@Archie Walker

This playlist was created by https://www.tunemymusic.com that lets you transfer your playlist to Apple from any music platform such as Spotify, YouTube, Deezer etc.

This playlist was created by https://www.tunemymusic.com that lets you transfer your playlist to Apple from any music platform such as Spotify, YouTube, Deezer etc.

This playlist was created by https://www.tunemymusic.com that lets you transfer your playlist to Apple from any music platform such as Spotify, YouTube, Deezer etc.

This playlist was created by https://www.tunemymusic.com that lets you transfer your playlist to Apple from any music platform such as Spotify, YouTube, Deezer etc.

Lesser-known gems and crucial album tracks. Our editors regularly update this playlist—if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

The origin of punk has long been a subject of debate. Some trace its raw, minimal sound and anti-pop attitude back to the late-’60s transgressions of The Velvet Underground. Others claim punk’s ground zero was CBGB in the mid-’70s, when the Manhattan dive bar housed a parade of misfits that included glue-sniffin’ rockers the Ramones, arty guitar contortionists Television and radical poet Patti Smith. Then there are those who believe punk truly became a movement when—in the era of peak prog rock—the Sex Pistols unleashed anarchy in the UK with their blasphemous anti-establishment anthems. But their peers in The Clash showed how punk’s raging attack could be a vessel for shrewd social commentary, while the emergence of unruly acts in L.A. (Black Flag), Australia (The Saints) and beyond proved that punk was more than a profane antidote to mainstream-rock excess—it was an empowering philosophy that encouraged disaffected outsiders to take matters into their own hands.

The line between alternative and mainstream rock was especially blurry in the ’90s. Chalk that up first to Nirvana: the Seattle trio shook commercial rock out of its doldrums and brought underground punk into the spotlight with their gleefully noisy 1991 major-label debut, <I>Nevermind</I>. However, it’s clearer today how much the ’90s modern-rock explosion owed to traditional classic rock. Grunge-associated artists such as Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden took cues from Led Zeppelin’s blues-oriented heft; mischievous punks Green Day loved more melodic British Invasion fare such as The Beatles and The Kinks. In hindsight, it's also no wonder so many veteran bands connected with a younger generation of fans. Seventies rockers Aerosmith and Tom Petty embraced big-budget MTV videos and vibey, laidback folk-rock, respectively, while ’80s-era bands favoured reinvention: Metallica polished their trademark thrash into menacing hard rock on their blockbuster 1991 self-titled album, and both R.E.M. and U2 toyed with new sounds and slippery identities.

When you get down to it, there’s a way in which all rock is Southern rock: a mix of Black blues, white country and church music repurposed for less-than-godly means. And if you’ve ever spent time in the American South, you know that Tom Petty’s Florida and ZZ Top’s Texas might as well be in different countries. Still, there’s a thread that runs through the tracks here, a legacy connecting the swagger of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Drive-By Truckers, the rustic expansiveness of the Allman Brothers and My Morning Jacket—not to mention a sense of directness that speaks to the lives of regular folks in ways the broader culture sometimes overlooks.

For the rockers who swaggered and strutted through the ’70s, bigger nearly always meant better. Songs that were built to have maximum impact in stadiums and arenas somehow sounded even larger on home hi-fis thanks to multitrack recording technology and other studio advances that made the drums of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham and The Who’s Keith Moon sound like cannon fire. Even the mellower, headphone-ready sounds of Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd and the Eagles boasted unprecedented breadth and richness. Yet the decade’s sound was defined just as much by leaner, meaner takes on rock fundamentals, courtesy of artists such as AC/DC and Alice Cooper.

Rock ’n’ roll may have been born in the ’50s, but it was in the ’60s that it reached its zenith as the voice of youth culture. After all, the decade produced many of the music’s most iconic artists, beginning with The Beatles, who along with the rest of the British Invasion (The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks) delivered refreshingly new sounds to a world reeling from violence and upheaval. Yet rock in the ’60s wasn’t solely a pick-me-up; it also reflected the turmoil of a generation questioning war, racism, even consciousness itself. Bob Dylan, serving as a bridge between topical folk music and snarling rock ’n’ roll, delivered a string of fiery protest anthems; Jimi Hendrix unleashed a mind-bending soundtrack for hippies exploring psychedelia; and, at decade’s end, Led Zeppelin invented heavy metal with a crushing, blues-informed style as loud as bombs.