History Main / PostPunk

* Music/{{Suicide|Band}} (UrExample of Post Punk, No Wave and {{Industrial}})

An American offshoot was No Wave, which was more focused on an anti-rock approach (not much dissimilar to that of Music/PublicImageLtd, in the sense of wanting to wipe out Rock music and start from scratch), musical extremism, and art dilettantism. This included James Chance, Mars, Lydia Lunch, Music/{{Swans}}, and several other bands, mostly from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Even artsier New York acts who had been active since the early 70s such as Music/PattiSmith, Music/{{Suicide|Band}} and Music/{{Television}} came to be known as pioneers of the American post-punk scene, which tends to be much harder to pick out compared to British ones due to the heavy amount of overlap with new wave; in fact, most American bands who can be classified as post-punk can also be classified as new wave depending on who you ask (Talking Heads and Devo being the two biggest examples, and even ), though it's worth noting that most easily-identifiable American new-wave bands cannot be classified as post-punk in turn. Try to call Music/{{Blondie|Band}} or Music/TheCars post-punk and you'll probably be met with puzzled looks at best. RapRock also developed out of Post-Punk's experimentation, with Post-Punk artists such as The Clash, Public Image Ltd. and Fausto Fawcett being cited as early pioneers of the fusion of Rock and Hip Hop.

Post-punk experienced a brief revival in indie rock during the 2000's, with bands such as Music/{{Interpol}}, Music/ModestMouse, Music/TheLibertines and Music/FranzFerdinand having commercial success. When people talk about more commercial, mainstream indie rock, or so-called "NME bands" (due to the magazine promoting these bands heavily), this is frequently the kind of thing they mean. However, a case could be made that almost all of these later bands missed the point of Post Punk, as Simon Reynolds claimed in his books "Rip It Up And Start Again" and "Totally Wired", since they didn't progress and evolve in the end, instead going backwards and basically just emulating their musical heroes and influences rather than using the genre's framework to create something truly new and original. One exception to the rule however were Music/BlocParty, who started out playing angular guitar rock but gradually incorporated elements of HipHop and ElectronicMusic to their sound, thereby kicking off the short-lived New Rave movement which ran alongside it.

An American offshoot was No Wave, which was more focused on an anti-rock approach (not much dissimilar to that of Music/PublicImageLtd, in the sense of wanting to wipe out Rock music and start from scratch), musical extremism, and art dilettantism. This included James Chance, Mars, Lydia Lunch, Music/{{Swans}}, and several other bands, mostly from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Even artsier New York acts who had been active since the early 70s such as Music/PattiSmith, Music/{{Suicide|Band}} and Music/{{Television}} came to be known as pioneers of the American post-punk scene, which tends to be much harder to pick out compared to British ones due to the heavy amount of overlap with new wave; in fact, most American bands who can be classified as post-punk can also be classified as new wave depending on who you ask (Talking Heads and Devo being the two biggest examples, and even ), though it's worth noting that most easily-identifiable American new-wave bands cannot be classified as post-punk in turn. Try to call Music/{{Blondie|Band}} or Music/TheCars post-punk and you'll probably be met with puzzled looks at best.

* Music/MyBloodyValentine ([[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness first few EPs]] with occasional elements of the genre afterwards)

Even Music/TheClash were inspired by its experimental nature at times (though they were far more musically conservative and "rockist" than the post-punk bands, particularly considering their dismissal of the synthesizer, forced synth parts on ''Music/CutTheCrap'' notwithstanding), and also several mainstream New Wave artists that had major success in The80s started out as Post-Punk acts (both the Music/{{Eurythmics}} and Music/TheHumanLeague started out in underground Post-Punk before going with their more successful SynthPop/Dance-Rock sounds. In a similar fashion, Music/LoveAndRockets and Music/MyBloodyValentine started in Post-Punk on their first albums before abandoning it and going with [[GenreMashup Danceable Alternative Goth]] and {{Shoegazing}} respectively). The movement even caught the attention of Music/DavidBowie, who had already been a major influence on it and dabbled in its style during its prime years (blending in elements of NewWaveMusic as well); him being David Bowie, he inevitably dropped it after he felt its time had passed, though continued to carry influences from it in his later work.

