Friday, September 12, 2008

ska Punk

ska punk
Ska punk is a fusion music genre that combines ska (jamaican ska music) and punk rock (british and america).A type of music usually consisting of drums, bass, guitar, trumpet and saxaphone.It originated as part of the third wave of ska, and the genre achieved its greatest popularity in the late 1990s in the United States.The characteristics of ska punk vary, due to the fusion of contrasting genres. The more punk-influenced style often features faster tempos, guitar distortion, onbeat punk-style interludes (usually the chorus), and nasal, gruff, or shouted vocals. The more ska-influenced style of ska punk features a more developed instrumentation and a cleaner vocal and musical sound. The common instrumentation includes guitar, bass guitar, drums, saxophones, trombones, trumpets and/or other brass instruments, and sometimes an organ.
Ska Punk, rather than ska has a more agressive feel and is also known as Skacore. Ska-core is a subgenre of ska punk, blending ska with hardcore punk. The characteristics of ska punk vary, due to the fusion of contrasting genres. The more punk-influenced style often features faster tempos, guitar distortion, onbeat punk-style interludes (usually the chorus), and nasal, gruff, or shouted vocals. The more ska-influenced style of ska punk features a more developed instrumentation and a cleaner vocal and musical sound. Some examples of ska punk bands are bands such as Less Than Jake, Rancid, Operation Ivy, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish, Mustard Plug, Skankin' Pickle, Catch-22, Bomb The Music Industry, Choking Victim.

punk metal

punk metal
Punk metal is an umbrella term, or cross-genre term used to describe music that fuses elements of heavy metal with hardcore punk. Often the fusion involves extreme metal genres. Styles of punk metal include crossover thrash, metalcore, grindcore, crust punk, thrash metal, sludge metal, thrashcore and subsequent fusions between those styles.
While punk-metal may sound like thrash metal to uninformed listeners, it was spawned from a radically different attitude. Both camps rely on lightning-fast speeds, but punk-metal is focused on political injustice rather than technical proficiency. The two founding fathers of the genre were almost exact opposites: Chicano skate punks Suicidal Tendencies railed against the racism of their hometown of Venice, California with their self-titled 1983 debut album, while New York-based Stormtroopers of Death, or S.O.D. (a side project of thrash outfit Anthrax), delivered the race-baiting 1985 album Speak English or Die, which demostrated the close relationship between punk and thrash metal. By the late '80s, hardcore punk bands like Corrosion of Conformity, Agnostic Front, and Ludichrist were peppering their songs with thrash metal guitar solos. As punk grew more mainstream in the '90s, classic punk influences like The Misfits became as respectable as pioneering metal sources like Iron Maiden, furthering the fusion of punk and metal. In the new millennium, bands like Papa Roach, Avenged Sevenfold, and the bad boys of the nu metal scene continued mining punk's credibility while simultaneously copping riffs from late-era Ozzy Osbourne.

Punk Blues

Punk blues is a fusion of punk rock and blues music. It also can take influences from garage rock.Punk blues musicians and bands may incorporate elements of related subgenres, such as protopunk music or blues-rock. The style is similar in spirit to other punk and roots music fusion styles such as cowpunk and psychobilly.

With very few exceptions, punk blues predominantly tends to be an American underground music style in terms of music genres, and is mostly unrecognized by the mainstream, or mislabeled a neologism due to its low visibility. Punk blues can be said to favor the common rawness, simplicity and emotion shared between the punk and blues genres over the politics and lifestylism prevalent within the broader punk subculture and, in turn, it is much more a musical style than a counterculture.

Rooted in and often aligned with garage rock or blues-rock, many bands in the genre opt explicitly to spell out the two elements of the music, such as the modern punk blues band The Immortal Lee County Killers. Immortal Lee County Killers singer/guitarist Chet Weise refers to the style as "the fucked up blues" and has stated, "Punk and blues are both honest reactions to life. It's blues, it's our blues. It's just a bit turned up and a bit faster."

Allmusic states that punk blues draws on the influence of the "garage rock sound of the mid-'60s, the primal howl of early Captain Beefheart, and especially in the raw and desperate sound of the Gun Club's landmark Fire of Love LP from 1981." Also according to, "...punk blues really came to life in the early '90s with bands like the seminal Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Oblivians, The Gories and the Gibson Brothers", and "...continued into the 2000s with even more visibility thanks to the popularity of The White Stripes."

