Post-Punk

Introduction to Post-Punk

Rock music is responsible for spawning some of the past half a century’s biggest and most influential musical genres; many sub-genres emerged throughout the latter part of the 20th century. It spawned subgenres such as hardcore punk, pop punk, emo, horror punk, skate punk, post-hardcore, folk punk, dance-punk, crust punk; the list is endless. 

These subgenres also led to the creation of many entirely new genres that took many paths of the body of punk and both of them into something completely different. These include alternative rock, indie rock, new wave, noise rock, shoegaze. And, of course, the subject of this category page, post-punk. 

Although much of the skeletal elements of post-punk are derived from punk rock, the genre takes sounds and styles from our wide array of different genres. The DIY sensibility to punk is still there, but musically, the genre takes heavy influence from electronic music, dub, funk, free jazz, and disco, just to name a few. 

In many ways, punk was a very straightforward and kind of basic genre. Because of this, many people look down on it as almost pathetic and artistically cheap. Post-punk was the complete antithesis of this, taking lyrical influences from literature, modernist art, and cinema and blending genres together in a very avant-garde style. 

Like punk, post-punk can be considered an umbrella term covering various styles and sounds in many ways. Due to this, the genre has been closely linked to genres, such as Gothic rock, industrial music, and neo-psychedelia. 

History of Post-Punk

Punk had become a phenomenon in the media after the infamous Sex Pistols appearance on the Bill Grundy show. The controversy led to widespread moral panic that cost the genre to be maligned. Following this, many bands inspired by the punk movement started experimenting heavily with lyrics and sounds to make them stand out significantly from their contemporaries. 

Many of these bands used a heavy amount of harsh sounds, loud drum patterns, and controlled white noise, as described by John Savage in the Sound Magazine. Bands such as Throbbing Gristle, who even predated punk, had a clear post-punk/Industrial sound of experimentation with tape machines and early electronic instruments.

Wire

The 1977 debut from Wire, Pink Flag, is considered by many to be one of the first post-punk albums ever released. Despite coming out in the first wave of British punk rock, the album was unlike anything else released at that time. Critics praised his lack of standard slash core structure and the bands, dissonant and minimalist arrangements. The album would be considered a landmark album in the development of post-punk, alternative rock, hardcore punk, and even Brit-pop. Songs from the album would go on to be covered by dozens of artists.

Despite Pink Flag’s influence on the genre, the band Siouxsie and the Banshees were the first to define the early post-punk sound of spacious disorienting, and angst-filled music. Their incredibly inventive debut album, The Scream, is considered a landmark in the genre due to its aggressive visceral yet very experimental sound. The dark atmospheric sound of the band was described by many as gothic, leading to the creation of the goth rock genre. 

Public Image LTD

After the controversy with the Sex Pistols and following the band’s messy breakup, lead singer John Lyden strove to create an anti-rock band. Lyden approached his friend Jah Wobble to play bass and the clashes guitarist, Keith Levine, to start a new band taking influence from broad musical genres, such as reggae and world music. They created the band Public Image Ltd and pioneering debut album First Issue. First Issue received incredibly negative reviews upon release. Still, it’s since been considered a groundbreaking classic in the genre, which Pitchfork compared to future albums such as Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth.

However, their second album, Metal Box, is the album that would define the band. This would solidify them as true pioneers of the genre; the album was praised for blending punk roots with the dub sound of Can and the experimental electronic sounds on David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy with Brian Eno. The album was packaged in a metal canister, which was incredibly weird and innovative for its time. The records were tough to get out and regularly scratched while taking them out of the case. Also, each side only contained 10 minutes of music. So listeners had to keep changing sides to listen to the full hour album. 

The Pop Group

Another massive album in early post-punk is the 1979 debut by The Pop Group, Y. The Pop Group was inspired by punk rock’s energy but felt that the genre needed to evolve. They took influences from avant-garde as well as black music styles, such as free jazz and dub. They created an album described by Mike Watt as being Funkadelic mixed with Captain Beefheart. 

Gang of Four

Another band to take heavy influence from black music genres, such as dub, funk, and reggae is Gang of Four. The band’s debut, Entertainment, would be one of the most influential albums of post-punk and even rock music in general. The funky rhythms, shouted vocals, and left-wing political lyrics would go on to inspire countless musicians, including Kurt Cobain and Flea. 

Of course, many post-punk bands came out of the UK at this time, bands like The Slits, Magazine, A Certain Ratio, The Fall, The Chameleons, Killing Joke, The Psychedelic Furs, Simple Minds, The The, and even Throbbing Gristle. All of which can be considered seminal post-punk bands. 

Joy Division

When it comes to UK post-punk pioneers, Joy Division is one of the bands at the very top of the list. The band originates after Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook attended A Sex Pistols show in Manchester. They soon put out an advert for a vocalist, which is how they found Ian Curtis. Then in 1977, they brought in drummer, Stephen Morris, creating the band’s final lineup.

Although Joy Division only made two records, their impact on alternative music is nothing short of astounding. Instead of focusing on anger and aggression like most punk and many post-punk bands, they were ahead of their time and instead emphasized mood and expression.

Joy Division had a considerable influence on contemporary artists, such as U2 and The Cure. They also had a massive impact on modern bands, such as Radio Head, Nine Inch Nails, Interpol, Block Party, Editors, and many more. 

The band’s debut album Unknown Pleasures has received unanimous praise and is widely considered one of the greatest albums of all time.

Many have lauded its mysterious and moody sound, the use of effects, and driving rhythms. Ian Curtis’s voice has been compared to Jim Morrison’s, and his melodramatic crooning adds to the dark atmospheric sound of the album. Less than a year after its release, Curtis committed suicide. 