It was mainly a British thing-- most non-British bands failed to get much recognition, if any at all-- though in retrospect a number of American and Australian bands were well aware of the British scenes. Some of these included the American bands Pere Ubu (formed before the rise of PunkRock), Music/MissionOfBurma, Music/{{Devo}}, and Music/TalkingHeads, Australia's Music/TheBirthdayParty, Music/{{INXS}}, and Music/MidnightOil, and Ireland's Music/{{U2}}.

* Music/TheKillers

* Music/TwinTribes

* Music/DiscoInferno (up until ''Summer's Last Sound'', where they shifted to sample-based PostRock)

* Music/{{Chrome}}

Even Music/TheClash were inspired by its experimental nature at times (though they were far more musically conservative and "rockist" than the post-punk bands, particularly considering their dismissal of the synthesizer, forced synth parts on ''Music/CutTheCrap'' notwithstanding), and also several mainstream New Wave artists that had major success in TheEighties started out as Post-Punk acts (both the Music/{{Eurythmics}} and Music/TheHumanLeague started out in underground Post-Punk before going with their more successful SynthPop/Dance-Rock sounds. In a similar fashion, Music/LoveAndRockets and Music/MyBloodyValentine started in Post-Punk on their first albums before abandoning it and going with [[GenreMashup Danceable Alternative Goth]] and {{Shoegazing}} respectively). The movement even caught the attention of Music/DavidBowie, who had already been a major influence on it and dabbled in its style during its prime years (blending in elements of NewWaveMusic as well); him being David Bowie, he inevitably dropped it after he felt its time had passed, though continued to carry influences from it in his later work.

An American offshoot was No Wave, which was more focused on an anti-rock approach (not much dissimilar to that of Music/PublicImageLtd, in the sense of wanting to wipe out Rock music and start from scratch), musical extremism, and art dilettantism. This included James Chance, Mars, Lydia Lunch, Music/{{Swans}}, and several other bands, mostly from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Even artsier New York acts who had been active since the early 70s such as Music/PattiSmith, Music/{{Suicide|Band}} and Music/{{Television}} came to be known as pioneers of the American post-punk scene, which tends to be much harder to pick out compared to British ones due to the heavy amount of overlap with new wave; in fact, most American bands who can be classified as post-punk can also be classified as new wave depending on who you ask (Talking Heads and Devo being the two biggest examples, and even ), though it's worth noting that most easily-identifiable American new-wave bands cannot be classified as post-punk in turn. Try to call Music/{{Blondie}} or Music/TheCars post-punk and you'll probably be met with puzzled looks at best.

Eventually, post-punk petered out when the original bands turned away from its sound and went in several musical directions. Among others, Music/JoyDivision changed their name to Music/NewOrder after lead singer Ian Curtis's suicide and adopted a more synth-driven AlternativeDance style, Music/{{Devo}} and Music/{{Ultravox}} shifted to their own unique brands of SynthPop to increasingly mixed reception, Music/TheClash became a radio-friendly NewWaveMusic band (though didn't abandon their punk core), and Music/{{The Cure|Band}}, Music/SiouxsieAndTheBanshees, and many other bands became GothRock pioneers. At the same time, the 80's marked post-punk's transition into a new genre: AlternativeRock, which would blossom during the remainder of the decade and define the sound of [[TheNineties the following one.]] A number of post-punk bands that hadn't shifted to new wave, pop rock, synthpop, or goth rock would go on to embrace ''this'' genre instead by the end of the 80's, including [=U2=], Midnight Oil, INXS, Music/EchoAndTheBunnymen, and (especially in hindsight) Music/TalkingHeads. Some of the aforementioned goth rock acts also overlapped with alternative rock, if only because of how broad of an umbrella category the latter is.

