From a Black Brazilian, Latin American to the world 🇧🇷 Punk is an attitude, punk is the union of men and women against all rotten systems in the world. Punk is the union of all races. Punk is rock and roll.

Punk never cared about race or gender.

Death is such an underrated gem of a band. Shame they didn't mention screaming Jay Hawkins at all; that guy was proto psychobilly, shockrock, punk and goth all rollen into 1 sick act

I found punk when I was 10, I am 47 now, and I still consider myself a punk. My musical interests have grown and expanded, but the punk ethos is still in me. I do think punk is just a term that means different things to people, to me it is about pure expression, regardless of technical skill. It is an outlet for aggression, passion, love, and everything that describes the human condition. I do think to many people unfortunately it has been reduced to a fashion, and to some a phase they went through. I try to keep these things alive in my spirit whether I am playing loud electric guitars, soft acoustic, or making noise with a synthesizer. You may not agree, but I really don't care.

I am SO HAPPY that Death is getting some recognition. Such a under rated band.

These people in the comments acting like punk is a white genre is hypocritical and cringe

Punk always fought against discrimination, that was the whole premise of it!

Bad Brains and Death were groundbreaking and it wasn’t simply because of their color. It was the music.

Latinos that we’re in or still in punk bands: Suicidal Tendencies, Adolescents, D.I., Flipper, Descendants, The Vandals, The Plugz, The Zeros, Misfits, Dr, Know, Black Flag, Circle One, Bad Religion, No FX, Dead Kennedy’s after Jello Biafra, Wasted Youth, Legal Weapon, CH.3, that is just to name a few or I would be hear all day. Shit even speed metal bad asses Tom Araya and Dave Lombardo from Slayer. Someone should do a Latino punk documentary.

It feels nice to see videos like this. It just reminds me, im not alone out here especially being the only black punk guy throughout high school.

I've always disliked that "punk" and so many other genres I enjoy are considered "white people music" by many people.

I'm loving that Death gets so much more recognition the past several years

To anyone who grew up in the 80's hard-core scene this is not suprising Fishbone, Bad Brains, In living Color, all the two tone Ska bands. The scene was diverse, we had a blast! I was an old school skinhead had friends who were black skinhead. Big fans of rock steady, Ska and reggae, the Clash the list goes on. Just heard about Death which is amazing! Sad they didn't make it back in the day! It the immortal words of Sham 69 "if the kids are united we will never be divided" For the most part the history of punk is very diverse. I hope it always stays that way. We were united in our passion for each other!!

The only people that judged blacks that were into rock music were others blacks. And it wasn't just rock music, blacks judged black people that were into/did the following: - Skateboarding - Dressing formally - Speaking/talking "white" - Wanting to go college - Reading - Math/Science - Dated outside of their race (still are judged for this to this day) - Vote Republican If your black and you did any of the following I listed, your race would be questioned.

Damn, these comments are so mad!

The more I learn about Death the more I like them! They are the truest punks, imo: just doing exactly what they wanted to do.

Grew up in a white catholic community but my parents were both writers so I had access to a great deal of culture. Luckily for me my father has an extensive music collection and had a death album, so I was introduced to them somewhere around 2003

Don't talk about something you don't understand. Punk has never cared about race. I bet she doesn't even support local punk bands.

the weird thing is that back in Britain... al these band started as tribute to african american musics of all kinds and it was not hidden at all. They really worshiped that stuff and came to make it their own. African american musicians from the 1940s onward toured in the UK and did great there... all the way to the 1980s with house music.

So many angry whites in the comments lmao

D.H Peligro - Dead Kennedys, never gets any love?

They never said Death pioneered punk they said Death were pioneers in punk which is very different.

I remember reading a bunch of stuff in the Allmusic guide to Rock back in 2003 and was surprised at just how many early rappers started out in hardcore bands.

Death "we wanted to be like Alice Cooper" AJ+ "They invented punk not white people"

If you watch this and believe what these people say then you are a fool.

I'm a Hip Hop guy with an alternative soul. I hope no non racist white punks take this video offensively or weird. This video shows your community being leaders of acceptance, love and art. I just wanna say thank you for that. Even Hip Hop isn't exactly an accepting culture.

Stop rewriting history

you didn't grow up where I grew up, if you didn't see many punks that weren't white, myself included.

She said no Latino recognition in punk? What about Ron Reyes?? What about that 60s Peru band Los Saicos? These people should make more research before they upload anything and bringing up race

I'm quite sure "proto-punk" started in the 50s/60s. Screaming Lord Sutch, Los Saicos, The Kinks... All sound very much like punk and all older than 1973.

