PUNK ’77: The Year And Music That Revolutionized Rock

PUNK ’77 represents a month-by-month history of the twelve chaotic months that transformed punk from underground movement to global phenomenon.

The history of punk is full of arguments. Who invented it? Which band mattered most? Which scene came first? Ask ten fans and you’ll get ten different answers. But there is far less debate about one thing: 1977 was the year punk exploded.

In PUNK ’77: The Year and Music That Revolutionized Rock, Martin Popoff revisits the twelve chaotic months when punk rock burst from clubs, fanzines, and underground scenes into the mainstream. Moving through the year month by month, the book traces the records, personalities, controversies, and cultural flashpoints that transformed punk from a provocation into a global force.

Rather than retelling the familiar argument over punk’s origins, PUNK ’77 focuses on the year everything accelerated. From the interconnected scenes of London and New York to emerging hotspots across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, the book follows punk’s rapid expansion as new bands, new sounds, and new ideas reshaped rock music.

Drawing on interview material with key figures from the era, including members of the Damned, the Dictators, the Dead Boys, the Sex Pistols, Generation X, the Buzzcocks, the Patti Smith Group, Talking Heads, and more, Popoff builds a chronological portrait of a movement in motion.

The book also highlights 25 landmark releases from 1977, including records by the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Ramones, the Damned, Television, Wire, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, the Saints, Radio Birdman, and others. Together, these albums and singles provide the soundtrack to one of the most consequential years in rock history.

By focusing on a single pivotal year rather than the genre’s full history, PUNK ’77 offers a fresh perspective on the moment punk stopped being a local scene and became a worldwide phenomenon.