Buzzcocks in the context of "Magazine (band)"

Punk rock (or simply punk) is a subgenre of rock music that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the overproduction and corporate nature of mainstream rock music. Typically producing short, fast-paced songs with rough stripped-down vocals and instrumentation and an anti-establishment theme, artists embrace a DIY ethic with many bands self-producing and distributing recordings through independent labels.

During the early 1970s, the term "punk rock" was originally used by some American rock critics to describe mid-1960s garage bands. Subsequent developments such as glam and pub rock in the UK, alongside the Velvet Underground and the New York Dolls from New York have been cited as key influences. By the mid-1970s, the term "punk rock" had become associated with several regional underground music scenes, including the MC5 and the Stooges in Detroit; Television, Patti Smith, Suicide, the Dictators, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and the Ramones in New York City; Rocket from the Tombs, Electric Eels and Dead Boys in Ohio; the Saints and Radio Birdman in Australia; and the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Damned and the Buzzcocks in England. By late 1976, punk had become a major cultural phenomenon in the UK, giving rise to a punk subculture that expressed youthful rebellion through distinctive styles of clothing, such as T-shirts with deliberately offensive graphics, leather jackets, studded or spiked bands, jewelry, bondage clothing and safety pins.

The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became culturally influential in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Kingdom, with their clothes and hairstyles becoming a significant influence on the punk subculture and fashion. On 4 June and 20 July 1976, their performances at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall inspired future members of bands such as Joy Division, New Order, the Smiths, the Fall, Simply Red, Magazine and Buzzcocks to pursue music, as well as Martin Hannett, Tony Wilson and Alan McGee, the founders of Factory and Creation Records, who later contributed to the development of England's independent music scene, and several post-punk, indie, and alternative rock artists.

The Sex Pistols' first line-up consisted of vocalist Johnny Rotten (byname of John Lydon), guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook, and bassist Glen Matlock, with Matlock replaced by Sid Vicious in early 1977. Under the management of Malcolm McLaren, the band gained widespread attention from British press after swearing live on-air during a December 1976 television interview. Their May 1977 single "God Save the Queen", which described the monarchy as a "fascist regime", was released to coincide with national celebrations for the Queen's Silver Jubilee. The song was promptly banned from being played by the BBC and by nearly every independent radio station in Britain, making it the most censored record in British history.

Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent record labels, by the 1990s it became more widely associated with the music such bands produced.

The sound of indie rock has its origins in the UK DIY music of the Buzzcocks, Desperate Bicycles and Television Personalities and the New Zealand Dunedin sound of the Chills, Tall Dwarfs, the Clean and the Verlaines, alongside Australia's the Go-Betweens and early 1980s college rock radio stations who would frequently play jangle pop bands like the Smiths and R.E.M. The genre solidified itself during the mid–1980s with NME's C86 cassette in the United Kingdom and the underground success of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. and Unrest in the United States. During the 1990s, indie rock bands like Sonic Youth, the Pixies and Radiohead all released albums on major labels and subgenres like slowcore, Midwest emo, slacker rock and space rock began. By this time, "indie" had evolved to refer to bands whose music was released on independent record labels, in addition to the record labels themselves. As the decade progressed many individual local scenes developed their own distinct takes on the genre: baggy in Manchester; grebo in Stourbridge and Leicester; and shoegaze in London and the Thames Valley.

Pop-punk (also punk pop, alternatively spelled without the hyphen) is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock and pop. It is defined by its fast-paced, energetic tempos, and emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti-suburbia themes. It is distinguished from other punk-variant genres by drawing more heavily from 1960s bands such as the Beatles, the Kinks, and the Beach Boys. The genre has evolved throughout its history, absorbing elements from new wave, college rock, ska, hip hop, emo, boy band pop and even hardcore punk and metalcore. It is sometimes considered interchangeable with power pop and skate punk.

The genre's roots are found during the late 1970s with groups such as the Ramones, the Undertones, and Buzzcocks setting its initial groundwork. 1980s punk bands like Bad Religion, Descendents and the Misfits, while not necessarily pop-punk in and of themselves, were influential to pop-punk, and it expanded in the late 1980s and early 1990s by a host of bands signed to Lookout! Records, including Screeching Weasel, the Queers, and the Mr. T Experience, becoming a foundational stage. In the mid-1990s, the genre saw a widespread popularity increase and entered the mainstream with bands like Green Day and the Offspring. The genre experienced a second wave that cemented the late 1990s and early 2000s led by Blink-182, and in their wake followed contemporary acts such as Sum 41, New Found Glory, Good Charlotte, and Avril Lavigne, while the Warped Tour played a crucial role in launching up-and-coming pop-punk artists.