Originally a jailhouse term for a submissive homosexual, "punk" took on its youth-culture connotation as a label for a generation of miscreant mid-'60s U.S. garage bands experimenting with post-Beatles British influence and early psychedelics. These luckless "punk-rock" outfits (among them the Seeds, 13 th Floor Elevators, and the Standells) produced a slew of rough-hewn pop gems that were gathered by rock journalist Lenny Kaye into the influential 1972 album Nuggets.

As guitarist for singer/poetess Patti Smith, Kaye played a central role in unleashing punk on the world at large. Smith was grande dame of CBGBs, the downtown New York club that in 1974-75 began a multi-pronged assault on the "dinosaur" rock hegemony of bands like the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. The common ground among new punk acts like Patti Smith and Television (romantic poets), Blondie and the Ramones (nostalgic beat-merchants), and the Talking Heads (minimalist preppies) was the need for highly conceptual styles and short songs, plus a fixation with themes urban and modern. As such, they were spiritual heirs to hippie-era dissenters the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, and the New York Dolls.

Television bass player Richard Hell was the first to adorn himself in the "classic punk" look of torn clothes, spiky hair, and safety pins. Hell's image was hijacked by English haberdasher/pop-entrepreneur Malcolm McLaren, who projected it upon his protoges the Sex Pistols. One obscenity-laden TV appearance by the restyled Sex Pistols in late 1976 turned a whole nation of adults against them and mobilized a generation to their cause. Brit-punk, as exemplified by the likes of the Clash, the Buzzcocks, and Siouxsie and the Banshees, was built around a modernist, anti-rock stance that encouraged experimentation with music, sexual roles, fashion, and politics. This Golden Age did not last into the 1980s.

As the '80s dawned in America, punk tribes thrived outside of trend-conscious New York--these were tough, hyper-masculine scenes that were as untroubled by media attention as they were by stylistic development. In L.A. the punk tradition persisted at the SST label formed in 1978 by Black Flag members Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski; Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz tentatively founded Epitaph, which would become a cash cow in the '90s. In Washington, D.C., Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat (later Fugazi) fostered the hardcore scene (and its straight edge sect) at Dischord, home to Youth Brigade and Bad Brains. In suburban Orange County, CA, a community of surfers and skate-punks sustained early-'80s stoics like Suicidal Tendencies, Agent Orange, Social Distortion, and T.S.O.L (True Sounds of Liberty).

`The SST label fostered such seminal revered alternative-rock acts as Dinosaur Jr, and the Meat Puppets--SST alumni Sonic Youth gleefully titled their 1992 documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke. The "breaking" was done by Sonic Youth support band Nirvana, who carried punk spirit into the charts with--like the Sex Pistols before them--irresistible pop hooks, a pile-driving rhythm section, and gestures both grand and absurd. There followed a brigade of bands with an extremely literal interpretation of punk, who rapidly soared from cult to platinum status. Leading the charge was Green Day, from the East Bay of San Francisco, a town with an impressive punk heritage that stretched back through Dead Kennedys to '70s bands like the Avengers. In 1994 Green Day were twinned in MTV rotation with Orange County's (and Epitaph Records') equally punky Offspring-bringing up the rear were Rancid, a Bay Area outfit (also on Epitaph). Each of these ensembles churned out rough-hewn (if homogenous) pop gems that were comfortably accommodated in the rock business alongside other prevailing trends, which in 1995 meant stadium-fillers like Pink Floyd, The Eagles, and the Grateful Dead; new country superstars like Garth Brooks and Reba McEntire; and authentic, sincere-guy rockers like Hootie and the Blowfish. Punk had finally found a place in a culture that rewards anything, so long as it's traditional. In 1994 MTV's dance-party show The Grind was given over to a "punk" special.