Originating Location: New York, NY
Originating Era: Mid 1970s
Key Artists[]
Key Albums[]
- Ramones - Road To Ruin
- Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols
- The Clash - London Calling
- X-Ray Spex - Germfree Adolescents
Genre Description[]
In the 70s, rock in general became very complicated and experimental, not to mention expensive, as psychedelic and prog-rock came into popularity. As a response to this, two parallel scenes emerged, one in New York (centered at CBGBs) and one in London. The reaction was to head rock in the opposite direction and utilize simple musical structures and a do it yourself attitude. Punk was born around simple, catchy melodies and simple chords with a concentration more on the snarly attitude and the social message rather than the musicianship. Leading the way was The Ramones in New York and The Sex Pistols in London, both having similar sounds but different influences. The New York scene was more inspired by bubblegum, surf and garage rock while the London scene was indebted to reggae and British rock. The scene exploded quickly because of not only the simplicity of the music but the strong and youthful sense of community as well. In NY, Blondie, Television and Richard Hell emerged to lead the American pack, in London, The Clash, The Damned and Buzzcocks took center stage. Punk also opened up a large number of possibilities in style; in the 80s, it fractured into the artier post-punk, the poppier new wave and the brasher hardcore. In the last fifteen years, a punk revival scene was created behind popular bands like Rancid and Green Day, and the latter was almost solely responsible for the emergence of pop-punk and the mainstream acceptance of it. Punk has and will always be more accepted by the younger generations because of it's musical simplicity, it's anti-authority motto and the strong sense of community.
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