Post-punk

Post-punk is a heterogeneous[1][2] type of rock music that emerged in the wake of the punk movement of the 1970s. Drawing inspiration from elements of punk rock while departing from its musical conventions and wider cultural affiliations, post-punk music was marked by varied, experimentalist sensibilities and its "conceptual assault" on rock tradition.[2] Artists embraced electronic music, black dance styles and the avant-garde, as well as novel recording technology and production techniques. The movement also saw the frequent intersection of music with art and politics, as artists liberally drew on sources such as critical theory, cinema, performance art and modernist literature.[3] Accompanying these musical developments were subcultures that produced visual art, multimedia performances, independent record labels and fanzines in conjunction with the music.

The early post-punk vanguard included groups such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Devo, Wire, Public Image Ltd, Joy Division, Talking Heads, the Pop Group, Throbbing Gristle, and the Contortions, and the scene was closely related to the development of ancillary genres such as gothic rock, no wave and industrial music. By the mid 1980s, much of the movement had dissipated while providing the impetus for the New Pop movement as well much subsequent alternative and independent music.

Definition

Characteristics and philosophy

The term "post-punk" was first used by journalists in the late 1970s to describe groups moving beyond punk's sonic template into disparate areas.[4] Many of these artists, initially inspired by punk's DIY ethic and energy,[5] ultimately became disillusioned with the style and movement, feeling that it had fallen into commercial formula, rock convention and self-parody.[6] They repudiated its populist claims to accessibility and raw simplicity, instead seeing an opportunity to break with musical tradition, subvert commonplaces and challenge audiences.[7][5] Artists moved beyonds punk's focus on the concerns of a largely white, male, working class population[8] and abandoned its continued reliance on established rock and roll tropes, such as three-chord progressions and Chuck Berry-based guitar riffs.[7] These artists instead defined punk as "an imperative to constant change", believing that "radical content demands radical form".[9]

No wave artists like James Chance rejected rock tropes, instead crossing the avant-garde with funk, jazz and other styles.

Though the music varied widely between regions and artists, the post-punk movement has been characterized by its "conceptual assault" on rock conventions[2] and rejection of aesthetics perceived of as traditionalist,[1] hegemonic[10] or rockist[11] in favor of experimentation with production techniques and non-rock musical styles such as dub, electronic music, disco,[12] noise, jazz, krautrock, world music and the avant-garde.[10][8][5][7] While post-punk musicians often avoided or intentionally obscured conventional influences, previous musical styles did serve as touchstones for the movement, including particular brands of glam, art rock[13] and "[the] dark undercurrent of '60s music".[14][nb 1] According to Reynolds, artists once again approached the studio as an instrument, using new recording methods and pursuing novel sonic territories.[15] Author Matthew Bannister wrote that post-punk artists rejected the high cultural references of 1960s rock artists like the Beatles and Bob Dylan as well as paradigms that defined "rock as progressive, as art, as 'sterile' studio perfectionism ... by adopting an avant-garde aesthetic".[16]

Nicholas Lezard described post-punk as "a fusion of art and music". The era saw the robust appropriation of ideas from literature, art, cinema, philosophy, politics and critical theory into musical and pop cultural contexts.[10][7] Artists sought to refuse the common distinction between high and low culture[17] and returned to the art school tradition found in the work of artists such as Captain Beefheart and David Bowie.[18][8][19] Among major influences on a variety of post-punk artists were writers such as William S. Burroughs and J.G. Ballard, avant-garde political scenes such as Situationism and Dada, and intellectual movements such as postmodernism.[3] Many artists viewed their work in explicitly political terms.[20] Additionally, in some locations, the creation of post-punk music was closely linked to the development of efficacious subcultures, which played important roles in the production of art, multimedia performances, fanzines and independent labels related to the music.[7] Many post-punk artists maintained an anti-corporatist approach to recording and instead seized on alternate means of producing and releasing music.[2] Journalists also became an important element of the culture, and popular music magazines and critics became immersed in the movement.[21]

Scope of term

The scope of the term "post-punk" has been subject to controversy. While some critics, such as AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, have employed the term "post-punk" to denote "a more adventurous and arty form of punk",[5] others have suggested it pertains to a set of artistic sensibilities and approaches rather than any unifying style.[1] Music journalist and post-punk scholar Simon Reynolds has advocated that post-punk be conceived as "less a genre of music than a space of possibility",[1] suggesting that "what unites all this activity is a set of open-ended imperatives: innovation; willful oddness; the willful jettisoning of all things precedented or 'rock'n'roll'".[22] Nicholas Lezard, problematizing the categorization of post-punk as a genre, described the movement as "so multifarious that only the broadest use of the term is possible".[2]

