Proto-Punk
Located in 3 routes
Proto-Punk is the late-1960s and early-1970s rock that anticipated punk before the label existed. It is raw, repetitive, confrontational and anti-slick: distorted guitar vamps, street-level lyrics, shouted vocals, minimalist structures and an impatience with psychedelic or progressive excess. The sound can be art-damaged, glammy, garagey or hard-rocking, but it always points toward punk's later compression of noise, attitude and speed.
History
The category was named after the fact, grouping artists who were not part of one unified scene but shared a future-facing aggression. The Velvet Underground brought repetition and taboo subject matter; MC5 and The Stooges brought Detroit volume and chaos; New York Dolls added glam sleaze; The Modern Lovers stripped the language down to anxious urban minimalism; Death proved that Black Detroit musicians were making blistering punk-shaped rock before punk's official explosion. Punk scenes in New York, London and beyond later canonized these records as origin points.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Please Kill Me oral history
- AllMusic proto-punk overview
- Detroit punk histories
- Light in the Attic Death reissue notes