Punk rock got another nail in its coffin this week.
Johnny Ramone of the seminal punk rock band The Ramones and an architect of the distinctive punk sound, passed away Wednesday from prostate cancer. He was the last surviving original member (aside from drummer and manager Tommy, who's still hanging in there).
The All Music Guide puts it simply: "The Ramones are the first punk rock band."
And unlike the one-album wonders The Sex Pistols, The Ramones had the body of work to back it up. Sure, it was mainly a vast assortment of four-chord, two-minute tracks with bizarre titles like "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment," but it still changed a generation of music.
Perhaps the Ramones' most lasting contribution to the musical canon is that it proved you didn't have to be that good to be great. Much like Jackson Pollack, who produced masterpieces with seemingly random splatters on a canvas, The Ramones made classic tunes with only average vocals, barely competent musicianship and lyrics that frequently bordered on nonsense. That's not a harsh condemnation of their work; it's the very thing that makes their music so revered and unique.
It's easy to look at the current crop of punk rock artists and say The Ramones' legacy is questionable. Yet that wouldn't be looking at the music in its proper context. Although music critics and "real" punk rock fans alike often disdain pop-punk, there is little doubt that the origins of The Ramones' music is rooted in pop. Most songs had catchy, sing-along choruses repeated ad nauseum. The tradition was followed by '80s groups like the Descendents and continues on with artists like Blink-182 and Green Day.
Even beyond the punk genre, the Ramones had a ripple effect on grunge artists like Nirvana.
It is worth pointing out, though, that there was never anything "emo" about The Ramones -- the closest they got to being emotional in their lyrics was expressing perverse desires to be under sedation, or perhaps beat on brats with baseball bats.
As guitarist, Johnny Ramone had a lot to do with their sound being so unique. It wasn't just an absence of artistry, it was the desire to create something new using only the most necessary tools in the shed. Punk guitars are often dismissed as noise, which was a definite part of Johnny's charm. But there was also a strong emphasis on melody, no matter how untraditional it might have been.
This is the latest in a series of punk rock losses. Ramones' front man Joey Ramone died in 2001. Bassist Dee Dee passed away a year later. Joe Strummer, lead singer of equally influential punk outfit The Clash, died in late 2002. And anyone who witnessed Sex Pistols patriarch Johnny Rotten on one of their recent reunion tours or his stint on the reality show "I'm a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here!" knows that his punk rock vigor is not what it once was.
There's no doubt that the state of punk rock isn't the strongest right now. An army of Blink-182 clones still largely dominates alternative radio, although emo groups and hardcore types like The Used have crept their way into the scene. It's cliche to say that punk rock was more about an attitude or image in its origins, but now it seems to be solely about attitude and image.
Of course, there are exceptions to this; groups like the Get Up Kids, Saves The Day and Brand New are interested in crafting something a little bit different.
But The Ramones -- albeit inspired in part by pre-punk glam outfits like the New York Dolls -- were different, and it's difficult to see the current crop of artists as anything more than offshoots. So it's important that their contributions are remembered.
After all, not everyone can come up with lyrics like "Gonna get my Ph.D., I'm a teenage lobotomy."
Albert Ching is a journalism senior. Reach him at albert.ching@asu.edu.
