While the rest of the world was humming along to ABBA, small bands of rebels known as the Ramones, Sex Pistols, and Clash were causing a stir in their respective regions with something they called rock and roll, but which rock writers dubbed “punk rock.”
Punk rock was the polar opposite of everything that was popular at the time. It was fast, stripped-down machine gun music that swept in, blew the place up, and then vanished just as quickly. The songs were usually short and had provoking, confrontational lyrics. The music incorporated themes of establishment, politics, hopelessness, and angst that would later become popular in grunge music, but it also made it sound like these people wanted to change the world.
Although punk rock had already made its way into the United States via The Ramones’ first album in 1975, it became a national phenomenon in England in 1977. For several more years, the music remained in the background in the United States, while it became almost mainstream in the United Kingdom. The Clash had already had a couple of years of success in the United Kingdom when they released London Calling in 1979, and their Combat Rock album from 1982, which included “Rock The Casbah,” had charted in the United States.
Most punk bands didn’t last long, but those that did, like the aforementioned three, had a significant impact on the music of their era. When punk arrived in town, disco died, and the stage was set for the New Wave bands of the early 1980s.
A rock historian can see many musical trends in their infancy when looking at the genre decades later. Grunge was influenced by punk’s garage-band sounds, while the experimental side influenced bands like Duran Duran to experiment with instrumentation. Punk women sparked a new wave of girl bands, including Courtney Love’s Hole and Babes in Toyland.
In comparison to death metal and speed metal that came after it, some punk rock sounds a little tame these days. There were dozens of punk bands that only achieved regional fame, but they shifted listeners’ tastes away from slick, sunny, over-produced pop.