Ramones (album) - Legacy

Legacy

Ramones is considered to have established the musical genre punk rock, as well as popularizing it years afterward. Nicholas Rombes, author of the 33⅓ book Ramones wrote that it offered "alienated future rock," and that it, "disconnected from tradition." Since it is their debut album it began the Ramones' influence on popular music, with examples being genres such as heavy metal, thrash metal, indie pop, grunge, and post-punk.

The album received little commercial success, only peaking at number 111 on the Billboard album chart. Neither of the album's singles, "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", charted. Despite the lack of popularity in its era, some 25 years after its release the importance of the album for the development of punk rock music was recognized by the music press and music industry. Since then Ramones has won several awards. In 2001 Spin included it in its special issue 25 Years of Punk with a list of The 50 Most Essential Punk Records, where it was number 1 in the list. Tony James said that "Everybody went up three gears the day they got that first Ramones album. Punk rock—that rama-lama super fast stuff—is totally down to the Ramones. Bands were just playing in an MC5 groove until then." The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the 2002 Induction Ceremony. The web-site said that "When the hit the street in 1976 with their self-titled first album, the rock scene in general had become somewhat bloated and narcissistic. The Ramones got back to basics: simple, speedy, stripped-down rock and roll songs. Voice, guitar, bass, drums. No makeup, no egos, no light shows, no nonsense. And though the subject matter was sometimes dark, emanating from a sullen adolescent basement of the mind, the group also brought cartoonish fun and high-energy excitement back to rock and roll."