punk

Musical movement of disaffected youth in the late 1970s. It combined simple melodies and harmonies with strong lyrics (often crude and deliberately offensive) about youth rebellion. Image was important to punk and consisted of bizarre and outlandish fashions, spiked hair, and scowling expressions. Punk music stressed an aggressive performance designed to shock or intimidate within a three-chord, three-minute format, as demonstrated by the Sex Pistols.

Punk music originated in New York City with groups such as the New York Dolls and the Ramones, and soon spread to the UK. The punk aesthetic continued to be revived periodically with the nostalgia boom of the 1990s, supported by the growth of a neo-punk movement in the USA and by groups such as the Clash being accorded the status of rock 'n' roll ‘classics’.

Seemingly a rejection of everything that had gone before, punk rock drew on more than a decade of US garage bands; reggae and rockabilly were also important influences on, for example, the Clash, the most successful British punk band. The punk movement brought more women into rock (for example, the Slits in 1977–82) and was antiracist and anti-establishment. The musical limitations imposed by its insistence on amateurism and provoking outrage contributed to the decline of punk rock, but aspects live on in hardcore punk and grunge, and also in the visual arts.