In Pulaski, Tennessee, there is a Punk N Blues Cafe specializing in music oriented towards fans of punk blues. Additionally, many punk blues bands perform at the Deep Blues Festival. Their activities and releases are often chronicled by Punk Rock Blues, self-proclaimed "London-based promoters of hard rockin', punked-up, primal blues mayhem" who also manage Not The Same Old Blues Crap.

pop punk

Pop punk (also known as punk pop and other names) is a fusion genre that combines elements of punk rock with pop music, to varying degrees. Because many mainstream pop punk bands came from Southern California, it is sometimes called the SoCal Sound.

The pop punk style emerged at the onset of punk rock around 1974, with the Ramones; however it was not considered a separate subgenre until later. The Ramones' loud and fast melodic minimalism differentiated them from other bands in New York City's budding art rock scene. Additionally, protopunk bands and power pop bands such as Cheap Trick, The Knack and The Raspberries helped lay the groundwork for pop punk.[citation needed] An early use of the term pop punk appeared in a 1977 New York Times article, Cabaret: Tom Petty's Pop Punk Rock Evokes Sounds of 60's. By 1977 in the United Kingdom, punk rock had already become a much more active and concentrated movement than in New York City. The Undertones, Buzzcocks, The Jam, The Rezillos and The Shapes featured catchy melodies and lyrics that sometimes dealt with relatively light themes such as teenage romance. On the somewhat harder-edged side of pop-influenced punk, there were bands such as 999, The Vibrators and The Lurkers. Many mod revival bands displayed pop punk leanings, particularly The Chords and Purple Hearts.

By 1981, hardcore punk had emerged in the United States, with louder, faster music than the songs played by punk bands. Vocal harmony, melodic instrumentation and 4/4 drumming were replaced with shouting, discordant instrumentation, and experimental rhythms. A few bands began to combine hardcore with pop music to create a new, faster pop punk sound, sometimes referred to as popcore (or skatecore), such as Descendents and The Vandals. Their positive, yet sarcastic approach began to separate them from the more serious hardcore scene. The term pop punk was used in the 1980s, in publications such as Maximum RocknRoll, to describe bands similar to Social Distortion, Agent Orange, and TSOL.

In February 1994, Green Day released Dookie, the band's first album on a major label after starting out on the independent Lookout! Records. The first single, "Longview", instantly became a hit on MTV and modern rock stations across America. Following the success of their first single, Green Day released "Basket Case", which became an even bigger hit. Other hits from the album included "When I Come Around", "Welcome to Paradise" and "She". Dookie sold 10 million copies in the US and 20 million copies worldwide. Green Day performed at Woodstock '94 and on Saturday Night Live, and appeared on the covers of Spin and Rolling Stone. They won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.

Shortly after the release of Dookie, The Offspring released the album Smash on the independent label Epitaph Records. The first single "Come Out and Play", with a pop punk sound that differed from their earlier work, became popular first on radio and later on MTV. Other singles, "Self Esteem" and "Gotta Get Away", sold well. The album sold over 14 million copies worldwide, setting a record for most albums sold on an independent label.

By the end of the year, Dookie and Smash had sold millions of copies. The commercial success of these two albums attracted major label interest in pop punk, with bands such as Rancid and Bad Religion being offered lucrative contracts to leave their independent record labels. Rancid, while sticking with Epitaph Records, achieved some commercial success with the hits "Ruby Soho" and "Time Bomb" from their album ...And Out Come The Wolves, which eventually went platinum.

Other punk and pop punk bands saw growing sales and increased interest in their music. This also heralded the beginning of an era that would see mainstream pop punk drift farther away from underground pop punk, and closer to mainstream pop, with its radio-friendly lyrics, polished production values, and large sponsored tours. Many pop punk bands from this era played music that resembled traditional pop with a punk edge.

In the mid-1990s, a ska punk revival was taking place, led by bands such as Sublime and Rancid. Some ska punk, such as that recorded by Goldfinger and Less Than Jake, shared many characteristic of pop punk, such as an upbeat sound.

In 1998, The Offspring released the album Americana. This period of The Offspring's career is generally seen as their mainstream peak. The band released their next album Conspiracy of One (2000) on Napster before they released it on Columbia Records, sacrificing album sales so their fans could enjoy their music for free. Americana went platinum many times over, and produced hit singles and videos such as; "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)", "Why Don't You Get A Job?", and "The Kids Aren't Alright".

In 1999, trio Blink-182 released Enema of the State, which sold over 12 million copies worldwide. The album had three hit singles, including the #1 Single "All The Small Things" and the #2 singles "What's My Age Again?", and "Adam's Song". Like Green Day five years before them, Blink-182 inspired teens to jam out catchy, fun, four-chord pop punk tunes. Also in 1999, Lit released their second album A Place in the Sun which peaked at #31 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the single "My Own Worst Enemy" which spent 11 weeks at #1 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. In 2001, Blink-182's album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket was released and debuted at #1 on the Billboard album charts and sold over four million copies in the US. The album produced the modern rock and TRL hits "The Rock Show", "First Date", and "Stay Together For The Kids". In 2002, Blink-182 co-headlined one of the biggest tours in pop-punk history: the successful Pop Disaster Tour with Green Day.