However, a mini-revival of sorts-- dubbed by some as Neo Post-Punk or Post Punk 2k according to Spotify-- emerged in TheNewTens, spearheaded by bands such as Savages, Music/{{Idles}}, Protomartyr and Preoccupations (formed out of the ashes of noughties post-punkers Music/{{Women}}). Compared to the post-punk of the previous decade, these groups were less commercially-minded and more underground, often merging into PostRock and PostHardcore territory, and are thereby perhaps considered [[SpiritualSuccessor truer to the original scene's intentions]]. Another similar revival, based primarily in the United Kingdom and sometimes dubbed "Post Brexit New-Wave", emerged in the late 2010s and TheNewTwenties and featured artists such as Music/BlackMidi, Dry Cleaning and Squid.

* Music/TheChurch

* Music/JoyDivision (TropeCodifier for this; TropeMaker for GothRock)

Post-punk experienced a brief revival in indie rock during the 2000's, with bands such as Music/{{Interpol}}, Music/ModestMouse, Music/TheLibertines and Music/FranzFerdinand having commercial success. When people talk about more commercial, mainstream indie rock, or so-called "NME bands" (due to the magazine promoting these bands heavily), this is frequently the kind of thing they mean. However, a case could be made that almost all of these later bands missed the point of Post Punk, as Simon Reynolds claimed in his books "Rip It Up And Start Again" and "Totally Wired", since they didn't progress and evolve in the end, instead going backwards and basically just emulating their musical heroes and influences rather than using the genre's framework to create something truly new and original. While not limited to them, the derisive label of "landfill indie" was commonly applied to post-punk revivalists, and the stereotypical bland Joy Division, Talking Heads, or Gang of Four wannabe that seemed to have formed just to provide a song for an [=iPod=] commercial or a rhythm game managed to cement itself in the cultural consciousness fairly quickly. He seemed to have a point-- the post-punk revivalism movement fizzled out before the end of the decade, though part of this may also be due to the fact that rock as a whole was fading out from the public eye at the same time. It could be argued that they ''did'' foreshadow the turn away from more traditional rock styles in favor of pop and indie that occurred over the 2010s, but, in any case, the "[=iPod=] ad music" style itself is very dead, and the bands from the movement that survived typically either moved in a more or less pop-oriented direction.

* Music/HuskerDu

* Music/MyBloodyValentine ([[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness First EP only]])

[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[Music/{{Magazine}} So this is real life / You're telling me]]"''[[note]]Clockwise from upper left: Music/JoyDivision's ''Music/UnknownPleasures''; Music/{{Magazine}}'s ''Real Life''; Music/{{Wire}}'s ''Music/ChairsMissing''; Music/{{Wipers}}' ''Youth of America''; Music/PereUbu's ''The Modern Dance''; Music/TheFall's ''Hex Enduction Hour''; Music/TalkingHeads' ''Music/RemainInLight''; Music/EchoAndTheBunnymen's ''Ocean Rain''; Music/PublicImageLtd's ''Metal Box''.[[/note]]]]

When punk began to have a defined sound about 1976/77, several bands around the same time decided to take the basic energy of punk (play your instruments yourself, regardless of technique, and don't copy others, Do It Yourself, start a record label), not indulge in rock clichés/posing (and that included spurning the Blues and the usual/{{Cliche}} Rock music and, in some cases, chordal progression and even PunkRock itself) and experiment with [[UncommonTime more complex structures and rhythms]], [[GenreMashup fusions with other genres]] and/or more synthesizers. These included, but were not limited to, Dub, {{Krautrock}}, {{Funk}}, and even {{Disco}}. Some of these bands included Music/JoyDivision, Music/GangOfFour, Music/ThePopGroup, and Music/TheFall.

* Music/TheFall

* Music/BritishSeaPower