Garage Rock Subculture

According to the United Nations, the earth is populated by 7.3 billion people (United Nations, 2015). Many of these people who inhabit the earth have lifestyles that are considered “normal”, but some choose lifestyles that others would consider “abnormal”. These “abnormal” lifestyles are referred to by society as subcultures. One such subculture is the punk subculture.

The punk subculture began as a musical genre in the United States in the mid-1960s called garage rock (contributors, 2015). Garage rock was so called because bands, both amateur and professional, who played this genre of music typically practiced in their garages (contributors, 2015). This genre of music was made famous by such bands as The Fugs, MC5, The Stooges, New York Dolls,

In 1977, writers for Sounds, a British pop/rock magazine, began to describe the musical acts of some bands as “post-punk”. These were bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, Wire, Magazine, The Fall, and others, who turned away from the punk-rock scene in favor of different sounds, lyrics, and even aesthetics (contributors, Post-punk, 2016). This gave rise to the post-punk subculture, which was different from the early punk subculture in that it rejected punk's roots in rock and roll in favor of genres such as electronic music and black dance music and encouraged members to act and dress in their own way rather than emulate the early punk bands. The post-punk movement also blurred the line between pop culture and high art by incorporating modernist art, politics, cinema, and the avant-garde into their music, something that punk bands had not done (contributors, Post-punk, 2016) . However, this genre of music eventually died out as post-rock bands shifted to other genres of music such as alternative rock and new wave. Some former post-punk bands, however, such as U2, influenced or became a part of the Second British Invasion in the United States (contributors, Post-punk, 2016) . This invasion referred to the influx of synthpop and new wave bands from the United Kingdom that became popular in the Unite States from early 1982 to late 1986, due mostly to the music channel MTV (contributors, Second British Invasion, 2016). However, in the early 2000s, a post-punk revival began. Bands that emerged in this post-punk revival played a basic, no frills version of guitar rock and was influenced by such genre as blues, new wave, and grunge. These bands also popularized distorted guitar sounds, held energetic concerts, and mostly drew on the fashion of the 1950s and 60s (contributors, Post-punk revival, 2016). As a result, the post-punk subculture