Generally, post-punk music is defined as music that emerged from the cultural milieu of punk rock in the late 1970s,[1][12][5][23] although many groups now categorized as post-punk were initially subsumed under the broad umbrella of punk or new wave music, only becoming differentiated as the terms came to signify more narrow styles. Additionally, the accuracy of the term's chronological prefix "post" has been disputed, as various groups commonly labeled post-punk in fact predate the punk rock movement.[1] Reynolds defined the post-punk era as occurring loosely between 1978 and 1984.[24]

1977–79: Early years

Origins

During the initial punk era, a variety of entrepreneurs interested in local punk-influenced music scenes began founding independent record labels, including Rough Trade (founded by record shop owner Geoff Travis) and Factory (founded by Manchester-based television personality Tony Wilson).[25] By 1977, groups began pointedly pursuing methods of releasing music independently , an idea disseminated in particular by the Buzzcocks' release of their Spiral Scratch EP on their own label as well as the self-released 1977 singles of Desperate Bicycles.[26] These DIY imperatives would help form the production and distribution infrastructure of post-punk and the indie music scene that later blossomed in the mid-1980s.[27]

In late 1977, music writers for Sounds first used the terms "New Musick" and "post punk" to describe British acts such as Siouxsie and the Banshees and Wire, who began experimenting with sounds, lyrics and aesthetics that differed significantly from their punk contemporaries. Writer Jon Savage described some of these early developments as exploring "harsh urban scrapings [,] controlled white noise" and "massively accented drumming".[4] In January 1978, singer John Lydon (then known as Johnny Rotten) announced the break-up of his pioneering punk band the Sex Pistols, citing his disillusionment with punk's musical predictability and cooption by commercial interests, as well as his desire to explore more diverse interests.[28][2]

Siouxsie and the Banshees were among the first groups to garner the "post-punk" tag.

United Kingdom

As the initial punk movement dwindled, vibrant new scenes began to coalesce out of a variety of bands pursuing experimental sounds and wider conceptual territory in their work.[29] Many of these artists drew on backgrounds in art and viewed their music as invested in particular political or aesthetic agendas. Weeks after ending the Sex Pistols, Lydon formed the experimental group Public Image Ltd and declared the project to be "anti music of any kind".[30][2] Public Image and other acts such as the Pop Group and the Slits had begun experimenting with dance music, dub production techniques and the avant-garde,[31] while punk-indebted Manchester acts such as Joy Division, The Fall and A Certain Ratio developed unique styles which drew on a similarly disparate range of influences across music and modernist literature.[32] Bands such as Scritti Politti, Gang of Four and This Heat incorporated Leftist political philosophy and their own art school studies in their work.[33]

The innovative production techniques devised by post-punk producers such as Martin Hannett and Dennis Bovell during this period would become an important element of the emerging music, with studio experimentation taking a central role.[34] A variety of groups that predated punk, such as Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle, experimented with crude production techniques and electronic instruments in tandem with performance art methods and influence from transgressive literature, ultimately helping to pioneer industrial music.[35] Throbbing Gristle's independent label Industrial Records would become a hub for this scene and provide it with its namesake.

As these new scenes began to develop, British music publications such as the NME and Sounds developed an influential part in this nascent post-punk culture, with writers like Jon Savage, Paul Morley and Ian Penman developing a dense (and often playful) style of criticism that drew on critical theory, radical politics and an eclectic variety of other sources.[36][37] By the end of 1979, many other British acts, including Bauhaus, the Cure, the Sound, 23 Skidoo, Alternative TV, Magazine and Echo & the Bunnymen, also became part of these fledgling post-punk scenes, which centered around cities such as London and Manchester.[23] A pioneering punk scene in Australia during the mid-1970s also fostered influential post-punk acts like the Birthday Party, who eventually relocated to the UK to join its post-punk community.

