Though classified as “punk,” Manchester's Buzzcocks were—like the Ramones—basically just a pop band that played really, really fast and really, really loud. Sharp, concise, and irresistibly catchy, their music—starting with 1977's Spiral Scratch EP—set the pace for basically every hybrid of pop and punk that followed, from The Replacements to Green Day to blink-182, forgoing the political outrage of bands like the Sex Pistols and The Clash for something personal, even romantic. They also formed one of the first independent punk labels in the UK (New Hormones), pioneering a do-it-yourself attitude that proved subverting conventional systems could be as much a business decision as an aesthetic one.