10 Perfect Punk Albums That Changed Rock Music History

Punk is the filthy younger cousin of rock. When rock wasn't sticking it to the man with enough vigour, punk came along to rile things up. It was a countercultural movement unlike any other. If the stuffy conservative- types of the '60s had been concerned by peace loving hippies, then they must have thought the end-times had come, when the likes of Johnny Rotten came spitting sacrilegious insults at them.

Although punk's heyday was considered to be during the mid '70s, its origins extend back years before. All through the '60s you had groups going against the grain, trying to find an alternative sound to the reining popular rock of the era. And, even when the OG punk groups burned out, the genre managed to survive in the basements of dive bars, mutating rather than evolving.

We've had punk as a political movement, punk as a form of free expression; and even punk as form of commercial entertainment. Each time the genre rears its mohawked head, it has a marked impact on the musical trends around it. These are the punk albums that changed the game.

1976 was the year punk rock officially arrived. The Ramones dropped their debut, and pretty soon British groups like the Damned and the Clash followed suit. But Punk didn't happen in a vacuum. Since the late '60s rock groups were doing their upmost to kick against the pr*cks.

The war in Vietnam was raging, and the hippie movement was going strong; counterculture was the driving force of the youth; and in rock, the dominate fad was prolonged guitar solos and shrieking frontmen. But the self-indulgent nature of groups like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, didn't land with everyone.

Detroit group MC5 was kicking out gritty, fast-paced rock, pumped full of attitude, energy and feedback. In true punk fashion, they broke onto the scene hard and fast; just three years after the release of the debut album, they disintegrated into drug-addled bedlam.

This was punk before punk had a name. Songs were punchy, easy to remember, and lit an antiestablishment fire under your arse. You want to know how punk came to be? This album birthed it.