Punk began as a genre in the early 60’s and 70’s in the UK and US. The UK scene was more popular than the US scene, but both were equally influential.
At the (in)famous NY club, CBGB’s, bands like The Ramones and Patti Smith and The New York Dolls began to play to kids in the NY area. The rock was hard, fast, and simple, the shape of the furious rock to come. In Detroit, a man who would later be known as Iggy Pop saw the Velvet Underground, a big influence on early punk/alternative, started a band known as the Stooges. Early American punk spread quickly across the states and became almost something of a movement, though many today won’t consider it one.
In Britain,
The Clash began a more political and softer brand of punk, without as much gruff vocals to get in the way of
Joe Strummer’s beautiful playing. The political atmosphere of the UK scene was heavily influenced by the punk and Oi! scenes there, which catered mostly to blue collar workers and discontented teenagers.
The Sex Pistols, led by
Johnny Rotten, also had a political agenda, apparent through songs like “
God Save The Queen,” and “
Anarchy In The UK,” but people could count on
Johnny to be simple, nasty, and fast about all of it.
The 70’s were a pretty influential time for punks. The Ramones took punk to the pop world, making for some incredibly catchy tunes like “Blitzkrieg Bop,” and “KKK Took My Baby Away,” which could really get you on your feet. The Honor Roll for early punk history was The Clash, The Damned, The Sex Pistols, Patti Smith, and The Ramones.
80’s punk began to shift more towards the sound reflected today. Bands like Social Distortion and the Dead Kennedys continued the gruff voiced, hard vocals that had defined punk before, and bands like Bad Religion and Black Flag continued to rock hard and carry a progressive political agenda (the term black flag is a statement against flags in and of themselves, and speaks of a sort of utopian world). 80’s punk was made great by the West Coast scene. The SoCal scene focused on a lighter punk and ska. Bands like NoFX are a good example of the SoCal sound.
There is only one thing that made 80’s punk unique. A DIY music distribution circuit took the punk scene all through the world, even African countries had thriving scenes in some places, but the American and European scenes were still the strongest.
The 80’s East Bay scene is most famous for an extremely short lived band known as Operation Ivy. The band put out an EP, one full album, a couple of compilation tracks and a few bootlegs, but was THE east bay band. Tim Armstrong, former husband of punk princess Brody Armstrong of the Distillers, and the current frontman of Rancid, was involved in the Operation Ivy project as was Rancid bandmate Matt Freeman.
Nirvana, the biggest band of the early 90’s and the saviors of rock and roll in the eyes of many, exploded into the rock scene with their simple, punk influenced, grunge rock that contrasted sharply to the classic metal popular at the time. Kurt Cobain, the frontman, eventually committed suicide, though many speculate it was actually murder, committed his girlfriend of the time, Courtney Love, who did him in.
90’s Punk was dominated by Midwestern punk such as Shellack and Pegboy. Emo and the Indie Rock scene began to get bigger, as did Ska. Notables of punk/ska include Less Than Jake, Goldfinger, and Reel Big Fish. The political punk scene again erupted during and around the Persian Gulf War in the early 90’s. Bands like Anti-Flag and Propagandhi met, and continue to meet, success in the punk scene. Many notable names of today sprung up during the 90’s such as Afi, Offspring, and Flogging Molly. The 90’s was a time of generally lighter punk( there were exceptions, such as Afi), which led into today’s pop punk.
In very recent history, Greenday has sold millions of records playing simple, catchy tunes. Not long after Greenday’s arrival on the scene, Blink 182 came out with their hit album “Enema of the State” and were soon followed by bands such as Bowling For Soup, All American Rejects, Simple Plan and Good Charlotte. Pop punk has exploded into American culture and like it or not is a multi million dollar industry. A hardcore punk scene also thrives in stark
With the surge of internet music sharing, the big DIY influence of the 80’s is back with a vengeance. When the RIAA started suing kids for file sharing, Go-Kart Records, a DIY punk label, retaliated with a full mp3 sampler called the mp300 (named as such because it has 300 songs on it). However, though file sharing is praised because most people think that the majors don’t need the money, file sharing is really hurting smaller labels that depend very heavily on how many records they sell.
Punk history has gone through several phases and has caused a huge revolution in rock. The very essence of punk is highly debated as either too-simple-trash or the best music around; this isn’t for anyone to actually decide but rather to be debated until punk dies, or becomes true in the eyes of all. I leave you with the words of Greg Gaffin of Bad Religion…
”I hate my job, I hate your god, I hate hypocrites and common slobs. Hate people who aren't what they seem, more than anything else, the American Dream.”
Please Note: There are many other really good punk bands. I did not list them all. Do not post little messages saying how i forgot your favorite band. I don’t care. Even some of my own favorites do not appear.
Keep in mind that the title says history lesson, not history book. Much more has happened with punk than is written here, this is merely a brief overview.
Luck and Love,
- Mr Lucky.
