Gypsy punk is a hybrid
musical genre that crosses traditional
Romani music with
punk rock. One of the first rock groups to incorporate elements of punk and Gypsy music was
Motherhead Bug, which was active mostly in the early 1990s. A broader audience became aware of the genre after the band
Gogol Bordello released the album
Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike, with front man
Eugene Hütz describing their performance as a "Gypsy Punk Cabaret". The term "Gypsy punk" then came to describe the genre and then came under criticism as it was considered exploitative of Roma culture. Gogol Bordello have since insisted it was just the name of their album, which was then taken and used by the music press as a term to define the genre of their music and similar artists — not an offshoot term for authentic Gypsy music.