Post-punk is a rock music genre that paralleled and emerged from the initial punk rock explosion
of the late 1970s. The genre is an artsier and more experimental form of punk. Post-punk
laid the groundwork for alternative rock by broadening the range of punk and underground
music, incorporating elements of krautrock, dub music, American funk and studio experimentation
into the genre. It was the focus of the 1980s alternative music/independent scene, and led
to the development of genres such as gothic rock and industrial music.
1977–79 In November and December 1977 writers for
Sounds used the terms "New Musick" and "post punk" for music acts which Jon Savage described
as sounding like "harsh urban scrapings/controlled white noise/massively accented drumming".
The term came to signify artists such as Siouxsie and the Banshees with sounds, lyrics, and
aesthetics that differed significantly from their punk contemporaries and soon became
applied to other British musicians, including The Pop Group, This Heat, Subway Sect, Wire,
The Fall, Public Image Ltd and Magazine. Although American bands such as Devo, Suicide, Television,
The B-52s, and Talking Heads had been pioneering a style of music with qualities similar to
post punk since the early 1970s, New York's no wave scene, including Teenage Jesus and
the Jerks, Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Mars, James Chance and the Contortions emerged contemporaneously
with the British scene. Similarly, a pioneering punk scene in Australia during the mid-1970s
also fostered influential post-punk acts like the Boys Next Door/The Birthday Party.
Despite existing since the inception of the early punk rock movement, bands such as Throbbing
Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, as well as others bands on the experimental rock trajectory,
were associated with the post-punk genre. These bands pioneered the emergence of industrial
music from the post-punk movement. 1980s
British post-punk entered the 1980s with a champion, late-night BBC DJ John Peel, landmark
bands, and network of supportive record labels. In 1980, critic Greil Marcus characterised
"Britain's postpunk pop avant-garde" – in a Rolling Stone article – as "sparked by
a tension, humour and sense of paradox plainly unique in present day pop music."
Other prominent US post-punk artists included Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Minutemen,
Mission of Burma, R.E.M., The Lounge Lizards, DNA, Bush Tetras, Theoretical Girls, Swans
and Sonic Youth. No wave focused more on performance art than actual coherent musical structure.
The Brian Eno-produced No New York compilation is considered the quintessential testament
to the history of no wave. In Australia, other influential acts to emerge
included: Primitive Calculators, Tactics, The Triffids, Laughing Clowns, The Moodists,
Severed Heads, Whirlywirld, Kill the King and Crime & the City Solution.
The original post-punk movement ended as the bands associated with the movement turned
away from its aesthetics, just as post-punk bands had originally left punk rock behind
in favor of new sounds. Some shifted to a more commercial new wave sound, while others
were fixtures on American college radio and became early examples of alternative rock.
In the United States, driven by MTV and modern rock radio stations, a number of post-punk
acts had an influence on or became part of the Second British Invasion of "New Music"
there. Perhaps the most successful band to emerge from post-punk was U2, who combined
elements of religious imagery together with political commentary into their often anthemic
music. Influence
Post-punk led to the development of many musical genres such as gothic rock, dance-rock, industrial
music, synthpop, post-hardcore, neo-psychedelia and most prominently, alternative rock.
Post-punk revival
The turn of the 21st century saw a post-punk revival in British and American alternative
rock, which soon started appearing in other countries, as well. The earliest sign of a
revival was the emergence of various underground bands in the mid-'90s. However, the first
commercially successful bands – The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, Editors and Neils
Children – surfaced in the late 1990s to early 2000s. Modern post-punk is more commercially
successful than in the 1970s and 1980s; however clubs continue to air the original post-punk
bands. Additionally, some darker post-punk bands similar in style to Joy Division and
The Cure have begun to appear in the Indie music scene in the 2010s, including Cold Cave,
She Wants Revenge and Night Sins, who are also affiliated with the current darkwave
revival. Then bands like A Place To Bury Strangers with a combination of early post-punk and
shoegaze showed up to further engulf the post-punk revival in fame. Light Asylum, another recent
darkwave revival band, also cites strong post-punk influences. These bands tend to draw a fanbase
who are a combination of the hipster subculture, older post-punk fans, and the current goth
subculture. See also
List of post-punk bands References
Sources Thompson, Dave. Alternative Rock. Miller Freeman
Books. ISBN 9780879306076. Marcus, Greil. Ranters & Crowd Pleasers. Anchor
Books. ISBN 9780385417211. Kootnikoff, David. Bono: A Biography. ABC-CLIO.
ISBN 0313355096. Middles, Mick. The Rise and Fall of the Stone
Roses: Breaking into Heaven. Music Sales Group. ISBN 0857120395.
Reynolds, Simon. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984. London:
Faber&Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-21570-6. Reynolds, Simon. The Sex Revolts: Gender,
Rebellion, and Rock 'n' Roll. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674802735.
Reynolds, Simon. Totally Wired: Postpunk Interviews and Overviews. Soft Skull Press. ISBN 1593763948.
Stubbs, David. Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen. John Hunt
Publishing. ISBN 1846941792. Further reading
Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-03949-9.
Heylin, Clinton. Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge. Viking, Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-102431-8.
McNeil, Legs; McCain, Gillian. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk. London:
Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 978-0-349-10880-3. D. Nicholls. The Cambridge History of American
Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-45429-8.
External links Post-punk at Allmusic
Post-punk essay and sampler by Julian Cope Blog of music influences on Mark E. Smith
of The Fall