the.com/punk
three chords, two minutes, one giant middle finger to everyone who said you couldn't.
means A loud, fast, defiantly raw style of rock music (and its associated anti-authority subculture and fashion), or more loosely a young hoodlum, troublemaker, or worthless person.
from "Punk" surfaces in English around the 17th century meaning a prostitute, and soon also rotten or decayed wood — the soft, crumbling kind that smolders and was used as tinder. From "worthless, rotten" the word drifted to mean a worthless person or petty criminal, and by the 20th century a contemptible young upstart. The musical sense was pinned on by 1970s rock critics who took the existing slur — punk as cheap, snotty, no-good — and wore it like a badge. The deeper roots are murky; no one's certain where the original "punk" came from.
- origin
- Slang once meant a worthless person or rotten wood.
- the ramones
- Most songs clocked under two and a half minutes.
- diy ethic
- Fanzines taught the genre's whole philosophy via photocopier.
- safety pin
- Borrowed from broke fashion, became a global emblem.
- sid vicious
- Could barely play bass; sometimes amp was unplugged.
sex pistols — british band that defined punk rock in 1976 with 'never mind the bollocks'
ramones — american punk pioneers from queens, new york, formed in 1974
dead kennedys — san francisco punk band founded in 1978 known for political lyrics
cbgb — new york club at 315 bowery where punk rock emerged in the mid-1970s