The early incarnations of the Misfits are associated with the hardcore punk movement of the early 1980s, though "" author Steven Blush notes that "though crucial to the rise of hardcore, were in fact in a league of their own...The Misfits delivered a hyper-yet-melodic assault based in 50/60s-style rock, taking the Buddy Holly/Gene Vincent foundation and making it nuclear." Jon de Rosa of Pitchfork Media describes how the band's sound was different from the punk rock coming out of New York at the time: "New York punk was just punk, simple and static. When Glenn started the Misfits, he mutated the punk sound and image into something darker and more sinister, a punk-metal hybrid that later found bloom in the quiet, boring suburbs of Oslo and the boggy backwaters surrounding Tampa. Punk belonged to the media/celebrity hubs of London and New York. Ghoul rock was for the kids in the suburbs where nothing ever happens."