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Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is characterized by basic chord structures played on electric guitars and other instruments, sometimes distorted through a fuzzbox, as well as often unsophisticated and occasionally aggressive lyrics and delivery. Its name derives from the perception that groups were often made up of young amateurs who rehearsed in the family garage, although many were professional.
In the US and Canada, surf rock—and later the Beatles and other beat music groups of the British Invasion—motivated thousands of young people to form bands between 1963 and 1968. Hundreds of grass-roots acts produced regional hits, some of which gained national popularity, usually played on AM radio stations. With the advent of psychedelia, numerous garage bands incorporated exotic elements into the genre's primitive stylistic framework. After 1968, as more sophisticated forms of rock music came to dominate the marketplace, garage rock records largely disappeared from national and regional charts, and the movement faded. Other countries in the 1960s experienced similar rock movements that have sometimes been characterized as variants of garage rock.
During the 1960s, garage rock was not recognized as a distinct genre and had no specific name, but critical hindsight in the early 1970s—and especially the 1972 compilation album —did much to define and memorialize the style. Between 1971 and 1973, certain American began to retroactively identify the music as a genre and for several years used the term "punk rock" to describe it, making it the first form of music to bear the description, predating the more familiar use of the term appropriated by the later punk rock movement that its musical approach influenced. The term "garage rock" gained favor amongst commentators and devotees during the 1980s. The style has also been referred to as "proto-punk", or, in certain instances, "frat rock".
In the early to mid-1980s, several revival scenes emerged featuring acts that consciously attempted to replicate the look and sound of 1960s garage bands. Later in the decade, a louder, more contemporary garage subgenre developed that combined garage rock with modern punk rock and other influences, sometimes using the garage punk label originally and otherwise associated with 1960s garage bands. In the 2000s, a wave of garage-influenced acts associated with the post-punk revival emerged, and some achieved commercial success. Garage rock continues to appeal to musicians and audiences who prefer a "back to basics" or the "DIY (Do-It-Yourself)" musical approach.
Referring to the 1960s, Mike Markesich commented "teenage rock & roll groups (i.e. combos) proliferated Everywheresville USA". Though it is impossible to determine how many garage bands were active in the era, their numbers were extensive in what Markesich has characterized as a "cyclonic whirlwind of musical activity like none other". According to Mark Nobles, it is estimated that between 1964 and 1968 over 180,000 bands formed in the United States, and several thousand US garage acts made records during the era.
Garage bands performed in a variety of venues. Local and regional groups typically played at parties, school dances, and teen clubs. For acts of legal age (and in some cases younger), bars, nightclubs, and college fraternity socials also provided regular engagements. Occasionally, groups had the opportunity to Opening act for famous touring acts. Some garage rock bands went on tour, particularly those better-known, but even more obscure groups sometimes received bookings or airplay beyond their immediate locales. Groups often competed in "battles of the bands", which allowed musicians to gain exposure and a chance to win a prize, such as free equipment or recording time in a local studio. Contests were held, locally, regionally and nationally, and three of the most prestigious national events were held annually by the Tea Council of the US, the Music Circus, and the United States Junior Chamber.
Performances often sounded amateurish, naïve, or intentionally raw, with typical themes revolving around the traumas of high school life and songs about "lying girls" being particularly common. The lyrics and delivery were frequently more aggressive than that of the more established acts of the time, often with nasal, growled, or shouted vocals, sometimes punctuated by shrieks or screams at climactic moments of release. Instrumentation was frequently characterized by basic chord structures played on electric guitars or keyboards often distorted through a , teamed with bass and drums. Guitarists sometimes played using aggressive-sounding Barre chord or power chords. Portable organs such as the Farfisa were used frequently and harmonicas and hand-held percussion such as tambourines were not uncommon. Occasionally, the tempo was sped up in passages sometimes referred to as "raveups".
Garage rock acts were diverse in both musical ability and style, ranging from crude and amateurish to near-studio level musicianship. There were also regional variations in flourishing scenes, such as in California and Texas. The north-western states of Idaho, Washington and Oregon had a distinctly recognizable regional sound with bands such as the Sonics and Paul Revere & the Raiders.
