Proto-Punk
Proto-punk is a name given in hindsight to the raw, rebellious rock of the 1960s and early 1970s that paved the way for punk.
It is not one style. The term covers garage rock bands, noisy art rock groups and stripped-down hard rock acts, mostly from the United States and Britain. What they share is simple, loud, aggressive playing and a rejection of the polish of mainstream rock. Punk bands of the mid-1970s named many of them as influences.
Artists it is known for: The Stooges, The Velvet Underground, MC5, New York Dolls.
- Family
- Punk & Emo
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United States and United Kingdom, 1960s to early 1970s
- Also called
- protopunk
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 2%
About 2,000 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have proto-punk among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Proto-Punk artists
The Velvet Underground
The Kinks
Ramones
Dead Kennedys
Sex Pistols
The Stranglers
The Cramps
Alice Cooper
T. Rex
Lou Reed
The proto-punk artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.