GAMES: GameSpot: Best of 2008 | GameFAQs | SportsGamer MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
advertisement
American Punk

American punk had its roots in '60s garage rock and in the raw minimalism of the Velvet Underground and the Modern Lovers; several bands -- the Stooges, the MC5, the New York Dolls -- played what was essentially punk rock before there was a term or classification for it. But for all intents and purposes, American punk truly begins with the Ramones, around 1975-76. A thriving, often artsy punk scene sprang up around the Ramones in New York City, and similar movements took shape in Los Angeles,... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Mission of Burma | The Dickies | Television | The Ramones | Blondie | Suicide | Dead Kennedys | Richard Hell & the Voidoids | The Dictators | Talking Heads | Black Flag | Devo | Pere Ubu | The Germs | The Avengers
Anarchist Punk

When Johnny Rotten snarled "I wanna be...anarchy" on the Sex Pistols' debut single, it was more provocative theater than deeply held political belief. But a number of punk bands who followed took that credo to heart, railing not just against authority but the very idea of government (or, at least, its hypocrisies and abuses of power). Anarchist punk sometimes came from the far left wing (the Dead Kennedys), sometimes from the downtrodden, Thatcher-era working class (the Exploited), and... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Conflict | Crass | The Exploited | Dead Kennedys
British Punk

By the end of the '70s, British punk was splintering into several distinct strains, most of them arty or ambitious in their own ways. Oi! music was an attempt to keep punk a populist, street-level phenomenon; most of it came from the Cockney working class of London's East End. Likely taking its name from the Cockney Rejects' 1980 song "Oi! Oi! Oi!" (before which it was simply known as street-punk), Oi! was loud, brutal, and extremely simple, with loads of shout-along, almost football-chant... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Stiff Little Fingers | The Vibrators | Peter & the Test Tube Babies | Last Resort | The Undertones | Lurkers | Elvis Costello | 999 | The Soft Boys | The Clash | The Stranglers | Wire | The Boys | Buzzcocks | X-Ray Spex
Garage Rock Revival

An indie-label movement that emerged in the mid-'80s, garage rock revival bands aimed to recapture the wild, rowdy, raucous spirit of '60s garage rock. Of course, where the original garage rockers were concerned with imitating their favorite British bands, the revivalists imitate the garage bands themselves -- so their music was full of fuzz-tone guitar, Farfisa organ riffs, and sneering vocals. Like the similarly timed rockabilly and surf revivals, garage rock revivalists also appropriated... [+] Read More

Key Artists: The Optic Nerve | Tell-Tale Hearts | The Vipers | The Nomads | DMZ | The Fuzztones | Lyres | Mystic Eyes | Thee Headcoats
Hardcore Punk

Hardcore Punk was the most rigid and extreme variation of punk rock. Emerging in the early '80s, hardcore took the ideals of punk as far as it could go. The music was impossibly fast, the vocals were shouted, the riffs were simple, and the records looked (and sounded) like they were made in someone's basement. Most of the bands sounded incredibly similar to each other, but there was a handful of distinctive bands; they usually developed musically quite quickly, leaving the sound of hardcore... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Flipper | Naked Raygun | Suicidal Tendencies | Minor Threat | Dead Kennedys | Wipers | Bad Religion | The Misfits | The Meatmen | The Circle Jerks | Bad Brains | Minutemen | Hüsker Dü | Fugazi | Black Flag
L.A. Punk

The Los Angeles punk scene was the last of punk's Big Three (the others being New York and London) to develop, and was neither as musically diverse nor as adventurous. However, L.A.'s scene has also proven to be the longest-lasting; as punk mutated into hardcore, then alternative rock, then back to a revivalist punk-pop sound during the '90s, it continued to thrive in the L.A./Orange County area in some form or another. For these purposes, though, L.A. punk refers to the original,... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Descendents | The Dickies | The Circle Jerks | Flipper | The Weirdos | The Germs | The Motels | Fear | Social Distortion | Black Flag | X | Bad Religion | The Avengers
Mod Revival

In the late '70s, a group of British punk rockers inspired by the Jam brought back the mod styles and sound of mid-'60s London. The Mod Revivalists stuck to the R&B-informed rock & roll that distinguished the original '60s mods, but the sound was harder and more frenetic, and often only implied the music's R&B roots. Since the original wave of mod bands in the '60s only included a few of bands -- the Small Faces, the Who, the Creation, and the Action, as well as a handful of others -- there... [+] Read More

