Who invented punk rock?

He copied someone in Stockholm?

 

Figure out which band was first at being predominately punk rather than predominately garage, and you'll have your answer. The genres bled into each other.

 

I'd be very surprised if anyone who did their homework actually thought of The Sex Pistols as the inventors of punk given that the term had existed for quite some time by that point and most of the bands prior to them are to this day accepted by the public at large as punk bands. Patti Smith and Television are interesting ones as the former belonged to the NYC/CBGB'S scene but for the most part wasn't what we now associate with punk, and the latter was more important when led by Richard Hell who seemed to be the driving force behind that band and when he left took that sound with him, as Television transformed into something much artier and considerably less punk. Tell me that their first single "Little Johnny Jewel" sounds anything like their pre-record contract live performances of songs like "Double Exposure" and the later to be rerecorded by Richard Hell and The Voidods "Blank Generation". And even then these songs are definitely much sparser than you're average punk, the calm before the storm. I guess the wikipedia article about punk rock says it best in the north american section of the "Early history" category:

I think of all the bands in this scene, I can tell from one performance, from a month after their first gig at CBGB'S that one band kickstarted the movement as a genre rather than a collective scene. They are the leaders of a new generation of kids, revolutionary beyond belief and practically inventing everything we know as, as punk.



That said, a band from Australia called The Saints claim they had been doing that kind of thing that Ramones were doing beforehand but there's zero proof of anything pre-74 from them. So who the hell knows. Still, as much as I want to give the Ramones the credit they deserve, I have to admit a punk band with occasional deviations existed before the term punk existed. A total anomaly who became the godfathers of a genre without knowing it. The Stooges. It's between them for inventing a sound and Ramones for defining a sound that only one other band was proven to have grasped that punk exists. At least I think.

 

Likewise J. S. Bach and Antonio Vivaldi are not "baroque". This term came into use as a music genre description long after the baroque era was over. To extend that definition to artists that were only retroactively labeled as baroque (all of them) encourages revisionism and confusion.

 

Jerry Lewis:

https://www.facebook.com/Cinemaclassico/videos/1004674926232450/?fref=nf

 

I would think the truly honest answer would be ....

No one.
It is not an Invention, per se, but an evolution of several musical ideas and bands combined, creating something that only became aware in the public consciousness perhaps due to media coverage,etc.

I can not see a musical style being "invented", so much, as simply brought into the public's eye.

 

Very true.

Also Lenny Kaye should be given due credit for compiling "Nuggets" which really gave the American punk rockers the idea that a new genre was possible, and simply hidden within these minor, regional hits. The attitude of punk truly is what drives the sound. Really, the Pistols would have been a slightly more aggressive pub rock band if Johnny Rotten wasn't fronting them.

 

Also, this guy is hilarious.
Mikey Wild "I Was Punk Before You Were"

 

The Dictators...

While Dave Marsh may have coined the term "punk rock", the use of the word "punk" to describe the mid-70s alternative culture in New York originated with Legs McNeil and John Holmstrom... when they chose it as the title for their iconic underground fanzine in 1975. They said the word came to them after both being inspired by the attitude and aesthetic of the first 'Tators album 'Go Girl Crazy'.

I'm not suggesting the Dictators were punk rockers... just that they embodied the attitude that became known as "punk".

I voted for the Dolls... although I agree with the logic that traces the sound back to the 60s (Stooges / MC5 / garage / 'Surfin' Bird').

 

The Green Days

 

I have no doubt that they were familiar with CREEM and that Dave Marsh review of ? and the Mysterians. The word didn't just come to them as if in a dream or anything like that. The word "punk" in mid-seventies New York meant a lot of things, not just faster and louder, although by the end of the decade that was the prevalent take on what it was.

 

Yes, The Ramones debut would have to be considered as the birth of punk rock. John Peel, the influential British dj, felt it was the first punk album.

 

I always felt it was the New York Dolls.

 

I'd say the Velvet Underground.

They had the noise rock and lyrics about dystopian subjects such as being addicted to heroin (a huge 'Punk' lifestyle aspect - plenty of punk junkies followed in their 'tracks', including Iggy Popp, and large swaths of the New York and London punk scenes of the 70s). They had the attitudes of nihilism present in sound and words and non-melodic singing styles and applied 'misuse' of electronics and instruments (all punk rock afterwards thematically). And they had the bizarre and/or alternative sexual behaviors going in their lyrics as well.

Noise, drugs, nihilism, and deviant sexual themes. There you have it in one band by 1965-1966.

The VU didn't want to fit in when they started out; they wanted to bother people, pure and simple. Were the VU 'just a Punk band'. Of course not. They were a big influence on the Stooges, however, who were probably the first real full-fledged Punk band.

Just my opinion.

 

I'd say the media invented "punk" rock. IMO, none of these musicians were out to invent anything except music. They may have had a certain attitude and personality that went along with it, bur so has every other artist.

 

Green Day. No, wait.

 

Exactly "you really got me" is the first inkling of the punk sound to me, but The Stooges nailed it. I mean, as stated above, neither band is truly a punk rock band, but along with The Sonics and some others, this is source material.

 

Jimmy Osterberg, a/k/a Iggy Pop.

 

It may not have been called punk rock back then but the early Who gets my vote.

 

"Punk Rock" is not an invention, it's a mutation/restructuring of various styles in culture, art, fashion and music that already were into something that was never there before.

 

I think Lou Reed was too concerned about looking and acting cool to be punk rock. True punk rock doesn't give a crap about Nico, Andy Warhol, or art galleries. Just my opinion...

 

Yes

 

Who had the most traits (of what we now know as punk rock) in effect before anyone knew what it was?
The Ramones. I think that is pretty well established.
The Dolls came close.

 

Ah...Mikey....quite the fixture here in Philly back in the day.
He's right, you know.

 

All the bands/musicians listed in the poll as well as other suggestions here all had an influence but I would say the genre evolved more so than was "invented" by any one artist.