Black Flag
photo: brandanridd · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Founded in Hermosa Beach, California in 1976 by guitarist Greg Ginn, Black Flag helped invent American hardcore punk, stripping the Ramones' and Stooges' raw energy into something faster, angrier, and more confrontational. Across a rotating cast of singers including Henry Rollins, the band's relentless touring and DIY ethic built the infrastructure the entire American hardcore underground grew from.
Greg Ginn and Keith Morris were directly inspired by seeing the Ramones tour Los Angeles in 1976, and Black Flag kept that raw, stripped-down attitude while pushing the tempo and aggression even further.
listen forListen to the Ramones' 'Blitzkrieg Bop' and then Black Flag's 'Nervous Breakdown' — both strip a song down to bare, driving chords, with Black Flag adding a jagged edge of real anger underneath.
Ginn and Morris were also inspired early on by the Stooges, whose primal, feral energy shows up in Black Flag's willingness to sound genuinely unhinged rather than just fast.
listen forPlay the Stooges' 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' next to Black Flag's 'Six Pack' — both lean on a simple, grinding riff and a vocal that sounds like it's barely holding together.
Black Flag drew on the Jimi Hendrix Experience in their later, slower, heavier direction, most audible on My War's murky, sludge-tempo second side, where the band leaned into psychedelic, feedback-laden guitar work.
listen forListen to 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)' and then Black Flag's 'My War' — both stretch out into heavy, distorted guitar exploration far removed from a typical three-chord punk song.