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Over the course of its three-decade history, punk has consistently taken rock and roll’s inherent rebelliousness and politicism and made those qualities violent and explicit. Its most obvious roots lie in the aggressive, sometimes abrasive rhythms of ’60s garage rock, the theatricality of glam rock, the ironic nihilism of New York’s The Velvet Underground and The New York Dolls, and the raw, visceral power of Detroit proto-punk icons The Stooges and MC5.

Punk rock as a genre unto itself exploded in late ’70s England when angry working class kids, frustrated with the rigid norms and class polarization that ruled their country, formed fast, loud, primitive rock bands with names like The Buzzcocks, The Damned, The Clash, and The Sex Pistols, through which they expressed their rage and alienation. Similarly minded bands emerged all over the U.S. — The Ramones in New York, The Dead Kennedys in San Francisco, and X and Black Flag in Los Angeles. These bands had different aesthetics, different agendas, and different sounds, but they were all united by their rejection of institutional authority, their penchant for self-destruction, and their music’s raw, wounded emotional power.

As you might expect of such a huge social phenomenon, punk has been endlessly co-opted by mainstream culture. But as long as smart kids with challenging things to say can get their hands on noise-making devices, punk rock will endure.

Artists in the Punk Genre

1.6 Band
The 1985
386 DX
50 Foot Wave
7 Seconds
AFI
Agent 51
All Scars
American Steel
The Anasazi
Angel Hair
Antioch Arrow
Antiseen
Armchair Martian
Atom and His Package
The Avengers
Bad Brains
Beyond
Bikini Kill
Bilge Pump
Bisybackson
Black Dice
The Black Halos
The Bobbyteens
Boredoms
Braid
Bratmobile
Bride of No No
The Bruisers
Jim Carroll
Chicks on Speed
Chik Chik Chik
Chino Horde
Circle Of Dead Children
Citizen Fish
Cletus
Clikatat Ikatowi
Clone
Computer Cougar
The Constantines
(the) Control Group
The Convocation Of…
The Criminals
Damad
Darkest Hours
The Dishes
The Donnas
The Drags
Drive Like Jehu
Dropkick Murphys
Electric Frankenstein
Envy
Erase Errata
Ex Models
The Ex
EX-iGNOTA
The Explosion
Fatal Flying Guilloteens
Fetish
Final Conflict
Fireballs Of Freedom
The Fisticuffs Bluff
The Frustrators
Gaffer
The Gimmicks
The Gossip
The Hal Al Shedad
Half Japanese
Harriet the Spy
Thee Headcoats
Richard Hell
Heroin
Hex Error
High Rise
His Hero Is Gone
Hog Molly
Hoover
The Immortal Lee County Killers
Jihad
Karp
Kid Dynamite
The Ladderback
Lake Of Dracula
Lard
Last of the Juanitas
Le Shok
Ted Leo/Pharmacists
Les Savy Fav
Lifetime
Litmus Green
The Locust
Lost Kids
Love Lost But Not Forgotten
The Lowdown
Macgillicuddys
Maximillian Colby
MC5
Mclusky
Mekons
Mission Of Burma
Mohinder
The Monkeywrench
The Monorchid
The Mr T Experience
My Lai
Mycomplex
NAiVE
Naked Aggression
Naked Raygun
Neurosis
No Empathy
No For An Answer
No Means No
The No WTO Combo
The Nomads
Olivelawn
One Man Army
One Time Angels
Ottawa
Panthers
The Party of Helicopters
The Pattern
PeeChees
Phantom Pregnancies
Pinhead Gunpowder
The Quadrajets
Racebannon
The Red Scare
Resin Scraper
Rocket from the Crypt
Royal Pendletons
Ruins
Rye Coalition
Sahara Hotnights
Serotonin
Shake Ray Turbine
Shakuhachi Surprise
Shotmaker
The Simple Ones
Simply Saucer
Skull Kontrol
Sleater-Kinney
Slimer
Small Brown Bike
Snuff
Song Of Zarathustra
Spanakorzo
Speedking
The Starlite Desperation
The Styrenes
Sub Debs
Sugar Shack
Sunshine
Surface
Sweetbelly Freakdown
Swindle
Teengenerate
The Templars
Tension
Terrorists
Thoughts Of Ionesco
Three Penny Opera
Thumbnail
The Thumbs
Traitors
The Transfused
Transitional
The Trema
Turning Point
Two Gallants
The Unholy Three
Uniform Choice
Usurp Synapse
The Von Zippers
Wallside
Weston
The Workin’ Stiffs
The X-Impossibles
The Yah Mos
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Michael Yonkers Band