Rock And Roll: The Ramones Analysis

Punk Rock returned rock & roll to the basics -- three chords and a simple melody. It just did it louder and faster and more abrasively than any other rock & roll in the past. The Ramones were part of this “Punk” music era of the 70s. Their self-titled first album released in April of 1976. Ramones stripped away two decades of musical experimentation and left behind the “pure clarity of industrial-strength rock” (Runtagh, 2016). The songs on Ramones derived from themes of violence, male prostitution, drug use, and Nazism (this may have something to do with the album’s inability to generate major revenue upon its release). Lyrics such as “Beat on the brat with a baseball bat” from the song Beat on the Brat and “Jackie is a punk/Judy is a runt/Perhaps

This band consisted of a group of family members that based their image on The Beatles but their music was much harder. Ramones is considered to have established the musical genre of punk rock, as well as popularizing it years afterward. Rombes wrote that it offered "alienated future rock," and that it "disconnected from tradition." The album was the start of the Ramones' influence on popular music, with examples being genres such as heavy metal, thrash metal, indie pop, grunge, post-punk, and most notably, punk rock. Theunis Bates, a writer for Time, summed the album up with: "Ramones stripped rock back to its basic elements... lyrics are very simple, boiled-down declarations of teen lust and need." Bates also said that it "is the ultimate punk statement." Charles M. Young of Rolling Stone regarded Ramones as "one of the funniest rock records ever made and, if punk continues to gain momentum, a historic turning point" (Ramones Advertising, 2010). If the Beatles edged away from more family appropriate values, the Ramones were speaking a completely different language – that of the raw, deep desires that course through the teenage

Bands like Black Flag on the west coast and Minor Threat in DC moved the Ramones’ sound into what would become hardcore, but they were just as inspired by the band’s blue-collar roots. Billie Joe Armstrong, singer for Green Day, explained his reasoning for listening to the band: "they had songs that just stuck in your head, just like a hammer they banged right into your brain" (Doeden, 2006). The album also had a great impact on the English punk scene as well, with the bassist for Generation X, Tony James, saying that the album caused English bands to change their style. "When their album came out," commented James, "all the English groups tripled speed overnight. Two-minute-long songs, very fast" (Doane, 2012). The Ramones were known for their short, speedy songs. Blitzkrieg Bop was originally played at a very fast tempo (Allegrissimo), or roughly 177 bpm. When the band performed the song live, they started to play it at even faster tempos, gradually increasing the speed throughout their career. At the band's final show, they played the song at an extremely fast tempo (Prestissimo), well above 200 bpm. The Ramones made