Key Artists: The Lambrettas | The Chords | The Jam
New Romantic

The New Romantics were a peculiar subgenre of new wave. Wearing heavy makeup and dressed in stylish clothing, the new romantics took not only their visual cues from David Bowie and Roxy Music, but also their musical cues. Drawing from Station to Station/Low-era Bowie and latter-day Roxy Music, new romantics created a sleek, synthesized, and danceable form of pop that was designed to be fashionable and transient. More than any other post-punk genre, new romantics relied on style and glamour.... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Spandau Ballet | ABC | Heaven 17 | Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark | Duran Duran | Gary Numan | Japan | Visage | The Human League | Naked Eyes | Ultravox | Soft Cell | A Flock of Seagulls | Marc Almond
New Wave

During the late '70s and early '80s, New Wave was a catch-all term for the music that directly followed punk rock; often, the term encompassed punk itself, as well. In retrospect, it's became clear that the music that followed punk could be divided, more or less, into two categories -- post-punk and new wave. Where post-punk was arty, difficult, and challenging, new wave was pop music, pure and simple. It retained the fresh vigor and irreverence of punk music, as well as a fascination with... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Thomas Dolby | A Flock of Seagulls | The Police | Eurythmics | Split Enz | The Human League | Frankie Goes to Hollywood | The English Beat | Men at Work | Madness | ABC | The Pretenders | Gary Numan | The B-52's | Duran Duran
New York Punk

While bands like the Stooges, the MC5, and the Velvet Underground laid the initial groundwork for punk, New York was home to the first punk scene, and was the location from which punk rock spread to later hotbeds like London and Southern California. New York punk didn't have the immediate revolutionary impact on its homeland that British punk had, but its lasting influence is incalculable. The initial spark for New York punk came from the New York Dolls, whose crude Stones riffs and trashy,... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Patti Smith Group | Talking Heads | Johnny Thunders | The Ramones | Lou Reed | Dead Boys | Patti Smith | Richard Hell & the Voidoids | New York Dolls | The Dictators | Suicide | Television | Blondie
No Wave

No Wave was a short-lived, avant-garde offshoot of '70s punk, based almost entirely in New York City's Lower East Side from about 1978-1982. Like the post-punk movement that was primarily centered in Britain, no wave drew from the artier side of punk -- but where British post-punk was mostly cold and despairing, no wave was harsh, abrasive, and aggressively confrontational. Most no wave bands were fascinated by the pure noise that could be produced by an electric guitar, making it an... [+] Read More

Key Artists: The Residents | Lydia Lunch | DNA | 8 Eyed Spy | James Chance & The Contortions
Post-Punk

After the punk revolution of 1977, a number of bands formed. They were all inspired by the independent spirit of punk, as well as its raw sound. Instead of replicating the sound of the Sex Pistols, many of these bands forged into more experimental territory, taking cues from Roxy Music, David Bowie, and T. Rex in addition to punk rock. The result was Post-Punk, a group of bands tied together by their counterculture spirit and defiance of accepted rock conventions. Many of these groups -- like... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Bauhaus | Suicide | The Birthday Party | Cabaret Voltaire | Talking Heads | The Cure | U2 | The Raincoats | The Soft Boys | The Mekons | Mission of Burma | Pere Ubu | New Order | Magazine | The Psychedelic Furs
Power Pop

Power Pop is a cross between the crunching hard rock of the Who and the sweet melodicism of the Beatles and Beach Boys, with the ringing guitars of the Byrds thrown in for good measure. Although several bands of the early '70s -- most notably the Raspberries, Big Star, and Badfinger -- established the sound of power pop, it wasn't until the late '70s that a whole group of like-minded bands emerged. Most of these groups modeled themselves on the Raspberries (which isn't entirely surprising,... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Motors | The Romantics | Cheap Trick | The Nazz | The Only Ones | Chris Bell | The Posies | The Records | Todd Rundgren | Marshall Crenshaw | Material Issue | The Raspberries | Big Star | Let's Active | Badfinger
Proto-Punk