By 1997, pop punk's audience had expanded significantly. Green Day's song "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", from their album Nimrod, brought pop punk to new levels of mainstream acceptance. The song featured Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong playing acoustic guitar and singing heartfelt lyrics backed by violins. The song was used in the final episode of Seinfeld in 1998, exposing Green Day's music to a wider audience. Also in 1997, Blink-182 released their third album and first commercial hit, Dude Ranch. It included two of the trio's most popular songs, "Dammit" and "Josie".

In 2003, Blink-182 released a self-titled album, which garnered the band several hits, such as "Feeling This" and "I Miss You." The band went on hiatus in 2005, with Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker founding the pop punk/alternative rock band +44, and Tom Delonge starting the alternative rock group Angels & Airwaves, along with other bands members. Some pop punk bands started playing a lyrically darker style of music, sometimes described as emo (although this was a reappropration of a term that had been in use much longer). In 2003, Florida pop punk band Yellowcard released the album Ocean Avenue and the hit singles "Ocean Avenue", "Way Away" and "Only One". New Found Glory released Catalyst in 2004, which included the hit, "All Downhill from Here." Although some songs on the album expanded on the band's hardcore influences, other songs added synthesizers and keyboards. Good Charlotte released their album The Chronicles of Life and Death in 2004. The album was less commercially successful than their previous effort, but it produced the hit singles "Predictable" and "I Just Wanna Live".

In October 2004, Sum 41 released the album Chuck, which mixed pop punk with several other genres, including thrash metal, alternative rock, hardcore and had some slower-paced songs. Their first single, "We're All to Blame," reached #10 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks charts, and the single "Pieces" topped the charts in Canada. Also in 2004, Green Day released the politically-driven rock opera American Idiot. The singles "American Idiot", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Holiday", and "Wake Me Up When September Ends" received international airplay and MTV video rotation. In 2005, Fall Out Boy and The All-American Rejects gained much popularity with their breakthrough albums, From Under the Cork Tree and Move Along, respectively. These successes have influenced bands such as The Academy Is... and Boys Like Girls. They are influenced by pop punk bands such as Blink-182 and MxPx.

In July 2007, Sum 41 released Underclass Hero, which sounded more like their album All Killer No Filler than their heavier albums such as Chuck. Also in 2007, MxPx released their eighth studio album, Secret Weapon, which signified a return to their punk rock roots.


Psychobilly is a genre of music generally described as a mix between late-1970s punk rock and 1950s American rockabilly. It is often characterized by lyrical references to horror and exploitation films, violence, lurid sexuality, and other topics generally considered taboo; although often presented in a comedic or tongue-in-cheek fashion. It is often characterized by lyrical references to science fiction, horror and exploitation films, violence, lurid sexuality, and other topics generally considered taboo, though often presented in a comedic or tongue-in-cheek fashion. Psychobilly music is often played with an upright double bass instead of the electric bass more common in modern rock music. Psychobilly gained underground popularity in Europe beginning in the early 1980s, but remained largely unknown in the United States until the late 1990s. Since then the success of several notable psychobilly bands has led to its mainstream popularity and attracted international attention to the genre. Psychobilly bands include The Meteors and Demented Are Go.

gypsy punk

Gypsy Punk emerged in the turn of the century, headed by Gogol Bordello frontman Eugene Hütz. The subgenre combines Gypsy, Klezmer or Eastern European music and Punk rock. The subgenre typically has violin, acoustic guitar, accordion, and tenor saxophone, along with electric guitar, bass, and drums.

folk punk

Folk punk, in its most general sense, is a genre (or set of genres) of music that combines elements of folk and punk rock music. The term can also describe the people, culture, etc. that surround such a genre. Flogging Molly and Against Me! are folk punk bands.


Deathrock is a term used to identify a subgenre of punk rock. It fused together with Horror Punk and Goth which incorporates elements of horror and spooky atmospheres. Deathrock first emerged most prominently in the West Coast of the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Christian Death and 45 Grave are a great example of Deathrock.


Cowpunk or Country punk is a subgenre of punk rock that combines punk rock with country music and blues in sound, subject matter, attitude, and style. The term cowpunk has also been applied to several bands that play a fast form of Southern rock. The Gun Club, Nashville Pussy, and the Reverend Horton Heat are all examples of cowpunk bands.

chicano punk

Chicano punk refers to the punk bands of Mexican American ethnicy that came from the Los Angeles punk scene. It can also refer to a subgenre of Chicano rock. Los Illegals, the brat, the plugz and Cruzados are Chicano punk bands.