United States

In the mid 1970s, various American groups (some with ties to Downtown Manhattan's punk scene, including Television and Suicide) had begun expanding on the vocabulary of punk music.[38] Midwestern groups such as Pere Ubu and Devo drew inspiration from the region's derelict industrial environments, employing conceptual art techniques, musique concrète and unconventional verbal styles that would presage the post-punk movement by several years.[39] A variety of subsequent groups, including New York-based Talking Heads and Boston-based Mission of Burma, combined elements of punk with art school sensibilities.[40] In 1978, the former band began a series of collaborations with British ambient pioneer and ex-Roxy Music member Brian Eno, experimenting with Dada-influenced lyrical techniques, dance music, and African polyrhythms.[40] San Francisco's vibrant post-punk scene was centered around such groups as Chrome, the Residents and Tuxedomoon, who incorporated multimedia experimentation, film and ideas from Antonin Artaud's Theater of Cruelty.[41]

Talking Heads' collaborations with Brian Eno crossed punk with art school, funk and world music influences.[7]

Also emerging during this period was New York's no wave movement, a short-lived art and music scene that began in part as a reaction against punk's recycling of traditionalist rock tropes and often reflected an abrasive, confrontational and nihilistic worldview.[42][43] No wave musicians such as the Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Mars, DNA, Theoretical Girls and Rhys Chatham instead experimented with noise, dissonance and atonality in addition to non-rock styles.[44] The former four groups were included on the Eno-produced No New York compilation, often considered the quintessential testament to the scene.[45] The no wave-affiliated label ZE Records was founded in 1978, and would also produce acclaimed and influential compilations in subsequent years.[46]

1980–84: Further developments

UK scene and commercial ambitions

British post-punk entered the 1980s with support from members of the critical community—American critic Greil Marcus characterised "Britain's postpunk pop avant-garde" in a 1980 Rolling Stone article as "sparked by a tension, humour and sense of paradox plainly unique in present day pop music"[47]—as well as media figures such as BBC DJ John Peel, while several groups, such as PiL and Joy Division, achieved some success in the popular charts. The network of supportive record labels that included Industrial, Fast, E.G., Mute, Axis/4AD and Glass continued to facilitate a large output of music, by artists such as the Raincoats, Essential Logic, Killing Joke, the Teardrop Explodes, and the Psychedelic Furs.

However, during this period, major figures and artists in the scene began leaning away from underground aesthetics. In the music press, the increasingly esoteric writing of post-punk publications soon began to alienate their readerships; it is estimated that within several years, NME suffered the loss of half its circulation.[48] Writers like Paul Morley began advocating "overground brightness" instead of the experimental sensibilities promoted in early years.[49] Morley's own musical collaboration with engineer Gary Langan and programmer J. J. Jeczalik, the Art of Noise, would attempt to bring sampled and electronic sounds to the pop mainstream.[50] A variety of more pop-oriented groups, including ABC, the Associates, Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow (the latter two managed by former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren) emerged in tandem with the development of the New Romantic subcultural scene.[51] Emphasizing glamour, fashion, and escapism in distinction to the experimental seriousness of earlier post-punk groups, the club-oriented scene drew some suspicion from denizens of the movement.

Synthpop artists such as Gary Numan (performing here in 1980) benefited from exposure on MTV in the early 1980s.

Artists such as Gary Numan, the Human League, Soft Cell, John Foxx and Visage helped pioneer a new synthpop style that drew more heavily from electronic and synthesizer music and benefited from the rise of MTV.[52] Post-punk artists such as Scritti Politti's Green Gartside and Josef K's Paul Haig, previously engaged in avant-garde practices, turned away from these approaches and pursued mainstream styles and commercial success.[53] These new developments, in which post-punk artists attempted to bring subversive ideas into the pop mainstream, began to be categorized under the marketing term new pop.[10]

Downtown Manhattan and elsewhere

In the early 1980s, Downtown Manhattan's no wave scene transitioned from its abrasive origins into a more dance-oriented sound, with compilations such as ZE's Mutant Disco (1981) highlighting a newly playful sensibility borne out of the city's clash of hip hop, disco and punk styles, as well as dub reggae and world music influences.[46] Artists such as Liquid Liquid, the B-52s, Cristina, Arthur Russell, James White and the Blacks and Lizzy Mercier Descloux pursued a formula described by Luc Sante as "anything at all + disco bottom".[54] The decadent parties and art installations of venues such as Club 57 and the Mudd Club became cultural hubs for musicians and visual artists alike, with figures such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Michael Holman frequenting the scene.[55] Other no wave-indebted groups such as Swans, Glenn Branca, the Lounge Lizards, Bush Tetras and Sonic Youth instead continued exploring the early scene's forays into noise and more abrasive territory.[56]

