A good style of music everyone wants to say they listen to. In the sixties, it was created by revolutionary, much hated bands like the Velvet Underground, the MC5, Iggy and the Stooges and the Monks who didn't give a fuck about whether Lucy was in the sky or not. All of them were censored, viewed as dangerous, and maybe the truest to the punk rock additude of all. In the seventies it exploded into a big underground culture with it's most loved bands, like the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Clash, and other less famous ones. Then, traditional punk stopped doing as much for the kid who had found in it a way to get out of the traps they hated and many of the originals from the '70s got into new versions of it in the '80s like Post Punk and Hardcore. Many people in the '80s underground did new things with punk and were attacked by punks who wanted it all to stay the same. In the '90s, punk of most kinds became acceptable and so lots of suburban kids did one out of three things- the All American boys and girls got into bubblegum punk, the nerdier ones bought Clash T-Shirts because it was dangerous to them, and some grew mohawks and called themselves true punks, even though all of their music was either from the seventies or wanted to be. All three of them have been part of the ruin of punk rock. It seems like there are more "true punks" than anything else here, so here's my message to all of you- you're one the right track, but if you wonder why there hasn't been very much good music since 1977, maybe it's because you've had the chance to make it but you were too busy pretending it was the seventies. Now either do something new with the music or bury it.

A guy walks up to me and asks 'What's Punk?'.

music with no boundaries. music with no rules. music from the heart.

A kick ass genre of music corrupted by shitty bands like good charlotte.

Not a style, but a way of life, the music

A genre of music that died around 1996, contrary to what any blue haired fifteen yr old will tell you.

Punk Rock originally had a three chord sound. Everyone knew that the music was not important as the message. Sid Vicious was never known as the best player of the 70s or of any era, but everyone knew who the Sex Pistols were.

True punk rock bands include (but are not limited to): Sex Pistols, Black Flag, Ramones, Youth Brigade, Bad Brains, DK (pre-1987), Descendents, Minor Threat, Fugazi, 7 Seconds, Bad Religion, Sub Society, and Teen Idols.

Examples of "punk" rock, only by record label classification: Good Charlotte, Blink 182, Simple Plan, Avril Lavigne, No Doubt (yes, I once had someone tell me they are punk. Yes, you may laugh too), 311, and The All American Rejects.

Punk rock never died, yet it's often spoiled by nazi boneheads such as gg allin (gotta say he's one hardcore motherfucker though) who claim to be punk but really don't know shit cause punk started off fighting for peace NOT hate. To be "punk" all you have to do is...nothing. You don't take orders from "the man". "Punks" have many different beliefs and are very open minded...that's why nazis don't count. Punks don't judge before they listen. Contrary to popular beliefs, punks CARE. Punks aren't the lazy, careless sods society leads you to believe they are. Punks take action...may it be for animal liberation, anti-war, anti-racism, anti-capitalism, or all of them together.

Music which, contrary to popular belief, does not need to be loud, nor fast to fit under the said moniker. Rooted in the avant-garde of The Velvet Underground, who despite drawing influences from free jazz and swing-- elements that would later be thrown out of the mix when "punk" came to full rise-- laid the blueprint for the aesthetic of what is now considered the "punk" mentality; defying rock conventions and creating music that was messy, unpolished, and primitive. VU's experimentalism carried into their live performances, in which they would commonly improvise songs (an art predocessors, and fellow New Yorkers Television would incorperate into live shows), as well as create feedback and distortion noises.

After VU, The Stooges, a Michigan-based proto-punk band, formed and followed the same philosophy. Led by the infamous Iggy Pop, The Stooges may have "rocked" far harder than VU, but nontheless had VU's flare for being controversial; not only did they follow in VU's footsteps by writing lyrics that blatantly reference drugs and sex, but putting on bizarre live shows, in which Pop would perform shirtless and cut himself, as well as cover his body in peanut butter. While VU managed to gain slight acclaim with their ties to artist Andy Warhol, at the time of their existence, The Stooges enjoyed virtually no success, and barely sold any records at all.

Shortly after The Stooges, The New York Dolls formed, not only adding to the blueprint for what would shortly th...