Celtic Hip Hop - Celtic Punk

Celtic Punk

Celtic punk was essentially invented by The Pogues in the early 1980s and immediately gained popularity following the release of their first album in 1985. It is one of the best established of the modern Celtic fusion genres, and generally includes drums, bass, guitar, and fiddle, sometimes with tin whistle, bodhran, or accordion. The sound is typically fast with aggressive lyrics, rock beats, and melodies.

Bands in this genre include Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, The Real Mckenzies, Neck, Smiting Shillelagh, Flatfoot 56, The Tossers, The Vandon Arms, The Molly Maguires, Mutiny, and Black 47 (who also incorporate hip hop influences). The genre is most popular in Ireland, Scotland, England, the United States, and Canada.

Punks singing in Celtic languages began to emerge in the late 1970s in Wales, where groups such as Ail Symudiad (Second Movement) and Y Trwynau Coch (The Red Noses) began performing in fast-paced idioms reminiscent of the Jam; a rather harder sound was adopted by Anhrefn (Chaos) in the 1980s. The 2000s saw in Scotland the emergence of several Gaelic-language punk bands, such as Mill a h-Uile Rud and the genre is also represented in Brittany with the band called Les Ramoneurs de Menhirs.