Proto-punk refers to a small group of groundbreaking, largely uncategorizable bands who began to emerge in the late '60s, up to the point when punk itself became a phenomenon (around 1975-76). Obviously, none of these artists could be classified as proto-punk until long after the fact; it was never a cohesive movement, nor was there a readily identifiable proto-punk sound that made its artists seem related at the time. What ties proto-punk together is a certain provocative sensibility that... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band | Pere Ubu | The Modern Lovers | Mott the Hoople | New York Dolls | The Stooges | Big Star | MC5 | The Dictators | Iggy Pop | Lou Reed | The Flamin' Groovies | The Velvet Underground | Television | David Bowie
Punk

Punk Rock returned rock & roll to the basics -- three chords and a simple melody. It just did it louder and faster and more abrasively than any other rock & roll in the past. Although there had been several bands to flirt with what became known as punk rock -- including the garage rockers of the '60s and the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, and the New York Dolls -- it wasn't until the mid-'70s that punk became its own genre. On both sides of the Atlantic, young bands began forsaking the... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Television | The Stranglers | Blondie | The Jam | Mission of Burma | Buzzcocks | The Clash | The Vibrators | The Ramones | The Germs | The Damned | The Saints | The Sex Pistols | Stiff Little Fingers | Fear
Rockabilly Revival

Rockabilly Revival refers to the legions of bands dedicated to replicating the style and sound of classic '50s rock & roll. Though there have always been bands that have played rockabilly, the rockabilly revival didn't hit its stride until the post-punk era, when a number of new bands picked up the sounds of rockabilly; not only did they play the music, but they celebrated the kitschy pop culture that surrounded rockabilly. The first rockabilly revival culminated with the success of the Stray... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Wayne Hancock | Ray Condo | Reverend Horton Heat | Stray Cats | The Cramps | Robert Gordon
Ska Revival

Ska evolved in the early '60s, when Jamaicans tried to replicate the sound of the New Orleans R&B they heard over their radios. Instead of mimicking the sound of the R&B, the first ska artists developed a distinctive rhythmic and melodic sensibility, which eventually turned into reggae music. In the late '70s, a number of young British bands began reviving the sound of original ska, adding a nervous punk edge to the skittish rhythms. Furthermore, the Ska Revivalists were among the only bands... [+] Read More

Key Artists: The English Beat | The Selecter | Bad Manners | The Specials | Madness
Sophisti-Pop

Sophisti-pop was a smooth, jazzy style of mainstream pop/rock that appeared during the mid-'80s. In addition to jazz, many sophisti-pop artists incorporated sweet pop-soul into their sound, but the synthesizers that usually polished the arrangements marked sophisti-pop as a product of the '80s. With its slick production and mellow, urbane feel, sophisti-pop fit both adult contemporary and quiet storm radio formats, but it never became a wildly popular trend, and by the beginning of the '90s,... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Sade | The Style Council | The Blue Nile | Basia | The Blow Monkeys | Scritti Politti | Swing Out Sister | Prefab Sprout | Simply Red
Straight-Edge

Born out of the early Washington, DC hardcore punk scene, Straight-Edge has a strange history. It can be traced back to songs written by Minor Threat vocalist Ian MacKaye. Those songs, "Straight-Edge," and "Out of Step," outlined MacKaye's personal feelings on the hedonism of the day, and the rules were simple: No drinking, no drugs, no smoking, no casual sex. (Over time this would eventually include both vegetarianism and Veganism.) MacKaye eventually backed off, stating that he had not... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Government Issue | Minor Threat
Synth Pop

Synth Pop was one of the most distinctive subgenres of new wave. In the early '80s, a number of bands -- primarily British and heavily influenced by Roxy Music and David Bowie -- adapted the electronic innovations of bands like Kraftwerk for pop songs. Initially, in the hands of artists like Gary Numan, the Human League, and Depeche Mode, the sound was eerie, sterile, and vaguely menacing, since the electronics droned on relentlessly without any change in inflections. However, these first... [+] Read More

Key Artists: Gary Numan | Thomas Dolby | Thompson Twins | Duran Duran | A Flock of Seagulls | Devo | Naked Eyes | Ultravox | Eurythmics | The Buggles | ABC | Yaz | The Human League | Heaven 17 | Depeche Mode
advertisement
Data Warehouse Clear Gif