Celtic Punk

Celtic punk is a subgenre of Celtic fusion. It is basically punk rock with influences to Celtic music. Often, the bands will add Celtic instruments such as bagpipes, fiddle, tin whistle, accordion, mandolin, and banjo. The Real McKenzies and Flogging Molly are prime examples of Celtic punk bands.

2 tone punk

2 Tone (or Two Tone) is a music genre created in England in the late 1970s by fusing elements of ska, punk rock, rocksteady, reggae and pop music; the term refers to colors, not musical tones. The Specials, The English Beat, Madness and The Bodysnatchers are good examples of 2 Tone bands.

Skate Punk

Also known as skatepunk, skate-punk, skate-thrash, surf punk, or skate-core, skatepunk is a subgenre of punk that derived from hardcore punk. It is defined by four note basslines, surf-like drums, and fast, Ramones-style guitar, with lyrical themes that reference or center around skateboarding. Its name comes from the fact that many skate punks were skaters, and that skate punk was popular among skaters.

Riot Grrrl

Riot Grrrl is a feminist punk/indie genre and movement. Its popularity peaked in the 1990s. The movement consists of female-centric bands, festivals and shows; group meetings, networking, collectives, and support groups; free workshopping, self-defense courses (like Home Alive), activism (often with benefit concerts), and underground fanzine culture. Bikini Kill and Bratmobile are two prominent examples of bands that are in the Riot Grrrl movement.


Oi! is a working class street-level subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. It had a goal to unite punks, skinheads, and other working class youths. Notable early Oi! bands include The Cockney Rejects. Angelic Upstarts, The 4-Skins and The Business.

Noise Rock

Noise Rock (or Noise Punk) is a subgenre popular in Japan and Britain in the early '80s two places assosiated with the subgenre and Bristol, England and Kyushu, Japan popular Noise Punk bands include Confuse,Gai,The Swankys,Disorder,Chaos U.K.,Dust Noise,Screaming Noise,The Wankys

Nazi Punk

Nazi punk is a subgenre of punk that promotes neo-Nazi beliefs. A Nazi punk can also refer to a neo-Nazi who is part of the punk subculture. Rock Against Communism is when a Nazi punk plays music similar to hardcore, Oi! or heavy metal.

Horror Punk

Horror punk is a subgenre of punk rock that uses horror movie themes as the lyrical content. The lyrics are often tales that are related to horror films, black humor, and horror stories or novels. Horror punk bands might also dress up in black clothes, skeleton costumes, and skull face paint. The Misfits are the prototype and pioneering band in the horror punk genre.

Hardcore Punk

Hardcore punk or hardcore is a subgenre of punk rock that was formed in the late 1970s. Its sound is generally heavier, faster, and thicker than the sound of the earlier punk bands. It has spawned in a diverse collection of subgenres and has often been combined with subgenres of heavy metal. Black Flag, Bad Brains, and Minor Threat are three good examples of hardcore punk.

Glam Punk

Glam punk (also called glitter punk) fuses elements of punk rock and glam rock. Iggy Pop is a good example of this genre

Garage Punk

Garage punk is a subgenre of punk rock that is heavily influenced by garage rock. Formed in the late 1980s, it is characterized by a sound and an image that is dirty, ugly, raw, sleazy, and menacing. Often, it focuses on lo-fi aesthetics over catchy melodies. New Bomb Turks, Mudhoney and The Horrors are good examples of this genre.

Christian punk

Christian punk (or Christ punk as it is also called as a reference to crust punk) is a form of Christian alternative rock and a subgenre of punk rock with some degree of Christian lyrical content. Given the edginess of punk and some of its subgenres, such as hardcore punk, many bands have been rejected by the Christian and CCM music industry, and due to Christian nature of Christian punk, members of the punk subculture some Christian churches reject Christian punk. The Crucified and Headnoise are examples of Christian punk.


