In the mid-to-late 1970s a radical youth culture called punk emerged out of the larger rock 'n' roll scene, and developed its own music, attire, and ideology. The Sex Pistols are the best known of the punk bands; their music, like all punk rock, was aggressive, fast, and loud. Punk attire is characterized by dark clothes, outlandish costumes and ornamentation such as colored hair and earrings and bracelets made from assembled items (the quintessential punk earring was a safety pin). Punk ideology is explicitly at odds with mainstream society and rails against contemporary civilization, which is seen as sterile and banal. Punk is heavily critical of existing political, economic, and cultural institutions, yet is ambivalent about creating alternatives.

The earliest forms of punk rock developed in the United States. The Velvet Underground's minimalist music and commentaries about life outside mainstream society inspired a number of bands, but the...