01/11/2026
In 1978, punk was going through an identity crisis.
That January, the S*x Pistols imploded while touring the US, leaving punk without its flagship band. The American mainstream had failed to embrace punk in the wake of its eruption in 1977, despite a marketing push by the record labels that had snatched up the Pistols, the Clash, the Ramones, and so many other sneering, distortion-abusing punk groups. Punk flourished aboveground in the UK, but by ’78 the scene was already fracturing thanks to an influx of new bands—some of them with commercial ambitions, others simply energized by the DIY ethos of punk—and a rapid mutation of the punk sound itself.
The Pistols’ John Lydon formed a new band, Public Image Ltd., and along with other budding post-punks like Joy Division and Wire, they experimented with punk’s DNA, splicing in everything from art-rock to synthesizers to noise to dub. On the other end of the spectrum, rowdy Oi! outfits like Sham 69 and outspoken anarcho-punk collectives like Crass released their debut albums in ’78, promising to redefine punk on their own terms. As punk was contracting, expanding, and gloriously deconstructing itself that year, a smaller subgenre snuck humbly into the mix. Although it wouldn’t solidify as a distinct entity until a while later, pop-punk came into its own in 1978.