In Germany, groups such as Einstürzende Neubauten developed a unique style of industrial music, utilizing avant-garde noise, homemade instruments and found objects.[57] Members of that group would later go on to collaborate with members of the Birthday Party.[57] In Brazil, the post-punk scene grew after the generation of Brasilia rock with bands such as Legião Urbana, Capital Inicial and Plebe Rude and then the opening of the music club Madame Satã in São Paulo, with acts like Cabine C, Titãs, Patife Band, Fellini and Mercenárias, as documented on compilations like The Sexual Life of the Savages and the Não Wave/Não São Paulo series, released in the UK, Germany and Brazil, respectively.

A plaque marking the former location of the Mudd Club in New York City.

In Argentina, the post-punk scene was pioneered by the band Sumo, led by Italian/British singer Luca Prodan.

In Australia, other influential acts to emerge included Primitive Calculators (founders of the Little Band scene in Melbourne), Tactics, the Triffids, Laughing Clowns, the Moodists, Severed Heads, Whirlywirld and Crime & the City Solution.

Mid 1980s: Dissipation

The original post-punk movement ended as the bands associated with the movement turned away from its aesthetics, often in favor of more commercial sounds. Many of these groups would continue recording as part of the new pop movement, with entryism becoming a popular concept.[58] 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.[59][60][58] Some shifted to a more commercial new wave sound (such as Gang of Four),[61][62] while others were fixtures on American college radio and became early examples of alternative rock. Perhaps the most successful band to emerge from post-punk was U2,[63] who combined elements of religious imagery together with political commentary into their often anthemic music.

Legacy

Impact

Until recently, in most critical writing the post-punk era was "often dismissed as an awkward period in which punk's gleeful ructions petered out into the vacuity of the Eighties".[10] Contemporary scholars have argued to the contrary, asserting that the period produced significant innovations and music on its own.[10] Simon Reynolds described the period as "a fair match for the sixties in terms of the sheer amount of great music created, the spirit of adventure and idealism that infused it, and the way that the music seemed inextricably connected to the political and social turbulence of its era".[64] Nicholas Lezard wrote that the music of the period "was avant-garde, open to any musical possibilities that suggested themselves, united only in the sense that it was very often cerebral, concocted by brainy young men and women interested as much in disturbing the audience, or making them think, as in making a pop song".[2]

Post-punk was an eclectic genre which resulted in a wide variety of musical innovations and helped merge white and black musical styles.[7] Out of the post-punk milieu came the beginnings of various subsequent genres, including new wave,[65] dance-rock,[66] New Pop,[67] industrial music,[68][69][70][71] synthpop,[72][73] post-hardcore,[74] neo-psychedelia[75] alternative rock[5] and house music.[76][77] Bands such as Joy Division,[78] Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus and the Cure played in a darker, more morose style of post-punk that lead to the development of the gothic rock genre.[79]

