Punk’s roots lie scattered across the history of rock and roll. Garage rock bands like The Who and The Kinks, with their heavy distortion and sharp social criticism, created the foundation of punk’s sound. Iggy Pop and the Stooges, MC5, and Alice Cooper contributed their erratic onstage antics. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, many acts displayed some of these characteristics, though it would not be until 1975, with the emergence of the Ramones, that punk would truly be born.

 

In the years following the Ramones’ debut, punk proliferated and became its own subculture, complete with its own styles of dress, slang, and set of ideals. In Britain, where punk gained an enormous following, the Clash and the Sex Pistols shouted their defiance of government and tradition, often weaving anarchist and socialist ideas into their music.

 

Though the Ramones are considered “the godfathers” of punk, it was the Clash that would reach true fame and come to epitomize both punk movement and spirit. The cover of the Clash’s 1979 masterpiece London Calling featured a hazy photograph of bassist Paul Simonon smashing his bass guitar onto the stage. The photo captured what many aficionados considered the soul of punk: its explosive anger and energy. The title song off of the album remains emblematic of punk itself, and is thus an excellent song with which to examine the punk movement.