I don’t know much punk music, but I must voice a gentle note of dissent from this comparison of Kevin’s: “The Ramones were basically reworking Beach Boys songs and playing 1950s rock, just louder and faster. (As everybody knows, there are only four chords in pop music.)”
The Beach Boys are striking for their harmonic complexity. Here are guitar tabs for “God Only Knows,” and there are 22 chords. “Surfer Girl”: 19 chords. “I Get Around”: 16 chords.
Music needn’t be complex to be good. And the simple can be elaborated into the complex when that is desired. Families of chords are related like the ramifications of a tree branch — additional notes are like new sticks and twigs, but they all trace back to the same source.
Traditional blues is built on a progression that makes use of three chords (that can be elaborated in various ways). It is exemplified in the verses of “Little Deuce Coupe.” My favorite song, Schubert’s “Nacht und Träume,” is at root pretty simple (but with passing tones and suspensions giving it perhaps Endless Summer elaborative complexity). Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” is simpler still (and developed with spectacular sophistication).