In the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were multiple overlapping movements: Civil Rights, anti-Vietnam War, and Women’s Liberation. New Yorkers began to leave the dirty crime riddled city, taking their wealth with them. The absence of money coming in strongly affected the Lower East Side. The high rate of condemned buildings on blocks like 97 Orchard Street, caused an increase of crime and substance abuse. As buildings decayed and rent prices plummeted artists migrated to the neighborhood. 

These conditions led to New York City’s “proto-punk bands” that contributed to the rising style like The Stooges, MC5, New York Dolls, Alice Cooper and The Velvet Underground.

This music was more aggressive than other styles of rock and the lyrics often had anti-authoritarian themes. They had anon-structured approach to music. Relying on the basic three chords and simple melodies common in the early 1950s and the fast tempo of the 1960s rock ‘n’ roll.

Musical Influences

Holy Modal Rounders

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In the 1960’s, a Lower East Side band called the Holy Modal Rounders combined themes of anarchy, eccentricity, and drug references with traditional folk music. Together these elements created “Freak Folk,” a proto-punk genre.

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The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in 1964 in New York City. The members were lead singer Lou Reed, guitarist Sterling Morrison, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, and drummer Angus MacLise, who was replaced by Maureen Tucker. They gained recognition when they were managed by Andy Warhol, a pop artist.

Their inspiration was the beat writers from the 1950s, the rock rhythm and blues of Carl Perkins, and John Cage. Their music influenced Punk, New Wave, and many other alternative and experimental bands. The Velvet Underground’s music remains on the edge of mainstream culture, being a key player in the evolution of alternative music. Despite their artistic success and influence, they never achieved commercial success and only remained together as a group until 1970.

New York Dolls

The New York Dolls were a glam rock band whose raw vocals transformed the New York City underground music scene in the 1970s.  The band formed in 1971 and first became known for their performances at the Mercer Arts Center and Max’s Kansas City in Lower Manhattan. They’d perform in what was seen as outlandish clothing and women’s makeup. Their music was on an unpolished style that drew inspiration from the British Invasion, rhythm and blues. Combined with the guitar distortion and blasting backbeat of proto-punk bands. While they had a lasting effect on the rock genre, they struggled to find commercial success. It was only six years after their debut in 1977. 


”And they would always say, you know, they were trashy, they were flashy, they were drug addicts, they were drag queens, you know? And that whole kind of trashy blah, blah, blah thing. I think, over the years kind of settled in my mind as, oh yeah, that’s what it was, you know? And then by going back to it and deconstructing it and then putting it back together again, I realized that, you know, it really is art and that some critic at one time had come up with this catch-all phrase that, as you know, once somebody says it, then everybody just looks it up and they say it because nobody does…“-: David Johansen (New York Dolls’ vocalist during an interview)

Alice Cooper

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Alice Cooper (birth name, Vincent Funier) was born in Detroit to a religious family. In high school, he performed in a talent show in a mime group that would mimic the Beatles. It was through this experience he realized his love for performing and decided to form a band. He is known for pioneering a theatrical type of hard rock that was designed to shock the audience. His inspirations were horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock. 

His group’s stage shows would display electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood and boa constrictors. His career has lasted over four decades with many styles including garage rock, glam rock, hard rock, pop rock, disco, experimental rock, and industrial rock.  
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MC5

MC5 or Motor City Five is a rock group that is one of the controversial and influential bands of the late 1960s. It was formed in suburban Detroit in 1965 as a bar band. Originally playing mostly cover songs, they developed a chaotic, explosive sound that took from avant-garde jazz, rock, and rhythm and blues. The music had strong themes of left-wing radical politics. Which was in part because of the band’s manager, John Sinclair. He was the founder of a political group modeled after the Black Panthers, the White Panther Party.

The Stooges

The Term Punk

The word Punk begani to take on a musical connotation during the early 1970s when compilation albums for garage rock by groups such as the Seeds, the 13th Floor Elevators, and the Mysterians. Other American groups  started to use the term hard rock to reflect and define the emotions of alienated teens.  By 1975 punk was known as the minimalist, literary rock scene based around CBGB. Which was the club where the Patti Smith Group and Television performed.

“After the pastoral concerns of the hippies, punk was a celebration of urbanism, a reclaiming of the inner city. The term spread to Britain, where the Sex Pistols were packaged by Malcolm McLaren to promote his London store, Sex, which sold fetishistic clothing daubed with slogans from the farthest reaches of 1960s radical politics—e.g., the Paris-based Situationist International:” SOURCE

Rock Festivals

The tradition of Rock festivals can be traced back to the San Francisco scene. Starting with a 1965 benefit show held at the Ark, a club in Sausalito. This contrasted previous performances,  during the mid-1960s almost all rock performers were self-contained acts.

The 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, was the first major rock festival. Unfortunately, it was a logistical and commercial failure that deterred promoters from similar events until the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969. Like Woodstock, many of the following festivals failed to meet commercial expectations, preventing the creation of annual events like the jazz festivals had become.  During The Rolling Stones’ show at Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California several people were beaten and one man stabbed to death. Which only further harmed the reputation of Rock festivals.

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