"Garage rock" was not the initial name applied to the style. In the early 1970s such critics used the term "punk rock" to characterize it, making it the first musical form to bear the description. While the coinage of the term "punk" in relation to rock music is unknown, it was sometimes used then to describe primitive or rudimentary rock musicianship, but more specifically 1960s garage as a style. In the May 1971 issue of Creem, Dave Marsh described a performance by ? and the Mysterians as an "exposition of punk rock". Conjuring up the mid-1960s, Lester Bangs in June 1971 wrote "...then punk bands started cropping up who were writing their own songs but taking the Yardbirds' sound and reducing it to this kind of goony fuzztone clatter ... oh, it was beautiful, it was pure folklore, Old America, and sometimes I think those were the best days ever".
Much of the revival of interest in 1960s garage rock can be traced to the release of the 1972 album compiled by Lenny Kaye. In the liner notes, Kaye used "punk rock" as a collective term for 1960s garage bands and also "garage-punk" to describe a song recorded in 1966 by the Shadows of Knight. In the January 1973 Rolling Stone review of Nuggets, Greg Shaw commented: "Punk rock is a fascinating genre ... Punk rock at its best is the closest we came in the 1960s to the original rockabilly spirit of rock & roll." In addition to Rolling Stone and Creem, writings about the genre appeared in various independent "fanzine" publications during the period. In May 1973, Billy Altman launched the short-lived punk magazine, which pre-dated the more familiar 1975 publication of the same name, but, unlike the later magazine, was largely devoted to discussion of 1960s garage and psychedelic acts. Greg Shaw's seasonal publication Who Put the Bomp! was influential amongst enthusiasts and collectors of the genre in the early 1970s.
Though the phrase "punk rock" was the favored generic term in the early 1970s, "garage band" was also mentioned in reference to groups. In Rolling Stone in March 1971, John Mendelsohn made an oblique reference to "every last punk teenage garage band having its Own Original Approach". The term "punk rock" was later appropriated by the more commonly-known punk rock movement that emerged in the mid-1970s and is now most commonly applied to groups associated with that movement or who followed in its wake. For the 1960s style, the term "garage rock" came into favor in the 1980s. According to Mike Markesich: "Initially launched into the underground vernacular at the start of the '80s, the garage tag ... slowly sifted its way amid like-minded fans to finally be recognized as a worthy descriptive replacement". The term "garage punk" has also persisted, and the style has been referred to as 60s punk" and "proto-punk". "Frat rock" has been used to refer to the R&B- and Surf music- derived garage sounds of certain acts, such as the Kingsmen and others.
Numerous young people were inspired by musicians such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, and Eddie Cochran, whose recordings of relatively unsophisticated and hard-driving songs from a few years earlier proclaimed personal independence and freedom from parental controls and conservative norms. Ritchie Valens' 1958 hit "La Bamba" helped jump-start the Chicano rock scene in Southern California and provided a Three-chord song template for the songs of numerous 1960s garage bands. By the end of the 1950s regional scenes were abundant around the country and helped set the stage for garage rock the 1960s.
Guitarist Link Wray has been cited as an early influence on garage rock and is known for his innovative use of guitar techniques and effects such as power chords and distortion. He is best known for his 1958 instrumental "Rumble", which featured the sound of distorted, "clanging" guitar chords, which anticipated much of what was to come. The combined influences of early-1960s instrumental rock and surf rock also played significant roles in shaping the sound of garage rock.
According to Lester Bangs, "the origins of garage rock as a genre can be traced to California and the Pacific Northwest in the early Sixties". The Pacific Northwest, which encompasses Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, played a critical role in the inception of garage rock, hosting the first scene to produce a sizable number of acts, and pre-dated the British Invasion by several years. The signature garage sound that eventually emerged in the Pacific Northwest is sometimes referred to as "the Northwest Sound" and had its origins in the late 1950s, when a handful of R&B and rock & roll acts sprang up in various cities and towns in an area stretching from Puget Sound to Seattle and Tacoma, and beyond.
There and elsewhere, groups of teenagers were inspired directly by touring R&B performers such as Johnny Otis and Richard Berry, and began to play of R&B songs. During the late 1950s and early 1960s other instrumental groups playing in the region, such as the Ventures, formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington, who came to specialize in a surf rock sound, and the Frantics from Seattle. The Blue Notes from Tacoma, fronted by "Rockin' Robin" Roberts, were one of the city's first teenage rock & roll bands. The Wailers (often referred to as the Fabulous Wailers) had a national chart hit in 1959, the instrumental "Tall Cool One". After the demise of the Blue Notes, "Rockin' Robin" did a brief stint with the Wailers, and with him on vocals in 1962, they recorded a version of Richard Berry's 1957 song "Louie Louie"—their arrangement became the much-replicated blueprint for practically every band in the region, including Portland's the Kingsmen who went on to achieve a major hit with it the following year.
