Punk

Punk is a musical and cultural movement that emerged in the mid-1970s in New York and London as a rejection of mainstream rock's virtuosity and excess. Its sound is deliberately stripped down: fast tempos, distorted guitars playing simple chord progressions, rudimentary bass and drums, short songs and shouted, confrontational vocals delivering anti-establishment, anti-authoritarian lyrics. Rooted in garage rock and protopunk acts such as *The Stooges* and *MC5*, and codified by *Ramones*, *Sex Pistols* and *The Clash*, punk's do-it-yourself ethic — self-released records, independent labels, fanzines — permanently reshaped how popular music is made, distributed and dressed.