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Not just Three Chords

© David Reid

When discussing punk the idea that only three chords per song is what defines a band punk always comes up. And while there may be a bit of truth to this concept spurning from the Ramones' bubblegum-punk, it isn't the determining factor of being "punk."

When the punk scene was making its first noise in New York's CBGB, the bands ranged from The Talking Heads to the Ramones and it was more of an attitude then purely a sound.

It spawned from the "do it yourself" attitude, where you did what you could and you did it yourself. If that was "only play three chords" then that's what you did. But, clearly for early punks, playing just three chords wasn't the deciding factor behind being punk, nor was spiked hair or leather jackets. Unfortunately today what we're told is punk for the most part fits this three-chord format and the do-it-yourself aspect is lost a bit due to punk's recent mainstream acceptance.

Thankfully that's where the Indie world steps in and carries on the tradition of doing it yourself. If you believe in "doing it yourself" then in all rights you can call yourself punk.

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