Nobody “invented” punk rock in the way one person invented the lightbulb; it grew out of several bands, scenes, and earlier “proto‑punk” influences in the mid‑1970s.

Quick Scoop: So who gets credit?

Most music historians talk about three main strands rather than a single inventor:

  1. Proto‑punk foundations (1960s–early 70s)
    • Garage rock bands and raw, noisy acts like The Stooges and MC5 in the U.S. pushed a stripped‑down, aggressive sound that became a blueprint for punk.
 * Iggy Pop and The Stooges are often cited as crucial precursors; Iggy is frequently called “the Godfather of Punk” because of his confrontational attitude and minimal, brutal songs.
  1. New York City scene (mid‑1970s)
    • The genre most recognizably called “punk rock” coalesced around the CBGB club with bands like the Ramones, Television, Patti Smith Group, and Talking Heads.
 * The Ramones, with their ultra‑short, fast, simple songs, are the band most people mean when they say someone “invented” punk rock, because their 1974–76 sound defined what later got copied worldwide.
  1. UK explosion (later 1970s)
    • The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Damned took that New York influence, amped up the aggression and politics, and turned punk into a national (then global) youth movement in Britain.
 * Many writers say New York “created” punk while the UK made it a mass cultural force.

Names you’ll often hear

When people argue about “who invented punk rock,” these names come up a lot:

  • The Stooges (Iggy Pop) – Proto‑punk pioneers; their albums laid a sonic and attitude template for later punk.
  • MC5 – Detroit band whose loud, radical rock is a major proto‑punk reference point.
  • The New York Dolls – New York glam/punk bridge; their wild, sloppy shows and style influenced the later CBGB scene.
  • Ramones – Most commonly credited as the band that crystallized punk rock as a distinct genre with fast, minimal, high‑energy songs.
  • Sex Pistols & The Clash – Not inventors, but crucial in turning punk into a global, politically charged phenomenon.

Why there’s no single inventor

  • Punk is rooted in earlier garage rock and “underground” scenes, so it’s more of an evolution than a single breakthrough.
  • Different scenes (New York, London, Los Angeles, Brisbane) developed roughly in parallel between 1974 and 1976, each adding pieces to what we now call punk.
  • Even fans and musicians disagree: some give the crown to the Ramones, others to The Stooges, others say the whole concept of a lone “inventor” doesn’t really fit a DIY, collective movement.

Mini takeaway

If you need a quick line for “who invented punk rock,” a fair, concise answer is:

Punk rock wasn’t invented by one person; it emerged in the mid‑1970s from proto‑punk bands like The Stooges and MC5, then was defined by the Ramones in New York and exploded via UK bands like the Sex Pistols and The Clash.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.