What was the first punk single to reach the top 10?
Glastonbury Festival 2025 wrapped up recently, and it has proven to be one of the most controversial iterations of the festival ever. The controversy came following Bob Vylan’s set, as the punk duo led the chant “Death to the IDF”. While this wasn’t the only pro-Palestinian move of the weekend, it was the one that Glastonbury organisers believed crossed a line.
The Eavis family were quick to share a post on social media saying that they believe what Bob Vylan said was out of order. They acknowledged that they have always been a political festival and welcome people’s politics, but they were against what the punk duo said.
“We are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday,” Glastonbury organisers wrote in a statement on social media. “Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the Festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.”
Bob Vylan’s comments and Glastonbury’s response have caused a great deal of controversy, as some people believe Bob Vylan’s comments went too far, while others believe Glastonbury’s response detracts from a bigger issue. The debate rages on, and it doesn’t look like there will be any resolution anytime soon. This remains one instance in many of expression within music, and when a comment might go too far.
There has always been revolt in music, but it was usually done through sound as opposed to using lyrics. For instance, when you listen to free jazz and noise music, you are listening to a form of protest music, but it just conveys those protests in a more subtle way. The disorientating sound of both of these genres is supposed to be a reflection of the chaotic world that the music rebels against. They were underground movements which were profound and thought-provoking.
It wasn’t until the ‘70s that we started to get protest music, which contained lyrics and bled into the mainstream. This is what we now serenely refer to as the punk movement, as bands would rebel against societal issues against a backdrop of harsh, distorted guitars and energetic drumbeats.
Punk came under fire as a genre that crossed a line with its themes. As a result, many radio stations and broadcasters tried to censor what was coming out of the scene; however, it gained traction, and it wasn’t long before punk songs made their way into the official charts. It begs the question, who was first to break through the mainstream?
So, what was the first punk single to reach the top 10?
“A very depressing place,” said John Lydon when he was describing Britain in the ‘70s, “There was trash on the streets, total unemployment – just about everybody was on strike, if you came from the wrong side of the tracks, then you had no hope in hell and no career prospects at all […] Out of that came the Sex Pistols and then a whole bunch of copycat wankers after us.”
Calling every other punk band a “copycat wanker” seems like a blanket term; however, Lydon puts his money where his mouth is when it comes to punk songs charting. It turns out that the Sex Pistols were the first punk band to score a top ten song with their track ‘God Save the Queen’.
Reaching the charts was very much against the odds for Sex Pistols, as the majority of radio stations had banned the song due to the offensive lyrics. However, there was enough hype surrounding this controversy that people still went out and bought the song, and the result was that it was propelled to number two in the charts.
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