Punk rock is a genre that has fast guitars and rebellious lyrics. It is counter culture to the next level. In the past, bands like The Ramones and The Clash took the world by storm, but then came hardcore punk. Masterclass.com says, “Hardcore punk came of age at roughly the same time as traditional punk rock-in the late ‘70s and ‘80s.” Bands like Black Flag, The Germs, Bad Brains, and Minor Threat. Singer Ian Makaye started the Straight Edge movement with Minor Threat’s song, Straight Edge. Straight Edge represents the punk movement where one does not partake in alcohol or recreational drugs. On the flip side of that type of music, there was a calmer take on punk, Post-punk, which included bands like The Cure and Joy Division. Usually, songs included darker subjects like death, depression, and other grim topics. Other songs talked about love. Also, Post-punk groups like Blondie, the Talking Heads, and Gang of Four talked about love or politics in their music.

There are other genres of punk rock. The early 80’s saw the rise of hardcore and the end of skate punk. Bands like Bad Religion were huge in the punk and skate community. Pop Punk rose in the mid to late 90’s. Even though punks think pop punk isn’t real punk, many enthusiasts argue it is. Blink 182 had influence from bands like Decendents and Dag Nasty. They have the same roots. Pop punk was popular in the early 2000’s. Nowadays, there are rappers going pop punk but if people are interested in underground music, there are still punk and hardcore, as well as the legends from the 80’s and 90’s like the Cro-mags.