From a history of punk rock -
http://mt.essortment.com/punkrockhistor_rapl.htm
Like any musical genre, it's hard to pinpoint that time and place where it actually began. But unlike any other musical genre, Punk rock was started as a deliberate reaction to the mass commercialism of music. In the year 2000, it's common to see someone "being A punk," rather than seeing someone "be punk."
In the late 60's and early 70's, the music industry rang eerily familiar in its method of promoting trends over music. The public was being spoon-fed music that corporations simply intended to make a profit from. The backlash to this came to be known internationally as Punk rock.
New York, early 1970's. Young, virtually unknown artists like Patti Smith, the Velvet Underground, and the Dolls of New York(changed later to New York Dolls) brought about a new style of "alternative-bohemian" entertainment, rooted in a "do-it-yourself" attitude. Short, frenetic songs, aggressive, sometimes confrontational stage presence, and angry messages against consumerism hit the stages at venues like New York's CBGB's, starting the movement that would be known as punk rock.
Bands like the Ramones and the Talking Heads would evolve out of the punk rock movement, and become influences for those who shared a similar distaste in what was occurring in the music industry. Some say the underlying roots of punk was the frustration and anger from being treated as sheep, while others say punk stemmed from the "politics of boredom." It was both.
EDIT: Most of the sources I've read list the Stooges as founders of the genre....and the Ramones as coming later.