All 3 are very different for very different reasons. My thoughts on each below:
1) The Ramones -- Clearly the inventors of a style of music that was copied by many imitators. They essentially reinvented the wheel: they said what they had to say in as little time as possible, stripped out the filler and returned rock'n'roll to its proper beginnings as catchy, tuneful, and simple. But the world was SO not ready for them at that point in time, which is the case of most work from a creative genius.
2) The Sex Pistols -- Mind you, I love the Pistols but they destroyed the hope of punk rock. No record label wanted to touch punk rock when it ended up on the front page of the newspaper. Strung out on dope, vomiting, cursing, bleeding, fighting, pierced with safety pins, etc. Seymour Stein wanted to quit classifying bands punk rock and instead embrace the term "new wave". The Sex Pistols essentially proved that if bands were just going to self destruct there was no point in investing in bands like the Ramones or the Damned. It just didn't make sense if you were a businessman.
3) The Clash -- The most diverse of the the 3, the one that got the most attention and critical praise at the time of their existence. A brilliant band, but the ones who strayed most from the punk rock formula. They had starry eyes and pretty much peaked and then self-distructed rapidly. A hugely dynamic output, but I still have to say the Ramones understood rock'n'roll better. Not that the Clash are overrated by any means. It just got to a point where they did what they had to do to sell records and CBS took the ball and ran with it. The Ramones were just never in that position no matter how hard they tried. Instead, it took countless imitators to finally break through.
