It combines punk rock or new wave with country, folk, and blues in its sound, lyrical subject matter, attitude, and style.

[1][3] Examples include Social Distortion,[4] The Gun Club, The Long Ryders, Dash Rip Rock, Violent Femmes, The Blasters, Mojo Nixon, Meat Puppets, The Beat Farmers, Rubber Rodeo, Rank and File, and Jason and the Scorchers.

In 1984, Robert Palmer wrote in the New York Times on the emerging aesthetic acknowledged "cowpunk" as one of several catch-all terms critics were using to categorize the country-influenced music of otherwise unrelated punk and new wave bands.

[9] A 2018 article looking back at the 1980s trends states that the "...diversity of styles beyond punk proper" in cowpunk, "...for some, made the category...suspect, [or] at least misleading.

[11] Joey Camp says he was turned off country as a teen in the early 1980s because he mistakenly thought that the "...countrypolitan fare" then popular on commercial radio, such as "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, "Queen of Hearts" by Juice Newton, and "Always on My Mind" by Willie Nelson" was the extent of country music.

[12] Music writer Peter Doggett has stated that there has been a "difficult relationship between punk and country" since musicians from the two genres first encountered each other, but they did manage to meet and blend their styles.

[14] T. Tex Edwards, the singer for Dallas area punk band The Nervebreakers, which opened for the Ramones in 1977 and the Sex Pistols on their 1978 US Tour, went on to cowpunk and other country-influenced groups.

There are a number of U.S. bands: X, the Blasters, Meat Puppets, The Beat Farmers,[18] Rubber Rodeo (which "juxtaposed countrypolitan elements and more conventional rock postures" in homage to "a pop-culture west rather than a geographic or historic one"), Rank and File (playing "an updated version of 1960s country-rock"), Jason and the Scorchers (with "authentically deep country roots"), Tex & the Horseheads, Blood on the Saddle[19] 1984), Dash Rip Rock, Drivin' n Cryin', Fetchin Bones (from North Carolina), The Rave-Ups, Concrete Blonde, Great Plains (from Ohio), and Violent Femmes (at that time incorporating "mountain banjo, wheezing saxophones, scraping fiddle, twanging jew's harp, and ragged vocal choruses").

The band's cowpunk sound combined elements of 1960s garage rock with country, blues and folk influences.

Nine Pound Hammer is an American hardcore-cowpunk band formed in 1985 by vocalist Scott Luallen and guitarist Blaine Cartwright in their hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky.

In Social Distortion's album Prison Bound (1986–1988), the band makes a notable style change, exploring a country/western flavor .

[23] In the late 1980s, Edmonton-based Jr. Gone Wild has been called a "[c]risp, cheerfully honest" example of ,"...that "cowpunk" thing, sure — but really it's just the sugary-yet-direct indie rock of its time, poppy and looking back more than a little at the Gram Parsons side of the Byrds.

The film, which is directed by Allison Anders, Dean Lent and Kurt Voss, is about two musicians and a roadie who haven't been paid who rob money from a club and one of whom flees to Mexico leaving his wife and daughter behind.

In 1989, The Washington Post reported that "...the biggest trend, especially at NM [Neimen-Marcus], is Madison Avenue cowpunk—costumes for trust-fund Cowboy Junkies ranging from hand-stenciled "Indian" deerskin jackets by Ralph Lauren for her ($2,200) to western-style yoke-front tuxedos ($1,975) that are the visual equivalent of a Lonesome Strangers song.

Other cowpunk groups of the 2000s and 2010s included Old Crow Medicine Show, Those Darlins, The Waco Brothers, 7 Shot Screamers, and Blackfoot.

Danish hellbilly group Volbeat specialise in heavy metal infused covers of classic country songs.