All bands that call themselves punk-pop or pop-punk or any variation thereof—not some of them, not most of them, all of them—owe everything to PETE SHELLEY and the BUZZCOCKS. Their sound, their vision, their songs, their independence, their existence. Their grasp of pop hooks and their understanding of how noise annoys. The universe-altering magnet that lustfully attracts that grasp to that understanding. A magnet that didn't quite exist before the Buzzcocks fashioned it out of cheap guitar parts and adolescent confusion. And every one of those bands is not nearly as good. And that's not really why I mourn today for PETE SHELLEY, the Buzzcocks' beating heart, who died Thursday at age 63. That's just influence. Everyone has a little of that. Shelley and his band had a lot of it. KURT COBAIN worshipped them. HÜSKER DÜ's BOB MOULD was a longtime member of their fan club. "You are the harmony in my head," eulogized BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG, whose band has a plaque on the exact piece of wall in Cleveland where the Buzzcocks' plaque should be. (They influenced thousands of mediocre bands, too, of course. Shelley to PITCHFORK, 2009: "Other bands come along and have far more success because they don't have the principles, but that's always been the way.") What I mourn is that heart. That heart that changed what punk was and what it could be. That heart that TIME MAGAZINE's JUDY BERMAN captured in a single tweeted sentence that explains everything: "Pete Shelley made punk DIY, queer, emotional and open to anyone." That's it. That's really it. Where the CLASH were political (huge oversimplification; I mean, c'mon, "STAY FREE"), the BUZZCOCKS were personal (not an oversimplification), registering, reflecting and refracting the mystery and wonder and awkwardness and strangeness and comedy of human relations that so many of us felt. He could be cutting and sarcastic, he could be wounded, he could be a power chord packed full of desire. He could believe there is no love in this world anymore and he could tell you the only thing known is our love. He could make you sing along either way, either gender. I met him once, a year out of college, my first trip to Europe, in a stairwell in the back of a club on the outskirts of London, long past midnight. I had a pen and notepad but no assignment and it was too dark to see what I was writing anyway. I was looking, I think, for a connection, fleeting but real, the kind you get from the best two-minute fast, loud and perfectly formed pop songs, of which he wrote a few too many. We talked for the length of maybe 10 of those songs, I went back to my hotel, slept through my alarm and almost missed my plane home the next morning. RIP... The Buzzcocks' first gig was opening for the SEX PISTOLS. JOY DIVISION's first gig was opening for the Buzzcocks. Keep paying it forward, kids... The dizzying, and unnecessary, double apostrophe in this song title should be discussed more often... Nominations for the first GRAMMY AWARDS since those Grammy Awards will be revealed at 8:30 am ET this morning... A STAR IS BORN, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, KENDRICK LAMAR, TROYE SIVAN and DOLLY PARTON are among the nominees for the GOLDEN GLOBES, announced Thursday... PANDORA's Podcast Genome Project is live, and AMAZON is trying to get you to have actual conversations about music with ALEXA... HANNAH KARP takes the editorial reins at BILLBOARD... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from the late XXXTENTACION, GUCCI MANE, VAN MORRISON, BENNY BLANCO, ICE CUBE, JACOB COLLIER, LP, JASON BECKER, JONATAN LEANDOER127 (aka YUNG LEAN), TOKEN, BRETT YOUNG, GUIDED BY VOICES, XXL, HXXS, EDDIE PALMIERI, GIL EVANS ORCHESTRA, LOCKSMITH, DANIEL KNOX, COLDPLAY's live album/film THE BUTTERFLY PACKAGE and a PAUL WILLIAMS tribute album, WHITE LACE AND PROMISES.