglers, Eddie And The Hot Rods, Joe Strummer was in the pub rock band the 101ers before he was in the Clash.

Girl bands began popping up too as a result of Patti Smith and the fact that punk was inviting to anybody. The Slits, whose lead singer was fucking fifteen years old and went full on fucking reggae, X-Ray Spex's lead singer was a chick, you had post-punkers The Raincoats, Siouxsie And The Banshees, and a lot of the fashion figures of punk were chicks, such as Jordan and Soo Catwoman.

1977 was a busy year for punk rockers, as they started touring, getting stabbed in the streets by Teddy Boys and finally cutting records. The Damned were the first to put out a punk single in October 1976, put out a full length album in February 1977, and tour the US somewhere shortly after that.

Post-punkers like Joy Division and The Fall both came together because of the Pistols' famous gig at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester in June 1976. A lot of the early bands actually started because of seeing the Sex Pistols gigging.

They wore short spiked hair, ripped clothes, safety pins and sometimes trash bags as torso wear, because they had jack shit money on them. Punk slowly became exactly what it was against, as many seemed to agree that if you play one more note than three chords, you're a sellout, and you're mainstream, and you should probably just go be a pop star.

The first wave of punk died in the asshole as a result of the death of Sid Vicious and the break up or moving on of many 1976-1977 formed bands. Many who were still active had moved on to post-punk, or whatever they wanted to do. The Banshees became pretty much Gothic, Joy Division was going good until Ian Curtis killed himself, The Slits just said fuck punk and became reggae, and the Clash made the legendary London Calling album...and then made Rock The Casbah.

Whereas most of the original London bands began leaning towards post-punk or more commercial rock by 1979, America developed further street-orientated punk bands. Hardcore punk emerged in areas like D.C. and California with Minor Threat, Bad Brains and Black Flag being notable ones. By the mid 80s, Minor Threat disbanded and frontman Ian Mackaye formed post-hardcore outfit Fugazi, Bad Brains added reggae elements to their stuff, and Black Flag went down the sludge metal route.

New scenes often developed everywhere, like post-hardcore, crust punk, anarcho punk and god knows whatelse-punk. However, the next biggest punk-related movement was yet to come.

In 1987, in the city of Aberdeen, Washington, one Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic got together and became Nirvana, with a few drummers before settling on Dave Grohl. They fused punk with Pixies-style dynamics and a metal tinge to create grunge. They released their debut LP, Bleach, in June 1989. They then proceeded to explode into the public consciousness in 1991 with the song Smells Like Teen Spirit and the album the song is on: Nevermind.

It was suddenly 1976 all over again.