Anarcho-punk is a section of the punk subculture that consists of bands, groups and individuals that support anarchism through their music. It is also used as an umbrella term to refer to any punk music with anarchist lyrical content. It was formed in the mid-1970s in the United Kingdom. Prominent examples are Crass, Nausea, and Discharge

Punk transforms

New Wave.
Bringing elements of punk rock music and fashion into more pop-oriented, less "dangerous" styles, New Wave artists became very popular on both sides of the Atlantic.[196] New Wave became a catch-all term,[197] encompassing disparate styles such as 2 Tone ska, the mod revival based around The Jam, the sophisticated pop-rock of Elvis Costello and XTC, the New Romantic phenomenon typified by Ultravox, synthpop groups like Human League and Depeche Mode, and the sui generis subversions of Devo, who had gone "beyond punk before punk even properly existed".[198] New Wave became a pop culture sensation with the debut of the cable television network MTV in 1981, which put many New Wave videos into regular rotation. However, the music was often derided at the time as being silly and disposable.[199]
A number of U.S. artists were retrospectively defined as post-punk; Television's debut record Marquee Moon, released in 1977, is frequently cited as a seminal album in the field.[204] The No Wave movement that developed in New York in the late 1970s, with artists like Lydia Lunch, is often treated as the phenomenon's U.S. parallel.[205] The later work of Ohio protopunk pioneers Pere Ubu is also commonly described as post-punk.[206] One of the most influential American post-punk bands was Boston's Mission of Burma, who brought abrupt rhythmic shifts derived from hardcore into a highly experimental musical context.[207] In 1980, Australia's Boys Next Door moved to London and changed their name to The Birthday Party, which evolved into Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. King Snake Roost and other Australian bands would further explore the possibilities of post-punk. Later art punk and alternative rock musicians found diverse inspiration among these predecessors, New Wave and post-punk alike.
A distinctive style of punk, characterized by superfast, aggressive beats, screaming vocals, and often politically aware lyrics, began to emerge in 1978 among bands scattered around the United States. The first major scene of what came to be known as hardcore punk developed in southern California in 1978–79;[208] the movement soon spread around North America and internationally.[209][210][211] According to 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 up with was this new breed of monster".[13]
Among the earliest hardcore bands, regarded as having made the first recordings in the style, were southern California's Black Flag and Middle Class.[210][211] Bad Brains—all of whom were black, a rarity in punk of any era—launched the D.C. scene.[209] Austin, Texas's Big Boys, San Francisco's Dead Kennedys, and Vancouver's D.O.A. were among the other initial hardcore groups. They were soon joined by bands such as the Minutemen, The Descendents, Circle Jerks, The Adolescents, and TSOL in southern California; D.C.'s Teen Idles, Minor Threat, and State of Alert; and Austin's MDC and The Dicks. By 1981, hardcore was the dominant punk rock style not only in California, but much of the rest of North America as well.[212] A New York hardcore scene grew, including the relocated Bad Brains, New Jersey's Misfits and Adrenalin O.D., and local acts such as the Nihilistics, The Mob, Reagan Youth, and Agnostic Front. Beastie Boys, who would become famous as a hip-hop group, debuted that year as a hardcore band. They were followed by The Cro-Mags, Murphy's Law, and Leeway.[213] By 1983, Minneapolis's Hüsker Dü and Chicago's Naked Raygun were taking the hardcore sound in experimental and ultimately more melodic directions. Hardcore would constitute the American punk rock standard throughout the decade.[214]
Following the lead of first-wave British punk bands Cock Sparrer and Sham 69, in the late 1970s second-wave units like Cockney Rejects, Angelic Upstarts, The Exploited, and The 4-Skins sought to realign punk rock with a working class, street-level following.[216] Their style was originally called real punk or streetpunk; Sounds journalist Garry Bushell is credited with labelling the genre Oi! in 1980. The name is partly derived from the Cockney Rejects' habit of shouting "Oi! Oi! Oi!" before each song, instead of the time-honored "1,2,3,4!"[217] Oi! bands' lyrics sought to reflect the harsh realities of living in Margaret Thatcher's Britain in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[218] A subgroup of Oi! bands dubbed "punk pathetique"—including Splodgenessabounds, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, and Toy Dolls—had a more humorous and absurdist bent.
The Oi! movement was fueled by a sense that many participants in the early punk rock scene were, in the words of The Business guitarist Steve Kent, "trendy university people using long words, trying to be artistic ... and losing touch".[219] The Oi! credo held that the music needed to remain unpretentious and accessible.[163] According to Bushell, "Punk was meant to be of the voice of the dole queue, 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."[220]
Although most Oi! bands in the initial wave were apolitical or left wing, many of them began to attract a white power skinhead following.[221] Racist skinheads sometimes disrupted Oi! concerts by shouting fascist slogans and starting fights, but some Oi! bands were reluctant to endorse criticism of their fans from what they perceived as the "middle-class establishment".[222] In the popular imagination, the movement thus became linked to the far right.[223] Strength Thru Oi!, an album compiled by Bushell and released in May 1981, stirred controversy, especially when it was revealed that the belligerent figure on the cover was a neo-Nazi jailed for racist violence (Bushell claimed ignorance).[221] On July 3, a concert at Hamborough Tavern in Southall featuring The Business, The 4-Skins, and The Last Resort was firebombed by local Asian youths who believed that the event was a neo-Nazi gathering.[224] Following the Southall riot, press coverage increasingly associated Oi! with the extreme right, and the movement soon began to lose momentum.[218]
