Punk Subgenres: A Brief Guide
Published on 05 December 2024
Punk is an attitude.
Yes.
Punk is a musical style.
Yes!
Punk is a way of life.
Also yes.
So, which one is it?
Yes!
Punk’s a lot of things to a lot of people. Whether you regard the Ramones or the Sex Pistols as the Year Zero of punk, you’ll no doubt understand the influence that punk’s DIY attitude has given the world of music.
But what is punk? Maybe by looking at the various sub genres that have emerged since the late 70s, I can somehow stumble upon an answer to this most valid but also elusive of questions.
What this blog isn’t is any sort of history on the origins of punk, nor about the classic punk bands like the Sex Pistols, The Clash or The Ramones. This is about the moments that happened after all that - and the moments that continue to happen - that were influenced by those initial seismic musical shifts.
What’s ‘Punk’ to you? Let’s find out, shall we?
Punk Subgenres at a Glance
Punk and Fashion
Punk is very clearly a style born in the streets. Those streets may be New York City’s Bowery district or they may be the King’s Road in London, but it’s a cultural thing for sure, and fashion will forever be an influence on the various strands that made/make up punk.
The idea of using your sartorial choices to display & represent your chosen ‘tribe’ is hardly unique to punk - all musical genres to some degree or another have style and dress codes - but with punk, it’s more vivid, more central to the vibe and also more changeable depending on your chosen substrata. Certain wardrobe mainstays will prevail throughout the subgenres (leather biker jackets, studded belts, skinny jeans etc), and have in fact been a part of rock music’s look since the fifties. Certain other factors then, will delineate certain subgenres of punk, and I’ll have a look at those factors as part of today’s journey.
Post-Punk
Post-punk, or New Wave/ New Musick as it’s otherwise known, was a sort of response to punk rock, taking punk’s attitude and DIY ethos but not so much the music. Instead, post-punk bands like Wire, Public Image Ltd and Magazine brought some artier, more left-field influences as well as adding some funk and electronic styling into the picture. Some journalists at the time may have implied a sense of sophistication about New Wave music over punk, but this perception seems not to have come from any bands themselves.
Some of the main post-punk scenes evolved further into Goth, Industrial and No-Wave scenes too, with their own aesthetic but a shared sense of agency.
Street Punk
Though punk was always a ‘street’ genre, some young punks in early 80s Britain felt that there was too much pretension in the scene. Street Punk was an intentional move towards more stereotypically working class issues like drinking, starting fights and the perils of rough inner city living. Mohican haircuts and anxiety over nuclear holocausts were big in this scene.
Musically, things were fast and punchy with plenty of attitude. Melody was still there but energy was the most important. Sham 69 and the Cockney Rejects would be examples of Street Punk.
Pop Punk
Pop Punk is perhaps the most enduring modern incarnation of the punk sound. It’s a blend of punk, pop, power pop and hard rock, and is played by a huge number of bands such as Green Day and Blink-182.
A simple, powerful and direct sound, pop punk favours melody over overt aggression. It became a thing in the early 90s (though you could say that The Ramones were the original pop punk band, right?) and never really went away after that, with subsequent generations like Paramore adding their take on the sound.
In many ways, Pop Punk is the most mainstream manifestation of Punk in today’s musical landscape. This is the type of Punk that most readily makes it onto the radio and into the upper slots of the big festivals.
Emo
Emo is a lot of things. In many ways, lots of music that could be described as Pop Punk could also easily come under the Emo umbrella.
The term itself is a shortened form of ‘Emotional Hardcore’ or ‘Emotional Hardcore Punk Rock’. Not to imply that other forms of punk aren’t emotional (that would be a bit silly), but Emo places an emphasis on confessional lyrics of a more personal/relationship nature, looking inward more than outward, I suppose.
Emo - also known as emocore - is agreed to go back as far as the 80s, with bands such as Rites of Spring and Embrace setting the scene with their hardcore punk sound and emotionally charged lyrics. Each subsequent decade has followed the pattern of all subgenres: the sound becomes more expansive and then there’s a response to that, which is to return to the roots. Thus, the emocore scene continues to thrive and morph through the decades, from Cap'n Jazz One Last Wish through Jimmy Eat World to Fall Out Boy, and then Mom Jeans to Feverchild.
The cliche of the ‘emo-kid’ with a long asymmetrical fringe hanging down over eyeliner’ed eyes is largely on the money: the look is a prerequisite for the fanbase, or at least in the genre’s golden era of the mid-90s.
Hardcore
Hardcore punk sonically shares a lot of DNA with certain strands of metal. Hardcore can be traced back to the late 70s San Francisco Punk scene. In basic terms, the music then had to be more angry sounding and faster than standard punk of the time to qualify, though that sound has definitely developed some of the tropes of thrash metal over the years. Since thrash itself was a blend of heavy metal and punk rock - and originated in the San Francisco Bay area - this seems like a pretty organic progression.
Hardcore scenes have sprung up across the globe, but most people would agree that it’s an American sound more than anything else. Early Hardcore incorporated additional scenes like the Straight Edge movement, exemplifying the uncompromising attitude that many would say defines the Hardcore mentality. Ian MacKaye’s band Minor Threat, and his subsequent band Fugazi, are important touchstones for the 80s hardcore sound.
Somewhat like Hip Hop, hardcore has a US East and West coast rivalry. This has actually been addressed by the band Agnostic Front, whose famous anthem Gotta Go points out that the scene is stronger together than as warring opposites.
Musically, hardcore can be significantly different to early punk, which in many cases was just loud, fast, rock n roll. Hardcore definitely developed the speed and ferocity, with seminal groups like Bad Brains showing the world new levels of anger. Hardcore music can also be, depending on which bands you select, much more complicated than typical punk music.
