Rockabilly

This article is about the genre of music. For wrestler formerly known as Rockabilly, see Monty Sopp.

For the 1957 popular song, see Rock-a-Billy (song).

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, and emerged in the early 1950s.

The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock (from rock 'n' roll) and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music (often called hillbilly music in the 1940s and 1950s) that contributed strongly to the style's development. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues. Although there are notable exceptions, its origins lie primarily in the southern United States.

The influence and popularity of the style waned in the 1960s, but during the late 1970s and early 1980s, rockabilly enjoyed a major revival of popularity that has endured to the present, often within a rockabilly subculture.

The Subgenres of Punk Rock

By Ryan Cooper, About.com

Anarcho Punk

The foundations of this movement can be linked to one song. The Sex Pistols first single, "Anarchy in the UK", was the first time punk and anarchy would be connected, and it would give rise to this specific subgenre.

Anarcho punk isn't entirely about anarchy, but it is heavily politically motivated. Its lyrics often convey messages about political issues, including animal rights and anti-government stances.

Crass founded the movement, preaching communalism and the DIY movement. They dismissed punk bands like the Sex Pistols as puppets of the music industry, and believed that the only way to truly get your beliefs out was to produce your own music. This lead to Crass records, the original home of anarcho punk bands such as Flux Of Pink Indians and KUKL (a band that featured a young Björk).

While Crass preached political change through pacifism, many other anarcho punk bands believe that political change should be affected "by any means necessary."

Essential Bands: Crass, Flux Of Pink Indians, Against Me!, Subhumans, Propagandhi

Celtic Punk

Celtic punk is essentially punk rock accompanied by traditional Irish instruments. As a musical movement, it was founded in the '80s by the Pogues, a band of punk musicians in London who were seeking to reclaim their Irish heritage.

Celtic punk bands often play a blend of traditional Irish folk and political songs as well as original compositions. While the plight of the Irish people throughout history is often a topic of their songs, it's not considered an overtly political movement.

Most recently, Celtic punk is seeing a rise to popularity as American bands such as Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys put their own spin on the subgenre, and give it a decidedly American flavor.

Essential Bands: A List of Essential Celtic Punk Bands

Cowpunk

Cowpunk is a strange marriage of country and punk rock. An offshoot of the psychobilly movement, cowpunk pays tribute to old country and honkytonk bands.

While it's more melodic than psychobilly music, and has a harder edge than later alt country bands, cowpunk tends to share a following with both of those other types of music as well.

Essential Bands: Jason and the Scorchers, The Old 97s, Uncle Tupelo

Emo

Early emo, or emotional hardcore, saw its birth in the '80s in the DC hardcore scene, when hardcore bands wanted the break away from the formulaic and violent constraints of straight-up hardcore. This spawned an era of exploration and experimentation, both musically and lyrically.

True early emo takes the basic structure of its hardcore predecessor and expands upon it. Its lyrics are often introspective and emotional, and the music is often more melodic, less-structured and not confined to the verse-chorus-verse structure in early hardcore sounds.

Recently, the term emo has been co-opted by mainstream, used to describe many bands that carry a combination of hardcore and indie rock sounds and dwell on emotional (and often depressing) subject matter in their lyrics. These bands are so far removed from the originators of the term that the description is not apt, although current fans of emo are often unaware of this.

Essential Bands: Embrace, Rites of Spring, Jawbreaker, Samiam

Gypsy Punk (AKA Immigrant Punk)

Essentially punk rock that reflects Eastern European roots, the idea of Gypsy Punk was essentially spawned by Gogol Bordello who, while they may not have been the first, are definitely the most well known. While the word Gypsy suggests roots in Romany, this isn't always the case, and bands under the Gypsy punk moniker often reflect Russian and Jewish musical traditions, as well as a wide variety of world music influences.

Utilizing traditional Eastern European instruments and music and mixing them with punk sensibilities, Gypsy Punk is known for its high energy, ethnic pride and sweaty, dance positive live performances.

Essential Bands: Gogol Bordello, Golem, Kultur Shock, Outer National

Hardcore

Hardcore punk's rise to popularity in the late '70s and early '80s happened in multiple cities throughout the U.S. almost simultaneously. Faster and heavier than other contemporary punk bands, hardcore songs were often very short and very frenzied.

LA's Black Flag and Washington DC's Minor Threat were the pioneers of the hardcore sound, which also ushered in the era of slamdancing at punk rock shows. While it had been around for a while at punk rock shows, the intensity of hardcore music really brought it into prominence.