Why pick some youngster to read a script for this? Clicks? There is a story to be told but we're not that far on that it can't be told by someone who was there

Death is cool and all but no one cited them with anything until that documentary. They were not really that known at all. Just a local band. There were plenty of bands doing what they did waaaay before the early 1970s.

The host knows literally zero about the punk and hardcore movement, how hard would it have been to have found somebody with one iota of a clue ?

Nearly all of the dedicated fans of Punk that I have met are well aware of the multi-cultural history of Punk, so it feels a bit misleading to imply that there's an overall ignorance to Punk's history within its fanbase regarding the contributions from people of color. Folks outside of the scene don't typically know, but those who love the music usually are well enough aware, at least in my personal experience. Perhaps the wider world is different. The historical evolution of Punk is deep and varied. The Punks of African descent in England and America definitely had a strong influence. They were one of many vectors helping to shape the sound and culture of Punk. I am ecstatic that bands like A Band Called Death are getting love again. The history of Punk is a treasure and it is worth preserving.

Why are so many people in the comment section in there own feelings. No one said black people created punk, they were just naming some black punk rock artists. I’m from the dirty south and I love 60s and 70s rock (All genres of those era), 80s thrash metal, 90s grunge and scattered other groups from that era. When people hear that they instantly are in AWE down here. That’s why I see nothing wrong with an Afro Punk festival cause down here if you’re black and not listening to Migos, Lil Wayne, Cardi B and other groups like that well people seem to instantly judge you.

You wanna agree with this lady that Death invented punk so you are not accused of being racist, but then reality kicks in and you have to realize there were bands like the stooges, Mc5, It’s All Meat and a bunch of unsigned garage bands playing this sort of stuff in the 60’s before Death emerged.

Just saw Poly -Styrene on the front and I was like Yeap, got to watch this!

Wow! I had noooo idea and I was playing Boston music clubs in the late 70’s. When I moved to the UK in 1980 I saw black and white musicians playing all kinds of music together and soon I was jamming with people from many diverse cultures.

Punk can't be explained in words. Either political, misfit, musical, nihilistic, rebellious, some of these things can be explained. Just make friends with punks, find the way to be punk, and you will know what punk is.

A note on the original band 'Death:' As much as I truly enjoy punk of the 70's, I love 70's R&B as well. A drove of phenomenal R&B music came out of the 70's era.

I've heard rumors that Pure Hell, despite releasing nothing but a 7" in the 70s/80s, became a major influence on the UK punk scene through touring back in the days... And holy hell, if their LP (released within the 10 years) doesn't sounds as good as any '82 Boston HC punk band!

How can you forget the influence of Don Letts on punk

looking at the comment makes me realise why you do need to punch fascists.

Death did not get discovered until just a few years ago. They were not an influence in punk at all.

Well by their own admission, they were heavily influenced by the MC5 which can really be considered the precursor to Punk movement as well. The MC5 were out in the 60's, laying down some fast paced tracks and crazy live shows that no one else were doing at that time. The Kinks were probably the earliest example of that kind of anti established music, but MC5 were way heavier and played faster.

Gravitating towards rock music as a young black Jamaican made me feel like an outsider... Had we known about these pioneers earlier, we wouldn't have felt so alien...

Punk is punk. It doesn't matter your race, yout nationality, only import that you hate the tirany and injustice, be yourself, and having fun in the pit

A few corrections: The term hardcore, applied to punk, was definitely FIRST used by Canada's DOA with their lp "Hardcore '81". 2nd, original drummer for Black Flag, Robo, was from (I think) Puerto Rico and was brown. He got deported. The Dead Kennedy's amazing drummer D.H. Peligro was black. DC was not "the center of hardcore", there was no "center of hardcore". In Texas there were a lot of Latino punks including members of the Offenders and I believe the guitarist for the original Dicks. There was nothing punk about Debbie Harry and Blondie except that they had started playing at CBGB's. I never considered Patty Smith a "punk" any more than I considered Springsteen (no, dis... love him) a "punk" and I still don't. Poly Styrene, on the other hand, big time punk. Still, a great little documentary. Thanks.

GAVIN!!!!! I want my very black history of country and bluegrass music now!!!!!! The truth needs to be told!!!!!!

The stooges came much before death though

I love whoever put the captions, they are great xD

Punk like hip hop is beautiful because it's message transcends race. It reminds the world its not our neighbors that are the enemy, it's the rich, elite, ans those that force control.

