What is a punk

[Perota]

I never really understood why The Ramones and Patty Smith were labelled "punks". The punks were a british movement. The Sex Pistols were punks, what The Ramones or Patty Smith have to do with that ?

Maybe some more knowledgeable people could be so kind to explain ?

[good2bhappy]

a washed up 40 year old with a stupid hair-do

[Perota]

[Necron99]

It's all in the music.
They played punk rock.

[Perota]

[VocalNeal]

A guy walks up to me and asks 'What's Punk?'.
So I kick over a garbage can and say 'That's punk!'.
So he kicks over another garbage can and says 'That's Punk?', and I say 'No that's trendy!

[billy the kid]

Thought The Ramones were the original punks.

[kingwilly]

Agree, Ramones kicked it all off

[kmart]

The Ramones in the US; The Sex Pistols in the UK, and The Saints in Aus all formed and in mid-70's and were all pretty fully-formed but unaware of each other until the Ramones toured the UK in '76. Bang!
The Ramones always stated that the negative media portrayals and publicity stunts from UK punk rock hurt their image and record sales in the US. Prior to this though, they had been playing to 3 blokes and a dog in low-rent New York venues like CBGB's and Max's Kansas City. Along with other then-obscure bands like Patti Smith, Television, Blondie, Talking Heads, etc.
I thought early punk in the UK (1976-77) was very inventive and divergent, with soon-to-be influential bands like The Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees, X-Ray Spex, Buzzcocks, etc getting radio airplay and record sales. After the initial burst of punk's momentum had died down, bands like Magazine, PIL, Banshees, Killing Joke et al would carry the banner well into the 80' and 90's.
What a great time it was to be young and into music around this era.