“Although hardly a punk band as most would define the term, Blondie was one of the most successful groups to evolve from the fertile CBGB scene of the mid-1970s, and one of the few to break out to popular success almost immediately. While Blondie did not play the hyper fast rhythms of the Ramones, they were nonetheless a punk band by virtue of their attitude, and the fact that when the band started in New York, punk had not yet calcified into a rigid set of rules. Blondie was as influenced by pop and girl-group sounds as the Ramones, and their frenetic, fast-paced take on pop, and later reggae and rap, made them punk pioneers.
Led by the arresting stage presence and beauty of Debbie Harry--controversy over her being the public face of Blondie led to a campaign by the record company to promote the slogan “Blondie is a Group” on T-shirts and stickers--Blondie scored numerous chart hits such as “Heart of Glass” and “Call Me” in a few short years. Later singles such as “The Tide is High” and “Rapture” saw them dabbling in, and helping to popularize, reggae and rap, respectively. Blondie disbanded in 1982 (due as much to lack of inspiration after the lackluster album The Hunter as to Stein’s lengthy illness), but regrouped in the late 1990s with several core members, released a number of well-received records, and continued to tour sporadically. Many punks were annoyed by Blondie’s popularity and saw them as selling out the promise of early punk by adopting disco rhythms and rap in their quest for commercial success. Hardly the punk sellout that many thought, Blondie’s experimentation and use of different rhythms and musical styles actually grounds them more firmly in punk’s DIY aesthetic than many bands that stuck to the traditional beat and guitar sound.”
- Brian Cogan, The Encyclopedia of Punk, (2006)