You guys are missing out on the powerviolence band Soul Glo

This is stunning stuff. I,m more of an alternative Metal fan but definitely appreciate what I call Real Punk and and Real Hardcore. No music genre should be exclusive in it's ethnic membership as music is for everyone and anyone who appreciates it, gets its messages or is directly affected by its it's messages and lyrics. I love to see audiences at gigs really go off, not violent but really feeling the music, the empowerment and the cathartic therapy of letting the music take you and Metal, Punk, Hardcore, Industrial...whatever genre it is it's for ANYONE WHO GETS IT no matter the Ethnicity, Skin colour, Religion, Sexuality of the Musicians or Audience.

I was taught about Bad Brains and Death from the beginning. Punk was never about color it was about not accepting color

In the early days of punk in the U.K., the Hammersmith Palais in London was a key venue for live shows. This was a club known more for reggae and in between bands, the only in house records to play were reggae discs. This turned a lot of punks on to reggae and of course, there were punk bands who started incorporating reggae elements into some of their output and even performing straight up covers. Especially noticeable with The Clash but also The Ruts and Stiff Little Fingers and it sure worked a treat. Proved an impetus too for the Two Tone movement though a cross pollination more with reggae's forerunner of ska and rocksteady.

The best part is watching them interview Dead and the band themselves telling AJ+ they were never a punk band and were into hard rock. Not much was said after that. Amazing they left that bit into this video though without that extra footage in the video it'd be even more terrible than it already was.

Fascinating history- thanks for sharing!

Fun fact, Bobby was the basist in my local church choir in rural VT, USA. Took years of him complimenting my bad brains patch before I realized who he was... Nice bit, thanks for doing it.

I was late to the party, didn’t get into punk until 1996 (16 yo) when I had a crush on a punk girl. Started with pioneers like the pistols and ramones, got into DK, misfits, descendents, Circle Jerk, Black flag, early Anti-Flag (die for your government), SubHumans, Exploited, NOFX, total chaos, Bad Religion, newer (at the time) punk like pennywise and offspring. Also discovered some Ska (bosstones, glow skulls, the specials, goldfinger) Later in my mid 20s I discovered X ray specs, the germs, Minor Threat. In my 30s I discovered indie rock like the Pixies. Before I discovered punk I was listening to rap, metal, crossover bands like Korn and RATM, as well as grunge, but I like pretty much all genres. I love 80s stuff like Depeche Mode, The Cure as well. But learning about bands like Death and Bad Brains, as well as Fishbone it’s clear I’m still learning and I enjoy learning about old bands too

Wow this takes KANG posting to astronomical heights.

It's so true about the industry being controlled by Jim Crowe gatekeepers.

Fishbone came after the punk wave in the early 90’s. and therefore could not influence a past wave.

Other pioneers: Ivan Julian of Voidoids and DH Peligro of DK. Screamin Jay Hawkins is the original horror punk (and horror bluesman). The whole two tone scene. 24-7 Spyz played all genres. Of course Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Bi Diddley started it all. Chuck Berry once reviewed a bunch of punk records, from the Pistols and Ramones to Wire, and he was all like “yup, these guys are doing my shit, but what’s with those vocals” lol. Bo Diddley was on the first US tour by the Clash (who also played with the likes if Bad Brains and Grandmaster Flash). Jamaican Brit Don Letts played with Mick Jones of the Clash in BAD, directed 2 punk documentaries, and influenced Bob Marley to write Punky Reggae Party, which name dropped the Pistols, Clash, Jam, and the Damned.

Now we colour coding punks too lol. Earth 2018.

Death came from the Detroit scene which was very important for garage rock (or proto-punk as it is named in hindsight): MC5, The Stooges and Alice Cooper (not so much proto-punk, but still influential) all came from Detroit. And besides them, even the Detroit funk band Funkadelic was playing rock songs in this era, check out Funkadelic's Super Stupid or Alice in My Fantasies for example.

Poly Styrene is literally my personal idol. I'm obsessed with her.

Death: "We're not a punk band, we're rock and roll band" AJ+: "Death is legendary black punk band" Lol

Death maybe would have been pioneers if people actually heard thier music. They were basically dug out of a dust bin and rediscovered. Meaning no one had really heard of them at all during the time when punk was starting to come into it's own. It was only in the early 2000 that a wider audience had heard them. You cant say someone or something was inspired or originated from something they were unaware of. If a tree falls in the woods and nobodys there, does it make a noise?

Thank you for mentioning Pure Hell, being from Philly I grew up on them but they need the exposure that so many other bands have gotten over the years. If you don't know them, you are missing out.

