{ "slug": "punk", "name": "Punk", "aliases": [ "punk rock", "proto-punk", "77 punk" ], "description": "Two years in which rock was stripped back to speed, volume and refusal, and the barrier to making a record collapsed. Musically narrow on purpose; its consequences are the widest of anything on this map.", "origin": { "place": "New York and London", "year": 1976 }, "lineage": [ { "genre": "rock-and-roll", "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/rock-and-roll/", "inherited": "The same three chords and the same two minutes, retrieved deliberately. Punk is a raid on 1956 conducted in order to throw out everything rock had accumulated in the twenty years since." } ], "bpm": { "min": 140, "max": 200 }, "updated": "2026-08-30", "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/punk/", "trackCount": 9, "curatedBy": [], "playlists": {}, "tracks": [ { "rank": 1, "trackKey": "sex-pistols--anarchy-in-the-u-k", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/sex-pistols--anarchy-in-the-u-k/", "title": "Anarchy in the U.K.", "artist": "Sex Pistols", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/sex-pistols/", "year": 1976, "label": "EMI", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "A rolled R, a guitar sound like sheet metal, and a record its own label withdrew within weeks. Whatever was manufactured about the band, this is not a manufactured performance.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Sex%20Pistols%20Anarchy%20in%20the%20U.K.", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=cBojbjoMttI", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 2, "trackKey": "ramones--blitzkrieg-bop", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/ramones--blitzkrieg-bop/", "title": "Blitzkrieg Bop", "artist": "Ramones", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/ramones/", "year": 1976, "label": "Sire", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Four downstrokes, a count-in and a chant. The Ramones removed everything that was not essential and discovered that what remained was enough for a career and a genre.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Ramones%20Blitzkrieg%20Bop", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=skdE0KAFCEA", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 3, "trackKey": "the-clash--white-riot", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-clash--white-riot/", "title": "White Riot", "artist": "The Clash", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-clash/", "year": 1977, "label": "CBS", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Ninety-nine seconds, written after Strummer and Simonon were at Notting Hill Carnival. A song about wanting to be as serious as somebody else's politics, which is a stranger idea than it first sounds.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Clash%20White%20Riot", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=IvG3is7Bm1w", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 4, "trackKey": "richard-hell-and-the-voidoids--blank-generation", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/richard-hell-and-the-voidoids--blank-generation/", "title": "Blank Generation", "artist": "Richard Hell & The Voidoids", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/richard-hell-and-the-voidoids/", "year": 1977, "label": "Sire", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Hell wrote the look and half the attitude, and Robert Quine plays a solo that has no business on a punk record. The most musically interesting thing here by a distance.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Richard%20Hell%20%26%20The%20Voidoids%20Blank%20Generation", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=v9FkQLjOSZ8", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 5, "trackKey": "x-ray-spex--oh-bondage-up-yours", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/x-ray-spex--oh-bondage-up-yours/", "title": "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!", "artist": "X-Ray Spex", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/x-ray-spex/", "year": 1977, "label": "Virgin", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Poly Styrene opens by saying little girls are supposed to be seen and not heard, then a saxophone arrives. Funnier, smarter and angrier than most of its neighbours.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/X-Ray%20Spex%20Oh%20Bondage!%20Up%20Yours!", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/search?q=X-Ray%20Spex%20Oh%20Bondage!%20Up%20Yours!", "exact": false } } }, { "rank": 6, "trackKey": "buzzcocks--ever-fallen-in-love-with-someone-you-shouldntve", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/buzzcocks--ever-fallen-in-love-with-someone-you-shouldntve/", "title": "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)", "artist": "Buzzcocks", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/buzzcocks/", "year": 1978, "label": "United Artists", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Manchester works out that the speed and the distortion also suit a pop song about humiliation. Pete Shelley's melodies are the reason punk had anywhere to go afterwards.", "alsoOn": [ { "kind": "curator", "slug": "sung-to-someone", "name": "Sung to Someone", "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/sung-to-someone/" } ], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Buzzcocks%20Ever%20Fallen%20in%20Love%20(With%20Someone%20You%20Shouldn't've)", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=51OB2YoC4sg", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 7, "trackKey": "the-stooges--search-and-destroy", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-stooges--search-and-destroy/", "title": "Search and Destroy", "artist": "The Stooges", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-stooges/", "year": 1973, "label": "Columbia", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Three years early, mixed by Bowie into a thin, trebly mess that turned out to be exactly right. Everyone on this list heard it and most of them admitted it.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Stooges%20Search%20and%20Destroy", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=LC9km8qnbOY", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 8, "trackKey": "patti-smith--piss-factory", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/patti-smith--piss-factory/", "title": "Piss Factory", "artist": "Patti Smith", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/patti-smith/", "year": 1974, "label": "Mer", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Self-released, spoken rather than sung, about a summer job. Proof that the form was a permission structure before it was a sound.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Patti%20Smith%20Piss%20Factory", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=y6aUbrZYjYE", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 9, "trackKey": "stiff-little-fingers--alternative-ulster", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/stiff-little-fingers--alternative-ulster/", "title": "Alternative Ulster", "artist": "Stiff Little Fingers", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/stiff-little-fingers/", "year": 1978, "label": "Rough Trade", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Belfast, where the boredom being complained about had rather higher stakes. The most convincing anger on this list, and the least stylised.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Stiff%20Little%20Fingers%20Alternative%20Ulster", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=PlGmYetiCjA", "exact": true } } } ] }