Punk Fusions

A collective term for styles that fuse punk rock's speed, brevity and confrontational stance with an outside tradition: Celtic folk in the hands of *The Pogues* and *Flogging Molly*, Romani and Balkan music in *Gogol Bordello*, rockabilly and blues in *The Gun Club*, reggae and dub in *The Clash* and *Bad Brains*, ska in *Operation Ivy* and *Rancid*. The fusion is structural rather than decorative: the borrowed tradition supplies repertoire, instrumentation and rhythmic feel, while punk supplies compression, distortion and urgency.