10 Greatest Rock Anthems Of All Time
4. Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
Much like the heavy metal that came before it, the punk movement felt like a visceral reaction to the more manufactured side of rock and roll. Whereas acts like Emerson Lake and Palmer and Yes were pumping out songs that could have worked just as well with an orchestra than a rock band, the genre felt a long ways away from the sweaty clubs that it was born in. Once Blitzkrieg Bop hit the airwaves, a change was on the rise coming from the underground.
Announcing the punk spirit like a rallying cry, the Ramones had made the ultimate statement for what the genre would entail on this song: a handful of chords, really fast tempos, get in, get out, take no prisoners. For all of the punk spirit that goes into a song like this, many people forget that this amounts to what is actually a pop song. Yes, really.
Aside from the lines about getting shot in the back, most of the melody is just a bubblegum pop song, only pumped up on steroids with mountains of attitude and a ton of fuzz coming from the amplifier. Even though this might not have been the prettiest noise to have ever come from the rock genre, the aesthetic and conviction behind it is about as rock and roll as you can get.