For people like myself who are probably using the term punk to broadly, i would like examples of different types of punk, and the kinds of pearl jam songs that manifest them. Harmless, punk offshoots are fine.

Ready....go!

OK, let's start with Backspacer and the New Wave (offshoot) premise:

Gonna See My Friend -- I hear surf guitars, surf music, and a Beach Boys influence.

Got Some -- I hear The Police and a ska influence.

Supersonic -- I hear The Ramones and possibly some bands I couldn't name, and I also hear the influence of taking part of the fast song and making it half-tempo (in this case the solo). That technique is taken from hardcore as far as I can tell, and it's been repeated on MYM's introduction. I wish there was more of it on MYM as it's more hardcore as a whole than Supersonic was.

Speed Of Sound -- You might be surprised to see it in this list, but I think that although the lasers are weird, a band like The Cure (a goth / New Wave band) wouldn't have found the inclusion of lasers weird at all.

Johnny Guitar -- The Police again, possibly. And I don't know, Jorge, do you hear any Elvis Costello in this?

Some people feel that punk started right here with this sound:

Reggae Punk:

So what is the difference between garage and punk?

Humans have to micromanage everything? If a box is too big, find a smaller box. We won't rest until every band is it's own sub-genre!

3 chords

PUNK AS F******CK:

They have a lot in common! The original wave of punk was very much a return to the garage-rock stuff of the 50s, with added influences of what came later. Think of it as a melting poet. I wrote this thing a while ago (in response to an RM song tournament!) about why I love punk music, especially that initial wave of bands. I repeated some of those points in my conversation with BadMusic earlier today, so some of it may sound familiar if you read that exchange .

attitude

I would correct my typo, but I think I like this image.

Punk isn't about what you're playing, but the attitude behind it.

I always think about this when I listen to "Straight To Hell" by the Clash.

Yeah, I get this but I don't like it as a philosophy. If it doesn't matter what you're playing why play at all?

I don't think that means that 'it doesn't matter' what you're playing, only that it may be more useful to see punk as an approach to or mood in the music you're making rather than a specific genre with bands that sound very similar.

That's what other styles are for.

Which is why I listen to other styles. Rocket science? Not really.