Buzzcocks

Buzzcocks are an English punk band formed in Manchester in 1976, ranked alongside The Ramones as one of the key architects of pop-punk. Where much of first-wave punk leaned into confrontation and politics, Buzzcocks paired the genre's speed and aggression with sharp, hook-laden songwriting about desire, heartbreak and everyday frustration, condensed into songs rarely longer than three minutes.

Frontman Pete Shelley and guitarist Steve Diggle became the band's constant creative core, with Howard Devoto an important figure in its earliest days before departing to form Magazine. Buzzcocks' run of singles — «Orgasm Addict», «What Do I Get?» and especially «Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)» — turned confessional, often bisexual-coded lyrics into some of the catchiest choruses in punk, later gathered on the influential compilation Singles Going Steady, widely regarded as one of the genre's finest.

After splitting in 1983, Shelley and Diggle reunited the band in 1989 and continued releasing new albums for decades after, cementing Buzzcocks' legacy as a direct bridge between punk's rawness and the melodic pop-punk and indie-rock bands that followed.