Blacks have been doing Rock since its very beginning. Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix have to be the three big ones as far as I'm concerned on the top of my head. There's probably a shit-ton of others I don't know about. As for blacks in punk rock bands, I might also recommend also listening to: Whipping Boy (1/2 of the band, including the frontman, is black), Dag Nasty ("Dag with Shawn"-era; Shawn Brown, who is black, was the first frontman of this band), the Chicago punk band The Bollweevils (black frontman), the Dead Kennedys (black drummer) and the Plasmatics (black bassist; fun fact: same bassist would produce the "Animal Boy" album for the Ramones). EDIT: Forgot about Lenny Kravitz (half black, half Jewish).

The Velvet Underground was proto-punk.

first rule of Punk: There are no rules. carry on.

Fantastic short. Thank you for this. My wife is currently curating a show about a Black South African photographer who has turned his lens on the SOWETO punk and skateboard movement. I am a punk from way back and have always loved punk from different parts of the world. Keep it up.

Can someone list all the song that appears in this video pls

Reggae was an influence on British punk. It wasn't through black punk bands though, it was through reggae

Because ART is Universal. whatever is the genre, everbody can do as long as we love it

Whole Wheat Bread, At the Drive In, TV on the Radio

We in the uk don’t care that much about race when it comes to music. A lot of white American artists spent the 50s trying to become known as the greatest rock and rollers ever and to,d everyone how they were better then everyone else. The unk artists of the 60s spent there time worshipping at the alter of Chuck berry, little Richard and Bo diddley. Eric Clapton a man referred to as the god for his guitar abilities has never claimed to be the best instead pointing to his favourite American blues artist B.B King. In the 70s white uk teens knew more about black music in America then almost anyone else due to northern soul. An underserved nd movement where teens were going to America and digging up any song by a black artist that had never gotten big and taking it to play around the uk at parties they DJ. They diddnt cover them they instead just gave these forgotten American blues and soul tunes a new audience. As well as punk there was ska which was popularised in the uk by Jamaican imagrants playing classic tunes from the genre to there white neighbours who loved it so much that they formed there own bands. Often these bands would be mixed race such as the beat and the specials. Weirdly racist skinheads loved ska music and adopted the Jamaican rude boy fashion and were usually the crowd that bands that could sometimes have more black then white members would be playing too. The most famous example of this though is of course jimi Hendrix who after famously de throbbing the god at a live event formed his own band was immediately adopted in England as the face of rock and roll before he returned to America and became the legend he is today. The uk is weird like that

Why is she addressing this like it’s new information? There’s been enough documentaries and interviews long before this girl was alive

3:50 I knew "punk" was a black slang for some time, especially when I worked with a lot of black older folks at work. Punk was just as how he described it and how my coworkers defined it. Gatekeeping really has affected how music is perceived and even how a music's origin is remembered.

Bad Brains were also Rastafarians

can anyone tell me whats the name of the song that plays right after Holiday in Cambodia??

I hear you. I also understand that Beethoven and Chopin were black. Any truth in that?

The Bad Brains were an important band because of what they did, not the color of their skin. Get your identity politics out of our music.

Iggy and the Stooges New York Dolls MC5

What is the name of the song after DK's "Holiday in Cambodia" comes on ?

Punk is Punk and attitude is attitude and neither of these two things has anything to do with race, gender, politics, (maybe) or religion. Its music made to be heard just like any other form of music people enjoy. Punk is about being yourself and having a free mind of your own with an attitude that comes with it and things like fashion do not matter unless you give it a reason to matter, social media just like AJ+ and the people who work for them and follow them don't understand that and they try to make Punk into their own image to suit their personal ideologies. Punk is for all types of people no matter who you are.

Death didn't pioneer shit. No one ever got to hear them back then. Only in recent years, their music came to light and now hipsters gonna be like "oh yes, black proto punk, that was the shit back then don't you know?!" and all of a sudden, we need pointless documentaries like this... -.-

Didn't punk more or less originate with the MC5 and The Stooges?

To those who say that punk never cared about color,, explain why the only black punk rock band a punk can even remember is Bad Brains? Death, Yes, Pure Hell, National Wake, FIshbone, Whole Wheat Bread...nobdy who claims to like punk rock so much will EVER mention these bands emough. And why? Well, none of the bands I listed suck, so that can't be a reason.

What's the song at 0:09 straight after Holiday in Cambodia?

End racism and segregation! Let's have an all afro-punk festival.. Makes perfect sense..

The blackification of everything!

I never thought of punk in color. I listened to punk on college radio, it was cool and still is.

The drummer for the 1865 was also the singer for one of the easiest Skate Rock hardcore bands (McRad).

“When you’re black,you’re punk all the time”. 😄👌🏻

Their second band example came about after the Ramones and The Sex Pistols. Arguably 2 of the most popular punk bands. Not really so valid

track ID at 2:23 please?

What's the first song that plays at 0:02?