Crass were the originators of anarcho-punk.[225] Their all-black militaristic dress became a staple of the genre.
Pop punk
The underground punk rock movement inspired countless bands that either evolved from a punk rock sound or brought its outsider spirit to very different kinds of music. The original punk explosion also had a long-term effect on the music industry, spurring the growth of the independent sector.[234] During the early 1980s, British bands like New Order and The Cure that straddled the lines of post-punk and New Wave developed both new musical styles and a distinctive industrial niche. Though commercially successful over an extended period, they maintained an underground-style, subcultural identity.[235] In the United States, bands such as Minneapolis's Hüsker Dü and their protégés The Replacements bridged the gap between punk rock genres like hardcore and the more expansive sound of what was called "college rock" at the time.[236]
As American alternative bands like Sonic Youth, who had grown out of the No Wave scene, and Boston's Pixies started to gain larger audiences, major labels sought to capitalize on the underground market that had been sustained by hardcore punk for years.[239] In 1991, Nirvana emerged from Washington State's grunge scene, achieving huge commercial success with its second album, Nevermind. The band's members cited punk rock as a key influence on their style.[240] "Punk is musical freedom", wrote singer Kurt Cobain. "It’s saying, doing, and playing what you want."[241] The widespread popularity of Nirvana and other punk-influenced bands such as Pearl Jam and Red Hot Chili Peppers fueled the alternative rock boom of the early and mid-1990s.[238]
Queercore and riot grrrl
Punk revival
Along with Nirvana, many of the leading alternative rock artists of the early 1990s acknowledged the influence of earlier punk rock acts. With Nirvana's success, the major record companies once again saw punk bands as potentially profitable.[245] In 1993, California's Green Day and Bad Religion were both signed to major labels. The next year, Green Day released Dookie, which became a huge hit, selling eight million albums in just over two years.[246] Bad Religion's Stranger Than Fiction was certified gold.[247] Other California punk bands on indie label Epitaph, run by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, also began garnering mainstream success. In 1994, Epitaph put out Let's Go by Rancid, Punk In Drublic by NOFX, and Smash by The Offspring, each eventually certified gold or better. Smash went on to sell over eleven million copies, becoming the best-selling independent-label album of all time.[248] MTV and radio stations such as Los Angeles' KROQ-FM played a major role in these bands' crossover success, though NOFX refused to let MTV air its videos.[249] Green Day and Dookie's enormous sales paved the way for a host of bankable North American pop punk bands in the following decade.[250] The Vans Warped Tour and the mall chain store Hot Topic brought punk even further into the U.S. mainstream.
Following the lead of Boston's Mighty Mighty Bosstones and two California bands, Berkeley's Operation Ivy and Long Beach's Sublime, ska punk and ska-core became widely popular in the mid-1990s. The original 2 Tone bands had emerged amid punk rock's second wave, but their music was much closer to its Jamaican roots—"ska at 78 rpm".[251] Ska punk bands in the third wave of ska created a true musical fusion with punk and hardcore. ...And Out Come the Wolves, the 1995 album by Rancid—which had evolved out of Operation Ivy—became the first record in this ska revival to be certified gold;[252] Sublime's self-titled 1996 album was certified platinum early in 1997.[246]
By 1998, the punk revival had commercially stalled,[253] but not for long. Pop punk band Blink-182's 1999 release, Enema of the State, reached the Billboard top ten and sold four million copies in less than a year.[246] New pop punk bands such as Sum 41, Simple Plan, Yellowcard, and Good Charlotte achieved major sales in the first decade of the 2000s. In 2004, Green Day's American Idiot went to number one on both the U.S. and UK charts. Jimmy Eat World, which had taken emo in a radio-ready pop punk direction,[254] had top-ten albums in 2004 and 2007; in a similar style, Fall Out Boy hit number one with 2007's Infinity on High. The revival was broad-based: AFI, with roots in hardcore and skate punk, had great success with 2003's Sing the Sorrow and topped the U.S. chart with Decemberunderground in 2006. Ska punk groups such as Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake continued to attract new fans. Celtic punk, with U.S. bands such as Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys merging the sound of Oi! and The Pogues, reached wide audiences. The Australian punk rock tradition was carried on by groups such as Frenzal Rhomb, The Living End, and Bodyjar.
With punk rock's renewed visibility came concerns among some in the punk community that the music was being co-opted by the mainstream.[249] They argued that by signing to major labels and appearing on MTV, punk bands like Green Day were buying into a system that punk was created to challenge.[255] Such controversies have been part of the punk culture since 1977, when The Clash was widely accused of "selling out" for signing with CBS Records.[256] The effect of commercialization on the music itself was an even more contentious issue. As observed by scholar Ross Haenfler, many punk fans "'despise corporate punk rock', typified by bands such as Sum 41 and Blink 182".[257] By the 1990s, punk rock was so sufficiently ingrained in Western culture that punk trappings were often used to market highly commercial bands as "rebels". Marketers capitalized on the style and hipness of punk rock to such an extent that a 1993 ad campaign for an automobile, the Subaru Impreza, claimed that the car was "like punk rock".[258] Although the commercial mainstream has exploited many elements of punk, numerous underground punk scenes still exist around the world.

