Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name. In the 1970s, some critics referred to the style as punk rock, the first form of music to bear this description; although it is sometimes called garage punk,protopunk, or 1960s punk, the style has predominantly been referred to as garage rock.
n the 1980s, another garage rock revival saw a number of bands linked to the underground music scene earnestly trying to replicate the sound, style, and look of the 1960s garage bands, including The Chesterfield Kings, The Fuzztones and Lyres.[31] This trend coincided with a similar surf rock revival, and both styles fed in into the alternative rock movement and future grunge explosion, which some say was partially inspired by garage rock from the Tacoma area like The Sonics and The Wailers, but was largely unknown by fans outside the immediate circles of the bands themselves.[32]
This movement also evolved into an even more primitive form of garage rock that became known as garage punk by the late 1980s, thanks to bands such as The Nouns (Los Angeles, CA), The Gories,Thee Mighty Caesars, The Mummies and Thee Headcoats.[33] Bands playing garage punk differed from the garage rock revival bands in that they were less cartoonish caricatures of 1960s garage bandsand their overall sound was even more loud and raw, often infusing elements of protopunk and 1970s punk rock (hence the "garage punk" term). The garage rock revival and garage punk coexisted throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s with many independent record labels releasing thousands of records by bands playing various styles of primitive rock and roll all around the world. Some of the more prolific of these independent record labels included Estrus,[34] Get Hip,[35] Bomp!,[36] and Sympathy for the Record Industry.[37]