It is 50 years ago this summer that a new cultural phenomenon burst onto the scene in Britain. It began quietly with a concert in Manchester on June 4, 1976, with no more than 40 people present to watch The Sex Pistols as they played. But by the end of that year, punk was a national issue, emerging quickly from its musical subculture into the mainstream before dying out 18 months later. Despite its short life, punk was to have an outsized influence on Britain socially and culturally, ushering in an era of aggressive individualism, bridging the gap between the hippie idealism of the 1960s and the rampant materialism of the 1980s and beyond.