Second wave

North America
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.[140] San Francisco's second wave included The Avengers, Negative Trend, The Mutants, and The Sleepers.[141] The Dils, from Carlsbad, moved between the two major cities.[142] The Wipers formed in Portland, Oregon. In Seattle, there was The Lewd.[143] 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.[143] 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.[144]
In eastern Canada, the Toronto protopunk band Dishes had laid the groundwork for another sizable scene,[145] 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.[146] 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.[147] 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.[148] 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,[149] 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.[150] The Chicago scene began not with a band but with a group of DJs transforming a gay bar, La Mere Vipere, into what became known as America's first punk dance club. Tutu and the Pirates and Silver Abuse were among the city's first punk bands.[151] In Boston, the scene at the Rat was joined by the Nervous Eaters, Thrills, and Human Sexual Response.[150] 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.[152] 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.[150][153]
In February 1977, EMI released The Saints' debut album, (I'm) Stranded, which the band recorded in two days.[154] The Saints had relocated to Sydney; in April, they and Radio Birdman united for a major gig at Paddington Town Hall.[155] 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.[100]
The Victims became a short-lived leader of the Perth scene, self-releasing the classic "Television Addict". They were joined by The Scientists, Kim Salmon's successor band to the Cheap Nasties. Among the other bands constituting Australia's second wave were the Hellcats and Psychosurgeons (later known as the Lipstick Killers) in Sydney;[156] The Leftovers, The Survivors, and Razar in Brisbane;[157] and La Femme, The Negatives, and The Babeez (later known as The News) in Melbourne.[158] Melbourne's art rock–influenced Boys Next Door featured singer Nick Cave, who would become one of the world's most celebrated post-punk artists.
United Kingdom
Rest of the world
Meanwhile, punk rock scenes were emerging around the globe. In France, les punks, a Parisian subculture of Lou Reed fans, had already been around for years.[171] Following the lead set by Stinky Toys, Métal Urbain played its first concert in December 1976. The new punk band's brief set included a cover of the Stooges' "No Fun", also a staple of the Sex Pistols' live show.[172] Métal Urbain's debut single, "Panik", released in May 1977, was perhaps the first non-English-language punk rock record;[173] with its "near motorik beat ... gruff guitar riffs, shouted lyrics, and the occasionally swooping synth line", it is also one of the earliest examples anywhere of a style that would become identified with post-punk.[174] Other French punk acts such as Oberkampf and Starshooter soon formed.[175]
In West Germany, bands primarily inspired by British punk came together in the Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW) movement. Ätzttussis, the Nina Hagen Band, and S.Y.P.H. featured "raucous vocals and militant posturing", according to writer Rob Burns.[176] Before turning in a mainstream direction in the 1980s, NDW attracted a politically conscious and diverse audience, including both participants of the left-wing alternative scene and neo-Nazi skinheads. These opposing factions were mutually attracted by a view of punk rock as "'against the system' politically as well as musically".[176] Briard jump-started Finnish punk with its 1977 single "I Really Hate Ya"/"I Want Ya Back";[177] other early Finnish punk acts included Eppu Normaali and singer Pelle Miljoona. In Yugoslavia, punk rock acts emerged in Croatia (Paraf), Slovenia (Pankrti), and Serbia (Pekinška patka). In Japan, a punk movement developed around bands playing in an art/noise style such as Friction, and "psych punk" acts like Gaseneta and Kadotani Michio.[178] In New Zealand, Auckland's Scavengers and Suburban Reptiles were followed by The Enemy of Dunedin.[150] Punk rock scenes also grew in other countries such as Belgium (The Kids, Chainsaw),[179] the Netherlands (The Suzannes, The Ex),[180] Sweden (Ebba Grön, KSMB),[181] and Switzerland (Nasal Boys, Kleenex).[182]

