Originally Posted by Minstrel

I would say punk, in all honesty, doesn't differ from rock and pop anymore. In the '70s, it was a rejection of "hip" and "fitting in." It was music to express individuality. That ended almost as soon as it began. I'd say "punk" now just refers to certain groups of bands that are agreed-upon, with extremely fuzzy boundaries, by whatever circle of discussion you're in. Any attempt to formalize what punk is, in terms of sound, basically devolves into "I know it when I hear it."

Whether a band is punk or not is really one of the most pointless and fruitless debates in music discussions. Punk is a lot like "dream pop" or "noise-rock"....it doesn't mean anything concrete, the labels are applied arbitrarily based on each person's feelings and it's really all just pop and rock.