Proto-punk, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Rock 1954
The whole family: guitar, bass, drums and a beat borrowed from blues and rhythm and blues. Every branch below grows out of this trunk, metal included.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
The Beatles - Revolver, if you want to understand why everything branched so fast.
The Beatles, Revolver (1966) - 2 Then
Rock and roll 1954
Ground zero: twelve-bar blues sped up, piano hammered hard, lyrics about cars and girls. It made the electric guitar the defining instrument of the century.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode. That opening riff is the DNA of the entire tree.
Chuck Berry, Chuck (2017) - 3 Then
Garage rock 1963
High-school bands, a Farfisa organ and one good idea recorded badly. Attitude beats technique here, and punk descends from it directly.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
The Sonics - Psycho. Gerry Roslie's voice is a decade ahead of punk.
The pick names a track. This is the record the encyclopedia holds by them.
The Sonics, Here Are The Sonics!!! (1965) - 4 What you asked about
Proto-punk 1967
Garage rock turned hostile and repetitive, with noise and nihilism. Nobody called it punk yet, but everyone at CBGB copied from it.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
The Stooges - Fun House. The sound of a band self-destructing in real time.
The Stooges, The Stooges (1969) - 5 Where to go next
Youth crew / straight edge 1986
Hardcore with a code: no alcohol, no drugs, gang vocals and breakdowns. The ethics of the scene became the subject of the songs.
Shouted. Barked or chanted, and you can still make out the words.
Put on
Gorilla Biscuits - Start Today. Optimistic hardcore, which is rarer than it sounds.
Gorilla Biscuits, Start Today (1989)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Proto-punk descends from, in order. Proto-punk has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.