Hardcore music's only unifying factor is its sound. The lyrics and messages vary from band to band. While some hardcore bands preach drug- and alcohol-free living, other bands write songs that are all about partying. There are even hardcore bands with a strong religious message.

Hardcore continues to be a subgenre of music with a strong following. While it paved the way for thrash metal, many of the early hardcore bands are still together, and new bands rise up constantly.

Essential Bands: Black Flag, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, The Germs

Pop Punk

More melodic than hardcore, pop punk is a style that owes more to the Beatles and '60s pop than other subgenres of punk. While the sound began with the Buzzcocks, it was several years before it grew into what is arguably the most popular subgenre of punk today.

Pop punk's revival can be traced to 1988, with the establishment of Lookout! Records. Based in California, the label was releasing music that went against the California hardcore punk that was predominant on the scene at the time.

With bands like Screeching Weasel and some young kids by the name of Green Day, the label was systematically producing and releasing pop punk records. Like pop music, the sound was infectious.

In 1994, Green Day's album Dookie became a huge commercial success, and other pop punk bands like the Offspring and NOFX quickly followed suit. Pop punk bands continue to consistently climb the charts, and pop punk continues to be the most commercially successful type of punk rock.

Essential Bands: Buzzcocks, Green Day, Screeching Weasel, Offspring, NOFX, The Descendents, blink-182, New Found Glory, Sum 41

Psychobilly

Psychobilly is a blend of '50s rockabilly music and punk rock. It steals its name from a lyric in Johnny Cash's "One Piece at a Time", where he sings about a "psychobilly Cadillac".

Psychobilly owes a lot to '50s culture as well. Predominant themes are the themes that were considered underground in the '50s. This includes science fiction and horror films. Bands often play upright bass and vintage organs rather than modern instruments. People in the psychobilly scene often dress in '50s fashions as well.

Essential Bands: The Cramps, Hillbilly Hellcats, The Reverend Horton Heat

Riot Grrrl

Riot grrrl was a relatively short-lived but very important punk rock movement. As a scene it encompassed not only bands and music, but printed zines and punk culture as well.

A politically-motivated movement, riot grrrl had an agenda that covered feminism as whole, focusing on gender equality in the punk scene. The lyrics of the bands also addressed other charged issues, including domestic violence and rape.

The stronghold of riot grrrl culture was in Washington, where all-female bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile were demanding to be noticed. Huggy Bear brought the scene to the UK.

While it has essentially died out, riot grrrl's messages live on. Today, the punk scene is less male-dominated and more aware of women's issues.

Essential Bands: Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, Huggy Bear

Ska Punk

Many of the London neighborhoods where punk became popular with were heavily integrated with a large Jamaican population. This lead to the creation of ska punk. Ska punk blends the rhythms of Jamaican ska with the heavier beats of punk. It's similar to traditional ska, but faster and heavier. Horn sections are common in ska bands as well.

Many early punk bands, most notably the Clash, experimented with ska and reggae beats at some point in their careers. They didn't make it the foundation of their sound like many American ska punk bands would in the late '80s and early '90s, when the scene really began to grow.

Essential Bands: Operation Ivy, Citizen Fish, Less Than Jake, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Street Punk

Also known as Oi, the street punk movement started in the late '70s. Directed toward the working class and inner-city residents, it was intended as a direct reaction to the first wave of punk bands. The first street punks felt that those bands and their fans were pampered members of the upper middle class and that their music didn't speak to the blue-collar punk.

Street punk is like the Gangsta Rap of punk music. Its sound is often harsh; early street punk lyrics dealt with poverty and police brutality. Another predominant theme in street punk music is promoting unity among the working class. Today, partying and social issues are just as likely to enter into the picture.

A large portion of the working class punk scene was and is composed of skinheads. At the same time the street punk scene was starting, racist organizations such as the National Front were also recruiting skinheads. This gave rise to misconception that street punk was overly racist. In fact, most street punk bands have reacted by crying out against racism.

Essential Bands: Cock Sparrer, Exploited, Swingin' Utters, The Cockney Rejects

A history of punk rock

A Brief History of Punk

By Ryan Cooper, About.com

The Foundations of Punk Rock

The beginnings of punk rock are often furiously debated. This is partially because everyone has different definition of punk rock, and partially because its foundation stones are found in several places.

"Punk Rock" was originally used to describe the garage musicians of the '60's. Bands like the Sonics were starting up and playing out with no musical or vocal instruction, and often limited skill. Because they didn't know the rules of music, they were able to break the rules.

The mid to late '60s saw the appearance of the Stooges and the MC5 in Detroit. They were raw, crude and often political. Their concerts were often violent affairs, and they were opening the eyes of the music world.

