Punk

Three instruments, three chords and two minutes, with speed, distortion and shouted singing in place of technique.

Related

ContemporaryTimbreElectric guitarDrum Kit

Punk cuts rock to three instruments, three chords and two minutes, replacing technique with speed, distortion and shouting.

Origins and era

In the mid-1970s the Ramones and Television in New York and the Sex Pistols and the Clash in London pushed short, distorted rock back into small rooms. 1976 became the punk year, as independent labels and fanzines spread scenes quickly.

What you hear

Start with speed, often 150 to 200 BPM, drums open from the first beat and the snare never leaves two and four. Guitar uses power chords and short strums, with light distortion. Bass follows the root, the singer shouts more than sings, and lyrics are direct. Songs often end inside two minutes, built on verse and chorus, with little solo space.

Key figures

The Ramones packed pop melody into fast tempos, the Sex Pistols defined the image through provocation, and the Clash wrote reggae and politics into punk. Iggy Pop and the Stooges supplied energy, while Patti Smith brought poetry into the New York scene.

Lineage

Garage rock, proto-punk and pub rock feed in; post-punk, hardcore and indie rock come out. Its DIY ethic passed to later underground music.

Common misunderstandings

Punk is not inability; it is playing reduced to a minimum. Nor is it only fast; slow punk and post-punk exist. Treating it as fashion misses the DIY networks.

Sources

• Jon Savage, England's Dreaming（Faber and Faber, 1991），用于核对伦敦朋克场景与年代
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry Punk，用于交叉核对风格特征与谱系

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.