The Stooges were a stark contrast to the hippie movement

Death, early innovators of punk, were unknown for decades

The band of three brothers from Detroit recorded a 1974 demo that predicted the punk explosion that would arrive just a few years later with the Ramones and the Sex Pistols. But the band, Death, were complete unknowns until collectors rediscovered their music in the 2000s.

In 1977, Iggy Pop said 'punk rock' was a term used by 'heartless manipulators'

Although he's often called 'the Godfather of Punk,' Iggy Pop was over punk by 1977, just as the term was entering the mainstream. "It's a term that's based in fashion, style, elitism, Satanism, and everything that's rotten about rock 'n' roll," Pop told Canadian TV host Peter Gzowski.

Experimental duo Suicide used the word 'punk' to describe their music in 1970

The New York act was inspired by free jazz, electronic music, and performance art, playing loud, frenetic, and often abrasive music that reckoned with the horrors of the Vietnam War. On the hand-drawn poster for their first gig, they described the sound with four words: “Punk Music by Suicide.”

The first known use of 'punk rock' was in 1971

When Creem Magazine's Dave Marsh wrote about seeing '60s garage rockers ? and the Mysterians perform, he remarked it would be unthinkable "to miss such a landmark exposition of punk-rock." The band isn't considered a punk band, but Marsh's description would go on to define other scrappy, back-to-basics acts.

The Velvet Underground is often considered a starting point for punk rock

The band blended Warhol’s Pop Art with Beat poetry, early rock ‘n’ roll and the European avant-garde, creating a sound that was often chaotic, noisy and abrasive. The band’s debut album, “The Velvet Underground and Nico,” sold poorly, but (supposedly) everyone who purchased a copy started a band.

The Beastie Boys started as a punk band

Before they became a legendary rap group, the New Yorkers played fast, scrappy hardcore in the style of Bad Brains. Still, they were fans of the explosion of hip-hop culture in their city and recorded a jokey track in 1983, which led to a record deal and conversion to hip-hop.

The Buzzcocks' 1975 self-released EP inspired a DIY ethos for punk

Punk sought to dismantle the self-importance of mainstream rock, favoring simple arrangements, short songs, and raw passion over sophistication or expertise. When the Buzzcocks struggled to find a label to release their debut record, “Spiral Scratch,” they took that do-it-yourself approach and applied it to business by releasing it themselves.

Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys were an influence on early punk rock

The Beach Boys' sunny sound profoundly influenced early punk acts like the Ramones, who took Brian Wilson's sugary hooks and ramped up the tempo.

In 1984, Dylan began experimenting with punk

When Bob Dylan was asked to appear on David Letterman’s relatively new late-night show, he decided to call an audible. He’d been intrigued by LA’s exploding post-punk scene and had spent time jamming with one of its bands, the Plugz, whom he decided to bring to Letterman as his backing band. The appearance sounds unlike anything else in his catalog and is one of his more fascinating creative reinventions in a career loaded with them.

Peru’s Los Saicos were early punk pioneers

The group often goes unmentioned in the history of punk rock, but its early 1960s records—featuring growling vocals, rudimentary guitars and a straight-ahead backbeat—foresaw the genre. Look no further than the 1964 track “Demolición.”

The early Los Angeles punk scene found a home in Chinatown

Acts like Black Flag, X, and Circle Jerks performed in unconventional venues like Madame Wong’s and the Hong Kong Cafe—restaurants in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood that became an integral part of the nascent scene.

Minor Threat inadvertently created the straight edge movement

The DC hardcore band released the song “Straight Edge” in 1981, which detailed singer Ian MacKaye’s decision to abstain from alcohol, drugs and promiscuous sex. The track inadvertently inspired legions of young hardcore kids to similarly declare themselves “straight edge,” which eventually grew into its own subgenre.

The Beat Generation inspired significant parts of 1960s counterculture

The Beat Generation championed the transformative power of psychedelics, rebelled against the post-war social order, and called for more radical politics. With a strong foothold in San Francisco, it's no surprise these themes were carried over to the city's 1960s counterculture, informing the larger national hippie movement.

The origins of the Rolling Stones

Founded by Brian Jones, the Rolling Stones emerged during the massive shifts taking place in the 1960s. From the start, they were the edgier version of the Beatles, and their complex reputation gave them a unique profile in the public eye.

Long before grunge, Hüsker Dü blended pop's melodies and punk's speed

The Minneapolis trio began as a lightning-fast hardcore band, but they slowly became more melodic than many of their early '80s peers without sacrificing their punk edge. That combination would eventually be called a mess of names: college rock, alternative, indie, and, eventually, grunge.

The Shaggs weren't good musicians, but they still made a classic

In 1969, the three sisters recorded "Philosophy of the World"; only 100 copies were publicly distributed. The record became a cult classic thanks to its strange backstory (their father forced them into playing music) and the band's amateurism. Critic Lester Bangs wrote, "They can't play a lick! But mainly they got the right attitude, which is all rock'n'roll's ever been about from day one."

The Boswell Sisters were the precursors to the American girl group

The jazz trio, popular in the ‘20s and ‘30s, doesn’t share much in common with the sounds of the well-known pop-oriented girl groups, but the sisters’ prominence in a male-dominated industry provided an early example for later groups. Check out their appearance in the 1932 film “The Big Broadcast,” performing the song “Crazy People.”

The '90s riotgrrrl movement brought female-fronted bands to the front

The movement—which pushed back on punk’s misogyny and argued for a countercultural form of third-wave feminism—began in self-published magazines before taking root in bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. The scene’s music and ethos can still be found in contemporary acts like Olivia Rodrigo.

Fearing the corruption of its youth, Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll in 1956.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Heavy metal legends Black Sabbath touched on existentialist themes

Although they’re primarily known for Ozzy Osbourne’s distinctive singing and Tony Iommi’s singular riffs, the metal icons Black Sabbath also have a body of work that explores existentialist questions about mankind’s purpose. Philosophy professor William Irwin unpacks the band's lyrics and applies them to some of existentialism’s major themes, drawing comparisons between the band and philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus.

A psychedelic hamburger led one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, to testify against the group's leader.

Broadway hit 'Stereophonic' was inspired by Fleetwood Mac

The show follows a 1970s rock band while they're in the studio, tracking a new album, and mirrors many of the internal conflicts that led to Fleetwood Mac's 1977 record, "Rumours." The play was a massive hit, earning 13 Tony nominations (the most ever for a play). It won five, including best play.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

The 'Movie Brats’ ushered in a new era of Hollywood

"The Movie Brats" is a name used to describe a generation of directors who blended classic cinema with the rebellious, crowd-pleasing spirit of rock ‘n’ roll. The figures most often associated with the tag are Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Brian De Palma.

How the Vietnam War changed rock 'n' roll

This short video essay analyzes how rock music responded to US involvement in Vietnam, from the protest folk of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan to the popularity of rock and soul records with soldiers stationed abroad.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

The de stijl movement embraced bright colors and abstract images

The 20th-century movement sought to develop a universal language for the modern era by fusing form and function. Modern day viewers will recognize its bright colors and clean aesthetic, popular with retro-styled book and album covers.

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.