The Velvet Underground is the next piece in the puzzle. The Velvet Underground, managed by Andy Warhol, were producing music that often bordered on noise. They were expanding the definitions of music without even realizing it.

The final primary influence is found in the foundations of Glam Rock. Artists like David Bowie and the New York Dolls were dressing outrageously, living extravagantly and producing loud trashy rock and roll. Glam would end up splitting up its influence, doling out portions to hard rock, "hair metal" and punk rock.

New York: The First Punk Rock Scene

The first concrete punk rock scene appeared in the mid '70s in New York. Bands like The Ramones, Wayne County, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, Blondie and the Talking Heads were playing regularly in the Bowery District, most notably at CBGB.

The bands were unified by their location, camaraderie, and shared musical influences. They would all go on to develop their own styles and many would shift away from punk rock.

While the New York scene was reaching its heyday, punk was undergoing a separate creation story in London.

Meanwhile, Across the Pond

England's punk scene had political and economic roots. The economy in the United Kingdom was in poor shape, and unemployment rates were at an all-time high. England's youth were angry, rebellious and out of work. They had strong opinions and a lot of free time.

This is where the beginnings of punk fashion as we know it emerged, and they centered out of one shop. The shop was simply called SEX, and it was owned by Malcolm McClaren.

Malcolm McClaren had recently returned to London from the U.S., where he had unsuccessfully tried to reinvent the New York Dolls to sell his clothing. He was determined to do it again, but this time looked to the youths who worked and hung out in his shop to be his next project. This project would become the Sex Pistols, and they would develop a large following very quickly.

Enter The Bromley Contingent

Among the fans of the Sex Pistols was an outrageous bunch of young punks known as the Bromley Contingent. Named after the neighborhood they all came from, they were at the first Sex Pistols shows, and quickly realized they could do it themselves.

Within a year, the Bromleys had formed a large portion of the London Punk scene, including The Clash, The Slits, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Generation X (fronted by a young Billy Idol) and X-Ray Spex. The British punk scene was now in full swing.

The Punk Rock Explosion

By the late '70s, punk had finished its beginning and had emerged as a solid musical force. With its rise in popularity, punk began to split into numerous sub-genres. New musicians embraced the DIY movement and began to create their own individual scenes with specific sounds.

In order to better see the evolution of punk, check out all of the subgenres that punk split off into. It's a list that's constantly evolving, and it's only a matter of time before more categories appear.

Know Your Punk Drums Better By: Victor Epand

Drums are one of the most popular of musical instruments. Drummers all over the world have been making the effort to create a drum set that would truly suit the appetite of music lovers all over the world. One of the primary characteristics of a drum is that it can produce indefinite low and high-pitched sounds constantly.

Punk rock was based on anti-establishment rock music genre in the mid 70s, had the punk drums in their arsenal. The punk drummers made a name for them with playing with the shorter version of the rock. The right punk drum kit gear depends on features like playing style, personal penchant, monetary funds, and moving options of the drummer. The hardware part was constituted by the cymbals and tom-tom stands and was considered an integrated part of the base drum kit. Drums and cymbals are considered the breakable part of the collection as it goes through rigorous wear and tear.

One or two electric guitars, an electric bass, a drum kit, the vocals constitute the distinctive punk rock instrumentation. During the mid 1970s people who did not have too much ability in music tried to express themselves through the new form of rock music. The anti institutional based drumming was quick to catch the attention of the public.

Punk drummers like to change their tuning with particular music intervals. This makes the distance between the tuned notes of one drum with the other consistent. As it is not based on any chromatic notes so the punk drummers can have any start point with the punk drums. Although there are many tuning opinions, the bulk of them revolve around the major chords. In addition, the time factor for the whole music length was shorter than the regular rock so the start with the punk drums was fast.

A drum key or a similar kind of device is used to tune the drum set. The tension of a drumhead is changed to tune it. The difference in tuning between same elements of a drum kit and other percussion element is quite significant. Punk drums are no different.

The punk drummer needs to have a detailed knowledge on the drum kit. The collection, which would increase with time, needs to be setup properly so that it does not get broken down in time of performance. Elements like hoops, lugs, and tension rods do have a key role to play in sounding the drum music audible and sweet to the ear. Lugs are metallic pieces that are attached to the side of the drum.

Alternating with the hi-hat cymbals will help you keep the speed but make sure you are not changing the beats. You can create interesting fills with fast music. Listening to good drummers will help you in building your own creative ways. One of the chief ingredients of the punk music is energy, so beating the punk drums with vigor would help in being attuned with the speed of the music.

Know Your Punk Drums Better By: Victor Epand