10 Bands That Mixed Different Music Genres

Ever since punk has been a thing, there have always been fans debating on what constitutes true punk or not. For all of the great bands that have come and gone in the genre, the majority rule is about how authentic you can be to the punk lifestyle, with the actual music almost being an afterthought half of the time. If you look at one of the bands that helped build punk though, the Clash were never snobs about bringing in different genres to their music.

Coming out of the same wave of punk that spawned bands like the Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer was always looking to write songs that would combat injustice, and sometimes that meant something more than just an angry young man with a guitar. On their first album, you can already start to here them dabbling in styles like reggae on Police and Thieves, before blowing the lid off everything with London Calling, which pulled from old time rock and roll, punk ideals, reggae, and even pop styles on Train in Vain.

As they went through the rest of the '80s, you can hear them getting more eclectic on every record, embracing dub music on Sandinista before going full on electronic on songs like Straight to Hell off of Combat Rock. Punk may be a genre of music, but it's also about taking on those in power, and sometimes that means stretching things out passed traditional rock and roll.