After Ian’s death, the band released the iconic single Love Will Tear Us Apart, which became the band’s most recognizable song. Shortly after, they released the band’s second album, Closer, recorded a few weeks before Kurt’s death. Like its predecessor, the album has been praised and is considered one of the defining albums in post-punk and early Gothic rock.

The remaining Joy Division band members then regrouped and started the band New Order. New Order would become one of the most critically acclaimed and influential musical acts of the eighties, expanding on the post-punk sound of joy division and going into new wave and synthpop territories.

Origins of Post-Punk in the United States

United States post-punk had quite a different origin story than it did in the UK, with it being created pretty much in tandem with US punk rock, in clubs such as the CBGBs in Manhattan. 

Television

New York based band Television’s debut album Marquee Moon is one of the landmark releases in American post-punk and punk rock in general due to its rock and jazz-inspired inter-playing countermelodies. Guitarists Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine inter-played their guitar parts, with Verlaine establishing the rhythmic elements while Lloyd played dissonant melodies over them. 

The album has been praised as one of the best albums to come out of the American punk rock movement and influence huge bands, such as the Pixies, Sonic Youth, R.E.M., Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen, and The Strokes. 

Talking Heads

Also to come from this scene were new wave and post-punk pioneers, Talking Heads. They combined elements of punk, art-rock, and funk together with art school sensibilities. The band’s debut 77 was praised for blending art-rock with mainstream pop melodies.

David Byrne’s strained, nervous vocals, mixed with the staggered rhythms and self-conscious lyrics, made the album an instant classic. It would have a massive influence on future post-punk and art-punk bands and the development of new wave. 

The Talking Heads collaboration Brian Eno proved to be particularly successful, with their 1980 album Remain in Light being widely considered one of the greatest albums of all time. While working with Eno, the band started experimenting with African polyrhythms, stream of consciousness lyrics, experimental tape effects, and synthesizers. 

A prime example of this is their masterpiece of a song, Once in a Lifetime, led by a dub / reggae-inspired rhythm section and David Burns preacher-like lyrics.

No Wave

Around the same time and also emerging in New York was the no wave movement. The movement was created to respond to punks recycling old rock and roll cliches, experimenting with noise, dissonance, atonality, and taking heavy influence from free jazz.

Many consider the compilation album No New York to be the definitive document of the movement featuring pioneers James Chance and the Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Mars, and DNA.

1980’s Post-Punk

By the 1980s, many post-punk / new wave bands started to adopt a more dance-oriented sound favoring less abrasive sounds. Bands, such as ESG, Liquid Liquid, and the B52’s showed a mixture of hip hop, disco, world, and reggae sound blended into the punk rock style. 

However, artists such as Swan, Sonic Youth, and Glenn Branca took influence from more of the abrasive and noisy sound of their genre.

Goth Rock

Post-punk influences led to the creation of many genres and sub-genre; probably the most significant sub-genre to emerge from post-punk is gothic rock. The genre is known for using dark atmospheric music mixed with more romantic lyrics. Goth rock has been used to describe post-punk bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Magazine, The Cure, and Joy Division for a long, long time. 

Many consider the first actual goth rock song to be the 1979 song from Bauhaus, Bela Lugosi’s Dead. The song is a nine-and-a-half-minute track of a dub-inspired guitar sound, atmospheric and haunting drums, and dark lyrics about the famous actor Bela Lugosi. The lyrics show an apparent influence from many Gothic horror movies from the thirties that Lugosi himself stared in, such as Dracula.

Although originally written as a tongue-in-cheek song, with a faux serious style, many genuinely believe the darkness of the track and its success led to many bands to start adopting more gothic characteristics. 

With their fourth album, Juju, Siouxsie and the Banshees started to adopt these characteristics with mysterious songs, such as spellbound. Nick Cave’s band, The Birthday Party, also released their single Release the Bats. It was a song that became incredibly influential in the early eighties goth rock, even despite its self parodying lyrics. 

Punk rock pioneers The Damned released their 1980 album, The Black Album, which many thought to be drenched in goth influence. 

The Cure

And of course, one of the biggest names in gothic rock and practically the poster child of the entire genre is undoubtedly The Cure. The Cure’s early work was simple, post-punk somewhat reminiscent of bands such as Gang of Four and Television.

Their 1980 record, 17 Seconds, completely recreated their sound to favor a very dissonant and atmospheric goth rock sound. Inspired by the touring with Siouxsie and the Banshees, the album is full of dark, gloomy soundscapes.

The Cure carried these sounds on through their subsequent two albums before sending it to the more psychedelic new wave sound that would lead the band to become huge. 

Robert Smith himself has said the following, though: “The Cure just aren’t a goth band. When people say it to me, you’re goth, I say you either have never heard us play or you have no idea what goth is. One of those two has to be true because we’re not a goth band.”

Deathrock

Goth rock would also spawn its own punk fusion genre, called deathrock. Deathrock mixed the gothic tone with a more hard punk edge. 

The harbinger of the genre is widely considered to be Christian Death’s 1982 debut, Only Theater of Pain. 

The Smiths

Although post-punk lost a lot of the experimentation that it once had in the late seventies and early eighties, there were many bands and musical genres that emerged, taking influence from it. 

In the 1980s, one of the biggest bands in the scene included the band, The Smiths, whose blend of R&B and rock and roll, jangle pop / post-punk, would become one of the most influential and successful bands. 

All four of the band’s releases received critical acclaim due to Morrissey’s crooning voice and sense of humor and Johnny Marr’s sophisticated guitar arpeggios and use of effect pedals. The Smiths have been considered by many to be one of the most influential British bands since The Beatles, with many bands and musicians citing them as an influence.