Punk rock is a music genre that came to prominence in the 1970s, particularly in New York, London, and Los Angeles. The music was inspired by scrappy, countercultural 1960s rock bands, such as the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, and was popularized by acts like Patti Smith, the Ramones, and the Clash.
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The 1976 album from the influential New York band featured classic tracks like “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Beat on the Brat.” That didn’t translate to sales, though, at least not for many decades: The album didn’t sell more than 500,000 copies (earning gold certification) until 2014.
The Beach Boys' sunny sound profoundly influenced early punk acts, such as the Ramones, who took Brian Wilson's sugary hooks and ramped up the tempo. In the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, California pop-punk acts such as the Descendents, Green Day and Blink-182 continued the tradition.
After seeing the groundbreaking punk band in Asbury Park, Springsteen went home to write them a song. When his manager, Jon Landau, heard "Hungry Heart," he told Springsteen he couldn't give it away, especially after seeing the success of "Because the Night," another Springsteen composition that became a massive hit for Patti Smith.
Malcolm McLaren and his wife Vivienne Westwood owned and operated a provocative fashion store in London simply called Sex. McLaren created the Sex Pistols from kids who hung around the shop, none of whom were musicians, as a way to infiltrate the music industry.
When the Sex Pistols first ventured out to a small music hall in Manchester, only 40 people were in attendance. But, like the longtail influence of the first Velvet Underground album, the show's impact was massive: In the crowd that night were members of Buzzcocks, the Smiths, and Joy Division.
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.
The term was a reference to New Wave cinema, an iconoclastic, largely French form. Sire Records' Seymour Stein is believed to have pushed to use it to describe the label's bands, many of which came from the CBGB's scene, to avoid the negative associations with "punk rock." Sire ran a promotional campaign named "Don't Call It Punk" that made that message clear.
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.
Punk was already fast, but Washington’s Bad Brains pushed the tempo even further, creating music that would come to be known as hardcore, influencing acts like Minor Threat, Nirvana, and countless others. The band was hardly one-dimensional. Their self-titled debut bounced between blistering hardcore and slow-burning reggae about Rastafarianism.
The style, which involves audience members thrashing their bodies into one another, evolved from “pogoing,” a style popular in England where listeners jumped up and down in place. The term “moshing,” sometimes called “slam dancing” in California, is believed to come from HR, the lead singer of Bad Brains.
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