A brief history of punk music

Punk music emerged as a social and cultural phenomenon in the mid 70s. Reflecting the despair of an aggressively modern, young audience with a common anti-establishment mentality, punk expressed political views, opposition and controversy as a response to the sentimentality of flower-power rock of the early 70s. Promoting subversive ground-breaking sounds with minimal instrumentation, anchored by explosive guitar riffs, military drum tempo and anarchic lyrics, punk groups quickly became a massive cultural fact. Young people found a way to express themselves through the Do It Yourself (DIY) attitude reflected in distinctive clothing, hairstyle and artwork to convey a new radical ethos generated from punk groups.

The etymology of the word “punk” in the early 70s denoted a very low social status. Yet, in the appearance of the first punk groups in the mid 70s, the term punk in was used to describe anything diverse, anti-popular, controversial and anti-established. Denying any association to the mainstream, punk music was born and raised in the local, distinctively energetic and vibrant scenes of London and New York echoing the attitudes of a rebellious youth secured in shocking and outrageous music.

UK SCENE REVIEW

The UK Punk scene is widely viewed as the architect of the punk movement in the UK, but also the reason for the massive social attack on the British monarchy and nationalism. Being extremely angry on the system and highly-politicized, UK Punk groups managed to influence a whole generation with their spontaneously infectious outbreak of violence and isolation against commercialism and political correctness.

In the UK, punk managed to convert anarchy and chaos to genuine political philosophy brought forward by groups like Crass and Conflict. Struggling against the despotism of the political system, UK punk groups like Sex Pistols and The Clash possessed an outstanding onstage charisma and fierce music intelligence reflected in their live performances. Moreover, arousing an extreme passion and conveying an immediate impact to its astonished audience, UK Punk captured the messed up young kids and offered them the key to a brand new world, where anything was possible, allowed and grandiosely powerful.

Sex Pistols, The Clash, Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Damned, and Generation X are the most significant groups of the UK Punk Scene, which have greatly impacted UK post-punk groups like Joy Division, The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen, Bauhaus and many others.

US SCENE REVIEW

US Punk scene is the result of the great impact of the UK Punk scene on the globe. Although, rather immature and definitely less controversial than their UK partners, US punk groups emerged in the East and the West Coast communicating the need of a substantial audience in the States for original, hard, not easily absorbed and absolutely anti-mainstream music.

In the US, punk was fundamentally diverse than the UK scene in regards to violence and outburst. The US political system at the time was rather affecting the African Americans of the urban America than the socially acceptable white kids in the suburbs. Elementary musical knowledge reflected in brilliantly simplistic, yet astonishingly dominant lyrics of The Ramones provided a generation with minimalist catchy punk sounds. At the same time, US punk groups introduced musical speed and song brevity to start their revolution.

The most significant groups of the US Punk Scene are The Ramones, The Dead Kennedys, Blondie, Talking Heads, Stooges, MC5, and New York Dolls, which have greatly influenced US post-punk and alternative groups like Sonic Youth, Green Day, Nirvana and others.

Punk inevitably deflated in the early 80s, being hijacked by commercialism and trendy. Becoming a tool to increase profitability, punk soon became conventional and expected. Despite the efforts to heal the wounds with alternative rock groups, punk movement is long dead as its anti-establishment philosophy has long being integrated into mainstream culture.