Other regional scenes of teenage bands playing R&B-oriented rock were well-established in the early 1960s, several years before the British Invasion, in places such as Texas and the Midwest. At the same time, in Southern California surf bands formed, playing raucous guitar- and saxophone-driven instrumentals. Writer Neil Campbell commented: "There were literally thousands of rough-and-ready groups performing in local bars and dance halls throughout the US prior to the arrival of the Beatles ... The indigenous popular music which functioned in this way ... was the proto-punk more commonly identified as garage rock".
Though often associated with Pacific Northwest acts such as the Kingsmen, frat rock also thrived elsewhere. In 1963, singles by several regional bands from other parts of the United States began appearing on the national charts, including "Surfin' Bird" by the Trashmen from Minneapolis, which essentially fused together parts from two songs previously recorded by the Rivingtons, "The Bird is the Word" and "Papa Oom Mow Mow". "California Sun" by the Rivieras, from South Bend, Indiana followed, becoming a hit in early 1964. Frat rock persisted into the mid-1960s with acts such as the Swingin' Medallions, who had a top twenty hit with "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)" in 1966.
In the wake of the Beatles' first visit, a subsequent string of successful British and acts achieved success in America between 1964 and 1966, often referred to in the US as "the British Invasion". Such acts had a profound impact, leading many (often Surf music or hot rod groups) to respond by altering their style, and countless new bands to form, as teenagers around the country picked up guitars and started bands by the thousands. In many cases, garage bands were particularly influenced by the increasingly bold sound of a second wave of British groups with a harder, blues-based attack, such as the Kinks, the Who, the Animals, the Yardbirds, Small Faces, Pretty Things, Them, and the Rolling Stones often resulting in a raw and primitive sound. Numerous acts sometimes characterized as garage rock formed in countries outside North America, such as England's the Troggs. Their 1966 worldwide hit "Wild Thing" became a staple in countless American garage bands' repertoires. By 1965, the influence of the British Invasion prompted folk musicians such as Bob Dylan and members of the Byrds to adopt the use of electric guitars and amplifiers, resulting in what became termed folk rock. The resulting success of Dylan, the Byrds, and other folk rock acts influenced the sound and approach of numerous garage bands.
The garage rock boom peaked around 1966. That April, the Outsiders from Cleveland hit No. 5 with "Time Won't Let Me", which was later covered by acts such as Iggy Pop. In July, the Standells from Los Angeles almost made it into the US top ten with "Dirty Water", a song now often associated with Boston. "Psychotic Reaction" by the Count Five went to No. 5 on Billboards Hot 100 and was later memorialized by Lester Bangs in his 1971 piece "Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung".
"96 Tears" (1966) by Question Mark and the Mysterians, from Saginaw, Michigan, became a No. 1 hit in the US. The song's organ and theme of teenage heartbreak have been mentioned as a landmark recording of the garage rock era and recognized for influencing the works of acts as diverse as the B-52's, the Cramps, and Bruce Springsteen. Two months later, the Music Machine reached the top 20 with fuzz guitar-driven "Talk Talk", whose sound and image that helped pave the way for later acts such as the Ramones. The Syndicate of Sound's "Little Girl", which featured a cocksure half-spoken lead vocal set over chiming 12-string guitar chords, reached No. 8 on the Billboard charts and was later covered by acts such as the Dead Boys, the Banned, and the Chesterfield Kings. In 1965, a Pittsburgh disc jockey discovered "Hanky Panky", a 1964 song by a since-defunct group, the Shondells; the song's belated success revived the career of Tommy James, who assembled a new group under the name Tommy James and the Shondells and produced 12 more top-40 singles. In 1967, Strawberry Alarm Clock emerged from the garage outfit Thee Sixpence and had a No. 1 hit in 1967 with the psychedelic "Incense and Peppermints".
San Francisco's the Ace of Cups became a fixture in the Bay Area scene in the late 1960s. Other notable 1960s female groups were the Daughters of Eve from Chicago and She (previously known as the Hairem) from Sacramento, California. All-female bands were not exclusive to North America. The Liverbirds were a beat group from the Beatles' home city of Liverpool, England, but became best known in Germany, often performing in Hamburg's Star-Club. All-female groups of the 1960s anticipated later acts associated with the 1970s punk movement, such as the Runaways and the Slits.