In terms of culture and fashion, utilitarian clothes with a dash of militarism (basically, hoodies, t-shirts, work trousers and buzz cuts) was the uniform. This tied in with the scene’s seriousness and disdain for mainstream culture. It was also a response to the English punk look (biker jackets, safety pins and bondage trousers) that was seen as a little contrived across the pond.
Anarcho-Punk
In simple terms, Anarcho-punk is based around the ideology of Anarchism, which is to say the decentralisation of government. The overall punk movement could be seen as being anarchic since most of its central tenets are concerned with self-motivated DIY industry and activity.
Anarcho-punk is a strain of punk that focuses more overtly on the political and ideological messages of this. Anarchy has been in popular music since at least the 60s, with bands like the MC5 spreading a far-left message. The Sex Pistols of course sang about Anarchy in the UK, which would’ve turned a lot of young people on to the idea too.
Crass are possibly the best example of Anarcho-punk, though as we’ve seen already in today’s blog, they could also fit into other genres, like Crust Punk. In addition to their anti-establishment position, they are staunchly pacifist too, as well as being anti-war and pro-animal rights.
Crust Punk
Crust punk is superficially similar to Anarcho Punk but with the addition of distinctly metal riffing. The songs are generally fast too, and production is sparse, loud and ‘grinding’.
The term ‘Crust Punk’ was coined to describe the overall corrosive sound produced by bands such as Amebix, Antisect and Chaos UK.
Cowpunk
Cowpunk (written as one word) is, as you’d expect, a mixture of punk and Country music. Nowadays there’s a huge market for Americana, and some Cowpunk music could be seen as akin to the harder edge of that, but in 70s and 80s California, Americana was yet to be a thing. Bands like Social Distortion and the Gun Club merged a punk attitude with a New Wave aesthetic and a Country (and often Blues) sound.
Some think that the Cowpunk term is somewhat misleading, since the cowboy or country influences vary wildly from band to band, but there is a definite collective vibe that draws on American heritage music.
Folk Punk
As you’d no doubt guess from the name, Folk Punk is a blend of folk music (this can be any manner of folk music, as we’ll see) and punk music, or indeed folk played with a punk sensibility, and with a DIY spirit.
The sound is wide ranging: the folk influence is the wild card here, because the Celtic style acoustic folk tradition, for example, is nothing like Greek Rembetiko music, or Eastern European mountain music. Fuse any of these genres with the speed, energy and aesthetic of punk and you have three pretty different sounding bands! They all fall under the umbrella of folk punk, though.
Scene originators are no doubt The Pogues, but you can find examples as far ranging as The Levellers, the Dropkick Murphys, 16 Horsepower and Gogol Bordello. Some of these bands rub shoulders stylistically with some of the Street Punk bands I looked at earlier.
Celtic punk is perhaps the most prominent of this sub section of punk. There’s a strong vein of tradition involved in both the arrangements and instrumentation (flutes, accordion, bagpipes etc) and an emphasis on ‘Irishness’ that is sometimes reduced to a stereotype of fighting and drinking. Whilst most Celtic Punk bands are actually American (from cities with large Irish-American populations like Chicago and Boston) but there’s also a Scottish Gaelic Punk scene that mostly swaps out the traditional instruments in favour of Scottish Gaelic language lyrics.
Generally speaking, Celtic Punk bands tend to mix up standard punk attire (biker jackets, studs, mohawks and so on) with tartan and kilts. This could be seen by some as cultural appropriation, but there’s also a political angle: the Royal Stewart tartan in particular is perceived by some as having anti-establishment value, relating to both the Jacobite rebellion and the battle of Culloden.
Christian Punk
Lots of Christian music gets immediately lumped into the ‘Worship music’ bracket, and indeed much of it is specifically that. But some Christians want to express their faith through somewhat more volatile musical means, and this is where Christian Punk comes in.
This is actually quite a contentious subgenre, which might be surprising given the context. Not every band (The Crucified, for example) wants to be associated with the title, whilst the Christian Music Industry (also known as CCM or Contemporary Christian Music) itself sometimes doesn't want such bands associated with them!
The Christian Punk scene began in the 80s, and bands could be quite uncompromising in their lyrics (check out Lust Control), and in their ideology (see Scaterd Few).
In terms of fashion, the main signifiers with Christian Punk bands is the use of Christian symbols such as the cross, the crown of thorns and the fish-like ichthys.
Ska Punk
Ska is not punk music. It’s a Jamaican take on Calypso that has been around since the 1950s. Sorry to be a pedant, but the ska music you’re thinking of is Ska Punk. Ska Punk is things like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, where you have Punk or Pop Punk music with additional brass instruments.
The genre’s early standout would surely be the Specials’ Ghosttown, even though that isn’t too indicative of the ‘punk’ element. There have been several waves of Ska Punk, and Fishbone, Less Than Jake and elements of Rancid would all fit in nicely here.
The most popular Ska Punk band is arguably No Doubt, whose Tragic Kingdom album helped popularize the style amidst the mid 90s Nu Metal era.
Punk is a State of Mind
If ‘Punk’ is anything tangible - and I’m not sure it is - then it’s a fluid energy that repurposes itself from individual to individual. It seems to be a spirit of self-determination, of not accepting the status quo of whatever section of life a person finds themselves in, and the power or agency to change that in the individual’s favour. It’s an expression of solidarity, of possibility, and of the power of the individual.
What’s punk to you? Is it reflected in any of the subgenres listed above? Or does ‘Punk’ mean something entirely different to you?
Your answer is as valid as anyone’s.
