Proto-punk (or protopunk) is a music subgenre label given retrospectively to forms of rock music in the 1960s and early 1970s that influenced the punk rock movement. The term is most often used to designate a select handful of previously uncategorized acts from a variety of backgrounds and styles who emerged at the end of the 1960s and continued up until the arrival of the punk rock phenomenon in mid-1970s, and anticipated many of its musical and thematic attributes. The term proto-punk is also used to refer to rock acts from mid-1960s deemed to be influential on later punk, particularly much garage rock."