Garage rock | |
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Other names |
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Stylistic origins | |
Cultural origins | Early 1960s, United States and Canada |
Typical instruments | |
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Frat rock | |
Fusion genres | |
Garage punk (fusion genre) | |
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Garage rock (shortened as "garage"; sometimes "'60s punk" or "garage punk") is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada. The term derives from the perception that groups were often made up of young amateurs who rehearsed in the family garage, although many were professional. The phrase garage band is often used to refer to musical acts in this genre.
The style, a precursor to acid rock, is characterized by aggressive and unsophisticated lyrics and delivery, sometimes using guitars distorted through a fuzzbox. In the US and Canada, surf rock—and subsequently the Beatles and the beat groups of the British Invasion — motivated thousands of young people to form bands between 1963 and early 1968. Hundreds of acts produced regional hits, and a handful had national chart hits. Though largely associated with North America, the garage rock phenomenon was not exclusive to it, with counterparts present elsewhere as part of the worldwide "beat boom" of the era. With the advent of psychedelia, a number of garage bands incorporated exotic elements into the genre's primitive stylistic framework, but after 1968, as more elaborate forms of rock music overtook the marketplace, garage rock records largely disappeared from the national and regional charts.
Until the early 1970s, the music was not recognized as a distinct genre and had no specific name, but critical retrospect — and particularly the release of the 1972 compilation album Nuggets—did much to define and memorialize the style. As critics of that period began to prescribe a name and scope for the genre, several used "punk rock", making it the first form of music to bear this description. Since then, the genre has sometimes been referred to as "garage punk", as well as subsequent labels such as "'60s punk" or "proto-punk" which distinguish it from the more commonly known punk movement of the 1970s that it influenced.