Early history

New York City
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.[75] 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".[76] 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.[77] 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.[78] A veteran of independent theater and performance poetry, Smith was developing an intellectual, feminist take on rock 'n' roll. On June 5, 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.[79] By August, Smith and Television were gigging together at another downtown New York club, Max's Kansas City.[77]
That spring, Smith and Television shared a two-month-long weekend residency at CBGB that brought major attention to the club.[84] The Television sets included Richard Hell's "Blank Generation", which became the scene's emblematic anthem.[85] 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".[30] 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".[76]
Other bands were becoming regulars at CBGB, such as 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.[86] The inaugural issue of Punk appeared in December.[87] 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.[88] That winter, Pere Ubu came in from Cleveland and played at both spots.[89]
Early in 1976, Hell left 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.[90] That April, the Ramones' debut album was released by Sire Records; the first single was "Blitzkrieg Bop", opening with the rally cry "Hey! Ho! Let's go!" 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."[91] 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.[92] In August, Ork put out an EP recorded by Hell with his new band that included the first released version of "Blank Generation".[93]
On the other side of Australia, in Perth, germinal punk rock act the Cheap Nasties, featuring singer-guitarist Kim Salmon, formed in August.[97] 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.[98] "(I'm) Stranded" had limited impact at home, but the British music press recognized it as a groundbreaking record.[99] 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.[100] Trouser Press critic Ian McCaleb later described the record as the "archetype for the musical explosion that was about to occur".[101]
United Kingdom
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".[102] 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 Art[103] and soon attracted a small but ardent following.[104] 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".[105] 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!"[106] McLaren envisioned the Pistols as central players in a new youth movement, "hard and tough".[107] As described by critic Jon Savage, the band members "embodied an attitude into which McLaren fed a new set of references: late-sixties radical politics, sexual fetish material, pop history, ... youth sociology".[108]
Bernard Rhodes, a sometime associate of McLaren's and friend of the Pistols', was similarly trying to make stars of the band London SS. Early in 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.[109] 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 went on to form Joy Division, The Fall, and—in the 1980s—The Smiths.[110]
In July, the Ramones crossed the Atlantic for two London shows that helped spark the nascent UK punk scene, an impact that was later exaggerated by the band's members.[111] On July 4, they played with the Flamin' Groovies and The Stranglers before a crowd of 2,000 at the Roundhouse.[112] 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.[113] 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".[114] The Damned built a reputation as "punk's party boys".[115] 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!"[116]
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.[121] 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".[122] One of the groups openly acknowledging that influence were The Undertones, from Derry in Northern Ireland.[123] Another punk band formed to the south, Dublin's The Radiators From Space.
Other U.S. cities

Pre-history of punk

Garage rock and mod
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.[55] In 1970, the act evolved into the Pink Fairies, which carried on in a similar vein.[56] With his Ziggy Stardust persona, David Bowie made artifice and exaggeration central—elements, again, that were picked up by the Pistols and certain other punk acts.[57] The Doctors of Madness built on Bowie's presentation concepts, while moving musically in the direction that would become identified with punk. 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 that would play a role in the punk explosion. Among the pub rock bands that formed that year was The 101'ers, whose lead singer would soon adopt the name Joe Strummer.[58]
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.[59] 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.[60] 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.[61] Radio Birdman, cofounded by Detroit expatriate Deniz Tek in 1974, was playing gigs to a small but fanatical following in Sydney.

Origin of the term punk
Prior to 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".[62] 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."[63] 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".[64] In the December 1970 issue of Creem, Lester Bangs, mocking more mainstream rock musicians, made ironic reference to Iggy Pop as "that Stooge punk".[65] 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.[66]
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".[67] In June 1972, the fanzine Flash included a "Punk Top Ten" of 1960s albums.[68] 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.[69] The fanzine Bomp! also used punk in this sense.[70] In May 1973, Billy Altman launched the short-lived punk magazine.[71] 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?'"[72]
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.[70] As the scene at New York's CBGB club 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".[73] Holmstrom, McNeil, and Ged Dunn's magazine Punk, which debuted at the end of 1975, was crucial in codifying the term.[74] "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."[70]

Musical and lyrical elements of punk

Punk rock lyrics are typically frank and confrontational; compared to other popular music genres, they frequently comment on social and political issues. 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. Especially in early British punk, a central goal was to outrage and shock the mainstream. 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. 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" to the more unambiguously sincere style of many later pop punk groups.

philosophy of punk


punk rock

all about punk




self-producing their recordings and distributing them through informal channels.



styles and a variety of anti-authoritarian ideologies.

by punk also pursued a broad range of other variations, giving rise to post-punk and 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.