The Sonics from Tacoma had a raunchy, hard-driving sound that influenced later acts such as Nirvana and the White Stripes. According to Peter Blecha, they "were the unholy practitioners of punk rock long before anyone knew what to call it". Founded in 1960, they eventually enlisted the services of vocalist Gerry Rosalie and saxophonist Rob Lind and cut their first single, "The Witch", in 1964. The song was re-issued again in 1965, this time with the even more intense "Psycho" on the flip side. They released several albums and are also known for other "high-octane" rockers such as "Cinderella" and "He's Waitin. Prompted by the Sonics, the Wailers entered the mid-1960s with a harder-edged sound in the fuzz-driven "Hang Up" and "Out of Our Tree".
Boston's the Remains (sometimes called Barry & the Remains), led by Barry Tashian, became one of the region's most popular bands and, in addition to issuing five singles and a self-titled album, toured with the Beatles in 1966. Also from Boston, the Rockin' Ramrods released the distortion-driven "She Lied" in 1964, which Rob Fitzpatrick called "a truly spectacular piece of proto-punk, the sort of perfect blend of melody and aggression that the Ramones would go on to transform the planet with a dozen or more years later". The Squires from Bristol, Connecticut, issued a song now regarded as a garage rock classic, "Going All the Way". Garage rock flourished up and down the Atlantic coast, with acts such as the Vagrants, from Long Island, and Richard and the Young Lions from Newark, New Jersey, and the Blues Magoos from the Bronx, who got their start in New York's Greenwich Village scene and had a hit in 1966 with "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet", which appeared on their debut album, Psychedelic Lollipop, along with a lengthy rendition of the Nashville Teens' "Tobacco Road".
Love, a racially integrated band headed by African-American musician Arthur Lee, was one of the most popular bands in the scene. Their propulsive 1966 proto-punk anthem "7 and 7 Is" was another song often covered by other groups. The Music Machine, led by Sean Bonniwell, employed innovative musical techniques, sometimes building their own custom-made fuzzboxes. Their first album (Turn On) The Music Machine featured the hit "Talk Talk". The Electric Prunes were one of the more successful garage bands to incorporate Psychedelic rock influences into their sound, such as in the hit "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)", whose opening featured a buzzing fuzz-toned guitar, and which appeared on their self titled debut LP. Garage rock was also present in the Latino community of East L.A. The Premiers, who had a hit in 1964 with "Farmer John", and Thee Midniters are considered prominent figures in Chicano rock, as are the San Diego–based Cannibal & the Headhunters, who had a hit with Chris Kenner's "Land of a Thousand Dances".
San Jose and the South Bay area had a bustling scene featuring the Chocolate Watchband, the Count Five, and the Syndicate of Sound. The Chocolate Watchband released several singles in 1967, including "Are You Gonna Be There (at the Love In)", which was also featured on their debut album No Way Out. The album's opening cut was a rendition of "Let's Talk About Girls", previously recorded by the Tongues of Truth (aka the Grodes).
Michigan had one of the largest scenes in the country. In early 1966, Detroit's MC5 released a version of "I Can Only Give You Everything" before they went on to greater success at the end of the decade. The Unrelated Segments recorded a string of songs beginning with local hit "The Story Of My Life", followed by "Where You Gonna Go". In 1966, the Litter from Minneapolis released the guitar-overdriven "Action Woman", a song which Michael Hann described as "one of garage's gnarliest, snarliest, most tight-trousered pieces of hormonal aggression".
The Five Americans were from Durant, Oklahoma, and released a string of singles, such as "Western Union", which became a top 10 US hit in 1967. From Phoenix, Arizona, the Spiders featured Vincent Furnier, later known as Alice Cooper, and eventually adopted that name as the group's moniker. As the Spiders they recorded two singles, most notably "Don't Blow Your Mind", which became a local hit in Phoenix in 1966. The group ventured to Los Angeles in 1967 in hopes of achieving greater success, however they found it not there, but while in Detroit several years later, re-christened as Alice Cooper.
From Florida, Orlando's We the People came about as the result of the merger of two previous bands and featured songwriters Tommy Talton and Wane Proctor. They recorded a string of self-composed songs, such as primitive rockers, "You Burn Me Upside Down" and "Mirror of my Mind", as well as the esoteric "In the Past", later covered by the Chocolate Watchband. Evil, from Miami, had a hard, sometimes thrashing sound and a reputation for musical mayhem, typified in songs such as "From a Curbstone" and "I'm Movin' On".
In 1966, the Ugly Ducklings from Toronto had a hit with "Nothin and toured with the Rolling Stones. The Haunted from Montreal specialized in a gritty blues-based sound influenced by the Rolling Stones and released the single "1–2–5". Two other bands from Toronto were the Paupers and the Mynah Birds. The Paupers released several singles and two albums. The Mynah Birds featured the combination of Rick James on lead vocals and Neil Young on guitar, who both went on to fame as solo acts, as well as Bruce Palmer who later accompanied Young to California to join Buffalo Springfield in 1966. They signed a contract with Motown Records and recorded several songs including "It's My Time".
Outside of the mainland, garage rock became a fixture in the islands and territories adjacent to the continent. The Savages from Bermuda recorded the album Live 'n Wild, which features "The World Ain't Round It's Square", an angry song of youthful defiance.
Beat music emerged in Britain in the early 1960s, as musicians who originally came together to play rock and roll or skiffle assimilated American rhythm and blues influences. The genre provided the model for the format of many later rock groups. The Liverpool area had a particularly high concentration of acts and venues, and the Beatles emerged from this thriving music scene. In London and elsewhere, certain groups developed a harder-driving, distinctively British blues style. Nationally popular blues- and R&B- influenced beat groups included the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds from London, the Animals from Newcastle, and Them, from Belfast, Northern Ireland, featuring Van Morrison.
Coinciding with the "British Invasion" of the US, a musical cross-fertilization developed between the two continents. In their 1964 transatlantic hits "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night", the Kinks took the influence of the Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie" and applied greater volume and distortion, which in turn, influenced the approach of many American garage bands. With Van Morrison, Them recorded two songs widely covered by American garage bands: "Gloria", which became a big hit for Chicago's the Shadows of Knight, and "I Can Only Give You Everything". Keith Richards's use of fuzz distortion in the Rolling Stones' 1965 hit "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" affected the sound of countless American garage bands. Also influential were the Pretty Things and the Downliners Sect, both of whom were known for a particularly raw approach to blues-influenced rock that has sometimes been compared to garage.
By 1965, bands such as the Who and the Small Faces tailored their appeal to the mod subculture centered in London. Some of the harder-driving and more obscure bands associated with the mod scene in the UK are sometimes referred to as Freakbeat, which is sometimes viewed as a more stylish British equivalent of garage rock. Several bands often mentioned as Freakbeat are the Creation, the Action, the Move, the Smoke, the Sorrows, and Wimple Winch.
Some commentators have branded the Troggs as garage rock. Extolling the virtues of their seemingly unrepentant primitivism and sexually charged innuendo, in 1971 Lester Bangs memorialized the Troggs as a quintessential "punk" i.e. band of the 1960s. They had a worldwide hit in 1966 with "Wild Thing", written by American Chip Taylor. The Equals, a racially integrated band from North London whose membership included guitarist Eddy Grant, later a popular solo artist, specialized in an upbeat style of rock—their 1966 recording "Baby Come Back" was a hit in Europe before becoming a British number one in 1968.
Having nurtured the Beatles' early development in Hamburg, Germany was well-positioned to play a key role as beat music overtook the continent. Bands from Britain and around Europe traveled there to gain exposure, playing in clubs and appearing on popular German television shows such as Beat Club and Beat! Beat! Beat! The Lords, founded in Düsseldorf in 1959, pre-dated the British Invasion by several years, and adapted their sound and look to reflect the influence of the British groups, even singing in English, but providing a comic twist. The Rattles from Hamburg also had a lengthy history, but were more serious in their approach. There were numerous bands active in Spain, such as Los Bravos, who had a worldwide hit with "Black Is Black", as well as los Cheyenes and others.
The beat boom flourished in Uruguay during the mid-1960s in a period sometimes referred to as the Uruguayan Invasion. Two of the best-known acts were Los Shakers and Los Mockers. In Peru, Los Saicos were one of the first bands to gain national prominence. Their 1965 song "¡Demolición!" with its humorously anarchistic lyrics was a huge hit in Peru. About them Phil Freeman noted "These guys were a punk rock band, even if nobody outside Lima knew it at the time". Los Yorks became one of Peru's leading groups. Colombia hosted bands such Los Speakers and Los Flippers from Bogotá, Los Yetis from Medellín. Los Gatos Salvajes, who came from Rosario, Argentina, were one of the country's first beat groups, and two of their members went on to form Los Gatos, a popular act in Argentina during the late 1960s.
Despite famine, economic hardship, and political instability, India experienced its own proliferation of garage bands in the 1960s, persisting into the early 1970s with the 1960s musical style still intact even after it fallen out of favor elsewhere. Mumbai, with its hotels, clubs, and nightlife, had a bustling music scene. The Jets, who were active from 1964 to 1966, were perhaps the first beat group to become popular there. Also popular in Mumbai were the Trojans, featuring Biddu, originally from Bangalore, who later moved to London and become a solo act. Every year the annual Simla Beat Contest was held in Bombay by the Imperial Tobacco Company. Groups from all over India, such as the Fentones and Velvet Fogg, competed in the event.
Sydney was the host to numerous acts. The Atlantics switched to a vocal rock format and brought in veteran singer Johnny Rebb, formerly with Johnny Rebb and His Rebels. "Come On" was their best-known song from this period. The Easybeats, featuring vocalist Stevie Wright and guitarist George Young, the older brother of Angus Young and Malcolm Young of the later hard rock group AC/DC, became the most popular group in Australia during the mid-1960s. One of Sydney's most notorious acts was the Missing Links, who throughout 1965 went through a complete and total lineup change between the release their first single in March and on the subsequent releases later that year, such as the primitivist anthems "Wild About You", as well as their self-titled LP. In 1966, the Throb had a hit in Australia with their version of "Fortune Teller", and later that year released "Black", a brooding version of a traditional folk ballad noted for its expressionistic use of guitar feedback. The Black Diamonds' "I Want, Need, Love You" featured an intense and hard-driving guitar sound that Ian D. Marks described as "speaker cone-shredding".
From Brisbane came the Pleazers and the Purple Hearts, and from Melbourne the Pink Finks, the Loved Ones, Steve and the Board, and the Moods. Like Sydney's the Missing Links, the Creatures were another notorious group of the period, who Iain McIntyre remarked "Thanks to their brightly coloured hair and bad-ass attitude, the Creatures left in their wake a legacy of multiple arrests, bloodied noses and legendary rave ups". The Masters Apprentices' early sound was largely R&B-influenced garage and psychedelic.
From New Zealand, the Bluestars cut the defiant "Social End Product", aimed at social oppression much in the manner of 1970s punk rock acts. Chants R&B were known for a raw R&B-influenced sound. The La De Da's recorded a version of the Changin' Times' "How is the Air Up There?", which went to No. 4 on the nation's charts.
By the mid-1960s, numerous garage bands began to employ tone-altering devices such as on guitars often for the purpose of enhancing the music's sonic palate, adding an aggressive edge with loudly amplified instruments to create a barrage of "clanging" sounds, in many cases expressing anger, defiance, and sexual frustration. The genre came into its peak of popularity at a time when a collective sense of discontent and alienation crept into the psyche of the youth in the United States and elsewhere—even in the largely conservative suburban communities which produced so many garage bands. Garage bands, though generally apolitical, nonetheless reflected the attitudes and tenor of the times. Nightly news reports had a cumulative effect on the mass consciousness, including musicians. Detectable in much of the music from this era is a disparate array of raw sounds and emotions, coinciding with surrounding events, such as the assassinations of major political figures and the ongoing escalation of troops sent to Vietnam War, yet certain commentators have also noted an apparent bygone innocence as part of the style's appeal to later generations.
In 1965, the influence of artists such as Bob Dylan, who moved beyond political Protest song by experimenting with abstract and surreal lyrical imagery and switched to electric guitar, became increasingly pervasive across the musical landscape, affecting a number of genres, including garage rock. The members of garage bands, like so many musicians of the 1960s, were part of a generation that was largely born into the paradigm and customs of an older time, but grew up confronting a new set of issues facing a more advanced and technological age. Postwar prosperity brought the advantages of better education, as well as more spare time for recreation, which along with the new technology, made it possible for an increasing number of young people to play music. With the advent of television, nuclear weapons, civil rights, the Cold War, and space exploration, the new generation was more global in its mindset and began to conceive of a higher order of human relations, attempting to reach for a set of transcendent ideals, often expressed through rock music. Though set to a backdrop of tragic events that proved increasingly disillusioning, various forms of personal and musical experimentation held promise, at least for a time, in the minds of many. While opening boundaries and testing the frontiers of what the new world had to offer, 1960s youth ultimately had to accept the limitations of the new reality, yet often did so while experiencing the ecstasy of a moment when the realm of the infinite seemed possible and within reach.
The Velvet Underground, whose roster included Lou Reed, are now generally considered the foremost experimental rock group of the period. At the time of recording their first album, they were involved with Andy Warhol, who produced some its tracks, and his assemblage of "scenesters" at the Factory, including model-turned-singer Nico. She shared billing with them on the resulting album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. The album's lyrics, though generally apolitical, depict the world of hard drugs in songs such as "I'm Waiting for the Man" and "Heroin", and other topics considered taboo at the time. Other New York acts included Henry Flynt's the Insurrections as well as the Godz and Cromagnon.
Outside of New York were the Monks from Germany, whose members were former US servicemen who chose to remain in Germany, where in 1965 they developed an experimental sound on their album Black Monk Time. The group, who sometimes wore habits and medieval , specialized in a style featuring chanting, electrified six-string banjos and repetitive percussion. In the 1970s, the term "avant-garage" was later coined by singer and songwriter David Thomas to describe the music of his band Pere Ubu.
Album-oriented FM broadcasting radio stations eventually overtook AM radio in popularity, and as the large major-label record companies became more powerful and less willing to sign new acts, the once plentiful local and regional independent labels of the mid-1960s began to fold. Radio playlists became more regimented and disc jockeys began to have less freedom, making it increasingly difficult for local and regional bands to receive airplay. Teen clubs and dance venues which previously served as reliable and steady engagements for young groups started to close. The garage sound disappeared at both the national and local level, as band members graduated and departed for college, work, or the military. Musicians in bands frequently faced the prospect of the Vietnam War Conscription, and many were selected for service. Some died in action. With the tumultuous political events of 1968, the tense mood of the country reached a breaking point, while increasing use of drugs and other factors intermingled with shifting musical tastes. New styles either evolved out of garage rock or replaced it, such as acid rock, progressive rock, heavy metal, country rock, and bubblegum pop. By 1969 the garage rock phenomenon had largely run its course.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, several Michigan bands rooted in garage rock recorded works that became highly influential, particularly with the 1970s punk movement. In 1969, MC5 issued their live debut LP, Kick Out the Jams, which featured a set of highly energetic, politically charged songs. The Stooges, from Ann Arbor, were fronted by lead singer Iggy Pop, Describing their approach, Stephen Thomas Erlewine commented: "Taking their cue from the over-amplified pounding of British blues, the primal raunch of American garage rock, and the psychedelic rock (as well as the audience-baiting) of the Doors, the Stooges were raw, immediate, and vulgar." The group released three albums during this period, beginning with the self-titled The Stooges in 1969 and culminating with Raw Power (now billed as Iggy and the Stooges) in 1973, which featured the cathartic "Search and Destroy" as its opening track. The Alice Cooper band (previously the Spiders) relocated to Detroit, where they began to gain success with a new "shock rock" image, and recorded 1971's Love It to Death, which featured their breakout hit "I'm Eighteen".
Two bands that formed during the waning days of the Detroit scene in the early 1970s were the Punks and Death. The Punks had a sometimes thrashing sound that caught the attention of rock journalist Lester Bangs, and their song "My Time's Comin was retroactively featured in a 2016 episode of HBO's Vinyl. In 1974, Death, whose membership was made up of brothers David, Bobby, and Dannis Hackney, recorded tracks for an album that remained unreleased for over 30 years, ...For the Whole World to See, which, along with the release of their other previously unissued tracks, finally earned them a reputation as pioneers in punk rock. Death's music anticipated the arrival of later African American punk acts such as the Bad Brains.
In Boston, the Modern Lovers, led by Velvet Underground devotee Jonathan Richman, gained attention with their minimalistic style. In 1972, they recorded a set of demos that formed the basis of their belated Modern Lovers album in 1976. In 1974, an updated garage rock scene began to coalesce around the Rathskeller club in Kenmore Square. The Real Kids, a leading band in the scene, were founded by former Modern Lover John Felice.Andersen and Jenkins (2001), p. 12. The Electric Eels, who formed in 1972, were a fixture in the underground rock scene in Cleveland, Ohio, which has sometimes been mentioned as a precursor to the punk scenes in New York and London. The Electric Eels were notorious for mayhem at their shows and had a markedly nihilistic approach suggestive of later acts and recorded a set of demos in 1975, from which the single "Agitated" b/w "Cyclotron" was eventually released in 1978, several years after the group's demise.
