A brief history of Punk Rock

The Foundations of Punk Rock

The beginnings of punk rock are often furiously debated. This is partially because everyone has different definition of punk rock, and partially because its foundation stones are found in several places.

"Punk Rock" was originally used to describe the garage musicians of the '60's. Bands like the Sonics were starting up and playing out with no musical or vocal instruction, and often limited skill. Because they didn't know the rules of music, they were able to break the rules.

New York: The First Punk Rock Scene

The first concrete punk rock scene appeared in the mid '70s in New York. Bands like The Ramones, Wayne County, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, Blondie and the Talking Heads were playing regularly in the Bowery District, most notably at CBGB, wich was the first stage for many of the, today, mainstream bands. There, you could go to the show and even hang out with the band members afterwards. Today, CBGB is a legendary venue known worldwide.

Punk rock in England

England's punk scene had political and economic roots. The economy in the United Kingdom was in poor shape, and unemployment rates were at an all-time high. England's youth were angry, rebellious and out of work. They had strong opinions and a lot of free time.

This is where the beginnings of punk fashion as we know it emerged, and they centered out of one shop. The shop was simply called SEX, and it was owned by Malcolm McClaren.

Malcolm McClaren had recently returned to London from the U.S., where he had unsuccessfully tried to reinvent the New York Dolls to sell his clothing. He was determined to do it again, but this time looked to the youths who worked and hung out in his shop to be his next project. This project would become the Sex Pistols, and they would develop a large following very quickly. Among the fans of the Sex Pistols was an outrageous bunch of young punks known as the Bromley Contingent. Named after the neighborhood they all came from, they were at the first Sex Pistols shows, and quickly realized they could do it themselves.

Within a year, the Bromleys had formed a large portion of the London Punk scene, including The Clash, The Slits, Generation X (fronted by a young Billy Idol) and X-Ray Spex. The British punk scene was now in full swing. Britsh punk is known for the anarchist ideology, against the politics at the time.

Punk rock today

Today’s punk rock does not live up for it’s glory days, at the 60’s, 80’s, and mainly 70’s these young people made music that rebelled against corrupt governments, stubborn ideology and against labels or patterns, they had voice to say what was happening but no one cared or didn’t want to talk about.

After all of that , today’s “punk rock” (represented by bands such as green day and blink 182) make songs with less important thematics, instead of demanding change and social equality, these songs are about releationships, just plain anarchy and drinking, with the main bands being American and most influent musicians being Billie Joe Armstrong (green day), Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker (both from blink 182).

And my personal favorite: