Music Banter - The Punk Education Thread

The Punk Education Thread
Written by Crowquill(Ethan Smith) and Hookers With Machineguns (Leroy Lee)

History:
The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. It’s counterpart? The commercially dwarfed Velvet Underground and Nico, one of the first albums that presented a raw and experimental alternative to the over-produced and commercialized pop-rock top sellers of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Punk rock's musical roots lie in the 1960s with American snarling garage and proto-punk acts such as The Seeds, Count 5, and The Sonics, and later the intense performances of The Stooges and the short and fast guitar riffs of Motor City Five. Across the Atlantic, you had The Who’s snotty teen angst anthems; their single “My Generation” is sometimes referred to as the “first punk song”.

Punk rock sprouted in quite a few different regions of the world approximately around the same time, almost a global defiance to the commercialization of mainstream music. The two most commonly identified areas are the New York scene (which included The Ramones, Television, Johnny Thunders & The New York Dolls, and Richard Hell & The Voidoids) and the London scene (which included The Stranglers, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and punk’s poster children Sex Pistols). By the late 1970s, the punk rock movement was in full swing; bands like The Clash, The Buzzcocks, The Damned, and X-Ray Spex became acknowledged as being among the first punk rock bands.

Most punk rock from the original mid-1970s movement was still melodic and poppy, but became more aggressive starting in the late 1970s with bands like Black Flag, Crass, X, Circle Jerks, The Germs, The Dead Kennedys and The Misfits. Punk rock usually contains aggressive anti-establishment lyrics. Most of the lyrics are individualistic or political, including left-wing, anarchist, and/or sometimes extremist ideologies. This developed into an onslaught of different attitudes and thus subgenres, spreading from different regions of the world. By the 1990s, the world was well exposed to most parts of the punk attitude and fashion. Nonconformity and rebellion became buzzwords for major record labels to ironically pre-package punk rock as a marketable mainstream trend (if you will). This exposure has led some punk fundamentalists to regard the current state of punk as being “dead.”

Street Punk
Fast-paced and aggressive style that later homogenized with hardcore punk and adapted to Oi! Punk. Street punk (or “gutter punk”) is often associated with the studded leather jacket and Mohawk fashion. Lyrics are typically of the anti-social and anti-authority nature, with the occasional triumphant booze chant.
Examples: The Exploited, The Varukers, A Global Threat, GBH, Oxymoron, Cheap Sex, The Pist, The Virus, The Filaments, The Devotchkas, Lower Class Brats

Oi! Punk
A derivative of street punk that aimed to appeal to the working class, punks, and skinheads. Oi! Punk has occasionally been mislabeled as racist (although in some instances true); however most of the original bands were not.
Examples: The Cockney Rejects, Cock Sparrer, Sham 69, Peter and The Test Tube Babies, The Business, Skrewdriver, 4 Skins

Hardcore punk
Characterized by aggressive and intense vocals, with rapid chord progression. Thus songs are typically short and fast-paced. The original movement was strong particularly in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, California. Hardcore punk later evolved into emo and more metal-influenced hardcore.
Examples: Black Flag, The Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, The Necros, Poison Idea, 7 Seconds, Reagan Youth, Urban Waste, Millions of Dead Cops, D.R.I., Wasted Youth, Cro-Mags, The Germs

Emo
In the early 1990s there was arguably a wave of bands being called "emotive" or "emotional" hardcore. It was led by bands like D.C. natives Rites of Spring, Moss Icon, and Gray Matter. Elitist hardcore kids actually used the term "emo" as an insult for kids who listen to Indian Summer and other bands in this sub genre. Screamo emerged from hardcore emo, characterized by slower and more melodic breakdowns, with bands like You & I, City of Caterpillar, Saetia, etc.
Examples: Circle Takes The Square, pg. 99, She Died Really Pretty, IWouldSetMyselfOnFireForYou, Hot Cross, Heroin, Usurp Synapse, Mohinder, Angel Hair, Funeral Dinner, I Hate Myself, After School Knife Fight, Orchid, Saetia.

Anarcho Punk
Usually of the hardcore/street punk style, specifically with anarchist ideologies.
Examples: Aus Rotten, Behind Enemy Lines, Subhumans, Crass, Flux of Pink Indians, Rudimentary Peni, Contravene, Anti-Product, Discharge, Oi Polloi, Conflict

Crust Punk
Usually has elements of grind, hardcore, thrash, and is closely related to anarcho punk, with darker political lyrics.
Examples: Amebix, Misery, Nausea, Antischism, Witch Hunt, Dystopia, Cluster Bomb Unit, Extinction of Mankind, Brother Inferior, Toxic Narcotic, Deviated Instinct, Caustic Christ, Code 13, Tragedy, Totalitar, Icons of Filth

Psychobilly
A fusion between punk rock and rockabilly, first emerging in London during the early 1980s. Much of the distinctive melody comes from the upright bass. Lyrics typically make reference to violence, sexuality, and horror flicks.
Examples: The Meteors, Demented Are Go!, King Kurt, Mad Sin, Nekromantix, Batmobile, The Cramps, The Deadlines, The Quakes, Barnyard Ballers, Astro Zombie, Tiger Army, The Sharks, Reverend Horton Heat

Horror Punk
Horror punk is (usually) pop punk and psychobilly (hardcore in a few cases) with topics focused horror flicks and tales through songs. Although horror punk is considered to have been started by bands like the damned and 13th floor elevator, a lot of people consider the first real horror punk band to be the misfits, they were later followed by acts like samhain (started by danzig).
Examples:The Misfits, Samhain, Dead End Drive In, Balzac, Undead, Cancer Slug, Rabies, Everdead, Mockingbird lane

Pop Punk
A more melodic and catchy punk style seen first in the mid-1970s with bands like The Ramones and The Buzzcocks, later adapted by many bands of the 1990s trying to deviate from the 1980s hardcore punk movement.
Examples: The Descendents, The Buzzcocks, Bad Religion, The Queers, Screeching Weasel, The Offspring, Millencolin, Guttermouth, Bouncing Souls, Tsunami Bomb

Ska Punk
A common form of Third Wave ska, which has deviated substantially from the more soulful traditional ska/reggae sound. Most ska punk is uptempo and catchy, behind a horn section and offbeat.
Examples: Operation Ivy, Choking Victim, Leftover Crack, Against All Authority, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Pietasters, Big D And The Kids Table, Catch 22, Skankin Pickle