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Post-Punk

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Post-punk is a term referring to a broad genre of rock-based styles which largely emerged alongside the rise of punk rock and New Wave? in the mid-to-late 1970s?. Compared to related genres, post-punk tends to have a darker and more experimental bent, de-emphasizing the guitar in favour of bass grooves and exploring atmosphere, texture, rhythm, and novel influences into the rock idiom, retaining some level of punk? simplicity. Although difficult to pin down exactly and despite its somewhat misleading name, post-punk has been an enduring idea within the categorisation of rock music, particularly associated with the period of 1978? to 1984?, as well as revivals of these aesthetics in the 1990s? and 2000s? within indie rock. The term has been used ambiguously over time to describe a period, a set of stylistic characteristics, and a broad family of music emerging out of the punk/DIY?/indie? explosion.

The post-punk genre was initially conceptualised under the name New Musick?, connoting a wave of avant-rock artists rooted in the studio experimentation and arty psychedelia? of mid-1970s Brian Eno? as well as the mechanical electronics? and atmospheres of Kraftwerk?, Neu!?, and other Krautrock? groups. The style can be drawn back to the mid-1970s with Eno's "Third Uncle" (1974?) and early recordings by Ohio? "proto-punk?" bands like Pere Ubu? and Devo? before their 1978 studio LPs cemented the bands as part of a post-1977? post-punk/art punk? canon. Other American New Wave artists of the period who later became associated with the "post-punk" term include Athens?' Pylon? and The B-52s?, Hoboken Sound? agit-poppers the Feelies?, and New York? CBGB-associated? groups like the Talking Heads? and Television?; in contrast, No Wave? avant-rockers retained punk attitude but entirely deconstructed its musical elements, descending into noise rock. In the UK?, a robust post-punk movement emerged in the wake of punk as a pop culture phenomenon, ranging from punk-funk? translated from the No Wave scene (The Pop Group?, A Certain Ratio?) to the budding industrial? movement (Throbbing Gristle?, Cabaret Voltaire?) to New Wave acid punk? (The Soft Boys?, The Teardrop Explodes?) to the development of a dark, dramatic gothic rock? aesthetic (Joy Division?, Bauhaus?, Siouxsie and The Banshees?, The Cure?) that continues to dominate the popular conception of post-punk. Post-punk remained a strong influence on late/post-New Wave developments in the UK, including jangle New Poppers? like Orange Juice? and Aztec Camera? as well as futurist? synthpop? like Depeche Mode? and The Human League?.

From the early 1980s? onward, post-punk was a massive influence on and essentially the parent genre of the period's indie rock and alternative rock?, genres which emerged out of combining the newer influences of post-punk with 1960s and 1970s? pop rock and riff rock?, typically incorporating some kind of distortion or restrained experimentation into a more straightforwardly and recognisably rock framework. Early alternative rock like college rock? and the big music? was heavily informed by post-punk arrangements and grooves, but began to distinguish itself more from the post-punk line with the evolution of grunge? and adult alternative? in the late 1980s to massive popularity in the 1990s. At the same time, there has always continued to be a strong purist post-punk-pop undercurrent within indie rock scenes, notable examples including the early 1990s "New Wave of New Wave?" within the Britpop? movement, the 2000s "post-punk revival?" as part of the "New Rock Revolution?", and 2010s? "crank wave?".

Beyond its more mainline, pop-informed interpretations, the experimentation and lithe band performances of post-punk were massively influential on more esoteric indie-rock offshoots like math rock, which further develops the angularity much of post-punk is known form, and post-rock, which extends New Musick experimentation and its Krautrock inspiration into the entire focus of a genre, reinterpreting the rock idiom through a texture-first approach.

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