What is Punk Rock?

To use a bizarre allegory; equating musical styles as family members, punk rock is something like this. Garage rockers are the great-grandparents. Iggy Pop is the Godfather. The Ramones are the Patriarch. Velvet Underground is an uncle. Offspring, cousins, nephews and neices include Art Rock, Indie Rock, Heavy Metal, New Wave, Power Pop, Grunge, Goth, Thrash, and eventually 'Alternative' music - whatever that is. All of the above, including 'punk' are labels that have been variously ill-conceived or misapplied by people that just wanted to label something that they did not understand.

Edit: I apologize for the above paragraph. Sometimes I'm creative in a stupid way. -K  10/18/2010

In the early 1970s it seemed like Rock'n'Roll had gone horribly wrong, and the developing sound has been described as a natural rebellion. Growing out of the popularity of garage rock and underground rock bands, punk rock appeared in the mid-1970s in the form of The Ramones. It should be noted that they were wildly popular in England, but couldn't sell out even tiny venues in the U.S. Initially, very few record labels were willing to sign punk bands, they just didn't see any market-ability in the strange noise. The only way to become popular was an extensive touring schedule featuring many small venues - which was previously unheard of; many bands would play New York, L.A., and maybe Chicago or Cleveland - and that was it.

At first, hallmarks of punk were a bare-bones sound, limited musical ability (3 chords were enough), fast-paced and brief songs, an anti-establishment attitude, and antagonizing the audience (largely discarded in the interest of record sales). The Sex Pistols undeniably hold the record for thumbing their nose at the establishment. Their first *released* single "Anarchy in the U.K." caused such a indignant reaction in England that their record label dropped them - before releasing the rest of the recorded album! Shortly therafter, their bass player left the band. A replacement was eventually found in the drummer of Siouxie and the Banshees (who were all great fans of the Pistols). This lineup change presaged the tumultuous nature of all future punk bands. The drummer's name was Sid Viscious, and he couldn't play bass.