Punk rock (from 'punk', meaning rotten, worthless, or a prison slang term for a person who is sexually submissive) was originally used to describe the primitive guitar based rock and roll of 1960s bands such as The Seeds, and later Detroit bands The Stooges and MC5. "Punk rock" now largely tends to mean the anti-establishment musical movement of the period 1976-80, exemplified by the Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Clash, The Ramones and their descendants.

Probably the first recorded use of the term "punk" to refer to music was Lester Bangs famous 1971 essay "Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung" (collected in the book of the same name, ISBN 0679720456): "punk bands started cropping up who were writing their own songs but taking the Yardbirds' sound." A year later Lenny Kaye, in the liner notes of the anthology Nuggets, uses the term "punk-rock" to refer to the Sixties music now usually called "garage rock", plus some of the darker side of psychedelia). Shortly after this, Lenny Kaye began performing avant garde proto-punk music with Patti Smith, so this would seem to lead directly to the use of the term by the music we now know as punk.

The roots of punk rock lie as well in the UK pub rock scene and glam rock groups such as The New York Dolls, and the dissonant style of the Velvet Underground, long thought to be the main founders or precursors of punk rock. Some even trace the beginning of punk rock to folk musician Woody Guthrie, whose lyrics have been known to contain filthy content. Also of importance was a desire to return to the simplicity of early rock and roll and a rejection of what punk rockers saw as the pretension, commercialism and pomposity which had overtaken "arena rock" in the 1970s, spawning grandiose forms of heavy metal and progressive rock. By contrast, punk rock emphasised simplicity of musical structure, extolling a "DIY" ("do it yourself") ethic that anyone could form a punk rock band (the early UK punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue once famously included drawings of three chord shapes, captioned, "here's a chord, here's another one, here's another one. Now form a band") The lyrics introduced a new frankness of expression in matters both political: often dealing with urban boredom and rising unemployment in the UK, and sexual: such as the Dead Kennedys' "Too Drunk to Fuck" or the Sex Pistols' "Submission."

The influence of the situationist movement is apparent in much of the behaviour and artwork surrounding what could be considered as the vanguard of the British punk movement, e.g., the Sex Pistols, and those orbital to the group such as Jordan, the Bromley Contingent, Sex boutique, etc. This was a conscious direction taken by Pistols prime movers Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, and is especially apparent in the artwork of pro-situ Jamie Reid, who had previously been involved with Suburban Press and King Mob.

The cover song, in the hands of a punk band, can often be an instrument for irony and commentary on popular culture. Patti Smith's Horses album contains two examples of reclaimed mainstream songs. Other examples include the Dead Kennedys' cover of "Take this Job and Shove It", (David Allan Coe) Siouxsie & the Banshees' "Helter Skelter" (The Beatles) or Black Flag's lyrically-altered "Louie Louie" (Richard Berry, popularized by The Kingsmen).

At least as important as the music, however, was the associated culture, which at the time caused great furor amongst the establishment. Punk fashion revolved around severe haircuts, such as the mohawk, body piercing (often with safety pins) and conversion of items such as bin liners and thrift store remnants into clothing. "Punk chic" has now been largely absorbed by the mainstream.

Punk devotees created a thriving underground press. In the UK Mark Perry produced Sniffin' Glue. In the United States magazines such as Maximum Rock 'n Roll, Profane Existence and Flipside were leading a movement of fanzines. Every local "scene" had at least one primitively published magazine with news, gossip, and interviews with local or touring bands. The magazine Factsheet Five chronicled the thousands of underground publications in the 1980s and '90s.

In the late 1970s punk interacted with reggae & ska subcultures, to form the 2 Tone movement that included bands such as The Specials, Madness and The Selecter.

In the 1980s the anti-establishment and "DIY" truly came into its own in the United States and the UK with bands like MDC, Crass, Hüsker Dü, Bad Brains, Vice Squad, Minor Threat, JFA, The Dicks and more that never showed up on the industry charts, but none-the-less had a huge effect on popular culture. Not having to deal with the paradox of claiming anti-establishment values while at the same time being just another part of the music industry, which so many 1970s punk bands struggled with, many of the punk fans, bands, fanzines and magazines (Maximum Rock 'n Roll magazine and Cometbus for instance) were able to focus on the music, philosophy and politics, rather than the fashion. These years, approximately 1980 to 1986, is considered the peak of hardcore punk.

Punk has had a lasting influence on all popular music and a thriving subculture can still be found almost anywhere in the United States. Punk rock underwent a brief commercial renaissance in the late 1990s with bands like Rancid, Green Day, The Offspring, NOFX and others.

While the sounds of punk have spawned a host of superficial imitators, the ethos and attitudes of many of punk's innovators have also inspired a wider undergound of artists, musicians, and activists, many of whom are involved in progressive political, social, and environmental movements, embracing the ethics as well as aesthetics of punk. Some notable current bands in this vein include Fugazi, Submission Hold, and Red Monkey. Punk rock is also well-known for its connections to the anarchist movement.

More extensive lists of relevant bands and so on can be found at the following sub-pages;

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