Between 1969 and 1975, other movements further removed from the American garage rock tradition emerged, that nonetheless displayed hallmarks of proto-punk, such as Glam rock and pub rock in Great Britain, as well as Krautrock in Germany. Conversely, glam rock had an influence on the sound of the New York Dolls from New York, exhibited on their 1973 self-titled debut album and its follow-up, Too Much Too Soon. The Dictators, fronted by Richard Manitoba, were another influential New York act of this period. The music from these disparate scenes helped set the stage for the punk rock phenomenon of the mid- to late- 1970s.
The mid- to late-1970s saw the arrival of the acts now most commonly identified as punk rock. Frequently mentioned as the first of these were the Ramones from New York, some of whose members earlier played in 1960s garage bands. They were followed by the Sex Pistols in London, who struck a far more defiant pose and effectively heralded the arrival punk as a cause célèbre in the larger public mind. Both bands spearheaded the popular punk movement from their respective locations. The Clash, known for their politically-charged lyrics, were another important band to emerge from the London punk scene at this time. Their 1977 song "Garageland" with its line "We're a garage band/We come from garageland" specifically declared allegiance to the spirit of garage bands. Simultaneously, Australia developed its own punk scene, which derived some of its inspiration from the 1960s Australian garage/beat movement. One of its leading bands, the Saints, from Brisbane, included a rendition of the Missing Links' 1965 song "Wild About You" on their 1977 debut album.
Despite the influence of garage rock and proto-punk on the originating musicians of these scenes, in the later half of the 1970s punk rock emerged as a new phenomenon, distinct from its prior associations, and the garage band era of the 1960s came to be viewed as a distant forerunner.
Detroit's garage rock scene included the White Stripes, the Von Bondies, Electric Six, the Dirtbombs, the Detroit Cobras, and Rocket 455. Elsewhere, acts such as Billy Childish and the Buff Medways from Chatham, England, The Vines from Sydney, Australia, the (International) Noise Conspiracy from Umeå, Sweden, and Jay Reatard and Oblivians from Memphis, enjoyed moderate underground success and appeal. A second wave of bands that gained international recognition as a result of the movement included the Black Keys, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Death from Above 1979, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Killers, Interpol, Cage the Elephant, and Kings of Leon from the US, the Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Editors, and Franz Ferdinand from the UK, Jet from Australia, and the Datsuns and the D4 from New Zealand.
The mid-2000s saw several underground bands achieve mainstream prominence. Acts such as Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, Black Lips and Jay Reatard, that initially released records on smaller garage punk labels such as In the Red Records, began signing to larger, better-known independent labels. Several bands followed them in signing to larger labels such as Rough Trade and Drag City.
The Pebbles series was begun by Greg Shaw and originally appeared on his Bomp Records label in 1978 and has been issued in successive installments on LP and CD. Back from the Grave is a series issued by Crypt Records that focuses on hard-driving and primitive examples of the genre. Big Beat Records' also features harder material. There are several notable anthologies devoted to female garage bands from the 1960s. Girls in the Garage was the first female garage rock series, and Ace Records' issued the more recent Girls with Guitars compilations.
There are numerous collections featuring garage/beat music from outside of North America. Rhino's 4-CD box set includes music from the United Kingdom and other countries in the British commonwealth. It is of particular interest to fans of freakbeat. The Trans World Punk Rave-Up series focuses on garage and Nederbeat music from Continental Europe from the 1960s. Ugly Things was the first compilation series to highlight 1960s Australian garage bands. is also devoted to Australian acts, while Do the Pop! The Australian Garage Rock Sound 1976-1987 covers more recent bands.
Los Nuggetz Volume Uno is devoted primarily to Latin American groups of the 1960s and is available in a single-CD edition, as well as an expanded 4-CD box set. and its companion piece Both sets feature GS acts from Japan. The Simla Beat 70/71 compilation consists of recordings by garage rock acts from India that competed in the 1970 and 1971 Simla Beat contests. Though its tracks were recorded at the turn of the 1970s, most of them bear a striking resemblance to music made in the West several years earlier.
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