Music is a part of life that can serve so many purposes. Some music can be intelligent and philosophical, making you think deeply about life and why we are here. Other types of music can simply make you happy, and it makes you dance around without a care in the world. No matter what type of music you encounter, it has the power to inspire you and make life that much better. Music is an amazing aspect of life, and one genre of music that connects with me deeply is punk rock.
One reason that I love punk so much is for its simplicity. Punk is mostly based on basic guitar parts that play the same three chords over and over, while having simple melodies and straightforward compositions. Punk does not emphasize technicality, but its lack of difficulty actually enhanced the music for me. Bands such as the Ramones, Bad Brains and Black Flag had a strange magic to their music through that simplicity, by finding a way to be unique and energetic. Punk bands used simplicity to make music that was extremely enjoyable and easy to listen to, and I learned that I did not have to be a great musician to make great music. I learned how doing away with complexity could lead to incredibly engaging music as well.
Additionally, I loved the rawness and speed of punk. Punk is generally a loud and messy genre, and its unrelenting speed makes you feel as through you're driving at 300 miles per hour. The usage of power chords in punk made me feel a virtual head rush as I listened to it, and the rapid speed ensures that you'll have a great time listening to it. Punk has this way of sounding so dirty, but honest at the same time, as the lack of production values enhances the subjects that punk bands talk about. I truly felt the emotions that the bands were talking about, and the unpolished sounds add so much to the music itself. Punk bands have this way of connecting with you, even with extremely fast tempos and rough songs.
Finally, punk has proven itself to be extremely diverse. Even though punk took off in the 1970s with bands such as The Clash and the Ramones, it had its beginnings in the 1960s with proto-punk acts such as The Stooges, MC5 and The Velvet Underground. The late 1970s saw punk branching off into post-punk, which took the spirit of punk into more experimental territory. The 1980s saw the development of an extremely fast brand known as hardcore punk, as well as a more progressive version of hardcore punk known as post-hardcore. Punk also spilled over to new wave, as well. The diversity of punk proved that it was capable of doing so much more than three chords, and it exemplified how people could take the ideas of punk into extremely interesting places.
Punk rock is an incredibly awesome genre, as a whole. The lack of technicality proved how great music could be made without needing complex compositions. Punk is played at breakneck tempos, with so much power and feeling behind the music and low production values. Punk is also an incredibly varied genre, due to having so many offshoots that expanded the possibilities of the genre. Overall, punk is an excellent genre of music that means so much to me, and it will never stop entertaining me.