Post-punk revival

At the turn of the 21st century, a post-punk revival developed in British and American alternative and indie 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, Neils Children and Editors – surfaced in the late 1990s to early 2000s, as did several dance-oriented bands such as the Rapture, Radio 4 and LCD Soundsystem. Additionally, some darker post-punk bands began to appear in the indie music scene in the 2010s, including Cold Cave, She Wants Revenge, Eagulls, the Soft Moon, She Past Away and Light Asylum, who were also affiliated with the darkwave revival, as well as A Place to Bury Strangers, who combined early post-punk and shoegaze. These bands tend to draw a fanbase who are a combination of the indie music subculture, older post-punk fans and the current goth subculture.[23] In the 2010s, Savages played a music reminiscent of early British post-punk bands of the late '70s.[80]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Words attributed to biographer Julián Palacios, who cites examples such as Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett, the Velvet Underground, Nico, the Doors, the Monks, the Godz, the 13th Floor Elevators and Love.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ogg, Alex. "Beyond Rip It Up: Towards A New Definition Of Post Punk?". The Quietus. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lezard, Nicholas. "Fans for the memory". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  3. 1 2 Reynolds 2005, pp. xxxi.
  4. 1 2 Cateforis 2011, p. 26.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Post-Punk". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
  6. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 1.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Reynolds 2005.
  8. 1 2 3 Rojek, Chris. Pop Music, Pop Culture. Polity, June 2013. Print. p. 28
  9. ↑ Reynolds, p. 1, 3.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kitty Empire (17 April 2005). "Never mind the Sex Pistols" - [Rip It Up And Start Again: Post-Punk 1978-1984 - book review]". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  11. ↑ Stanley, Bob. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyoncé. W.W. Norton & Co. July 14, 2014. Print.
  12. 1 2 Rasmus, Agnieszka. Against and Beyond: Subversion and Transgression in Mass Media, Popular Culture and Performance. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, March 2012.
  13. ↑ Reynolds, p. xi-xii.
  14. 1 2 Palacios 2010, p. 418.
  15. ↑ Reynolds 2005, p. 7.
  16. ↑ Bannister 2007, pp. 36–37.
  17. ↑ Anindya Bhattacharyya. "Simon Reynolds interview: Pop, politics, hip-hop and postpunk" Socialist Worker. Issue 2053, May 2007.
  18. ↑ Reynolds, p. 3≠.
  19. ↑ Fisher, Mark. "You Remind Me of Gold: Dialogue with Simon Reynolds." Kaleidoscope: Issue 9, 2010.
  20. ↑ Reynolds, p. xi.
  21. ↑ Reynolds, p. 19.
  22. ↑ Totally Wired: Post-Punk Interviews and Overviews. Faber and Faber Ltd, February 2009. ISBN 978-0571235490
  23. 1 2 3 Reynolds 2005, pp. ??.
  24. ↑ Totally Wired: Post-Punk Interviews and Overviews. Faber and Faber Ltd, February 2009. ISBN 978-0571235490
  25. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 27, 30.
  26. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 26, 31.
  27. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 27-28, 34.
  28. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 11.
  29. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 3.
  30. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 9.
  31. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 41–54.
  32. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 103-109.
  33. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 54, 180-182.
  34. ↑
  35. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 86, 124-130.
  36. ↑ frieze
  37. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 9-10.
  38. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 140, 142-43.
  39. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 70.
  40. 1 2 Reynolds 2005, pp. 158.
  41. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 197-204.
  42. ↑ NO! The Origins of No Wave by Marc masters for Pitchfork January 15, 2008
  43. ↑ AllMusic
  44. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 140.
  45. ↑ Masters, Marc (2008). No Wave. New York City: Black Dog Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 1-906155-02-X.
  46. 1 2 Reynolds 2005, pp. 269.
  47. ↑ Marcus, Greil (1 March 1994). Ranters & Crowd Pleasers. Anchor Books. p. 109. ISBN 9780385417211.
  48. ↑ frieze
  49. ↑ Harvel, Jess. "Now That's What I Call New Pop!". Pitchfork Media. 12 September 2005.
  50. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 374.
  51. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 289, 294.
  52. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 296-308.
  53. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 315, 294.
  54. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 268.
  55. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 264, 266.
  56. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 139-150.
  57. 1 2 Huey, Steve. "Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  58. 1 2 Reynolds 2005, pp. ???.
  59. ↑ "Cateforis.doc" (PDF). Google Docs. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  60. ↑ Sullivan, Jim (2 March 1984). "Triumph of the 'New'". The Michigan Daily. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  61. ↑ Kellman, Andy. "Songs of the Free – Gang of Four". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  62. ↑ Hanson, Amy. "Hard – Gang of Four". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  63. ↑ Hoffman, F. W.; Ferstler, H. (2004). Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound, Volume 1 (2nd ed.). New York City, New York: CRC Press. p. 1135. ISBN 0-415-93835-X.
  64. ↑ Reynolds 1996, p. xi.
  65. ↑ Issitt, Micah L. (2011). Goths: A Guide to an American Subculture. ABC-CLIO. p. 5. ISBN 9780313386046.
  66. ↑ Campbell, Michael (2008). Popular Music in America: And the Beat Goes On. Cengage Learning. p. 359. ISBN 0-495-50530-7.
  67. ↑ Harvel, Jess. "Now That's What I Call New Pop!". Pitchfork Media. 12 September 2005.
  68. ↑ Reynolds 1996, p. 91.
  69. ↑ Reynolds 2006, p. 109.
  70. ↑ Middles 2009, p. 40.
  71. ↑ Reynolds 2010, p. 150.
  72. ↑ Nicholls 1998, p. 373.
  73. ↑ "'We Were Synth Punks'". Inquirer.net. 5 March 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
  74. ↑ "Post-Hardcore". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
  75. ↑ "Neo-Psychedelia". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
  76. ↑ "The Punk Rocker Who Made Chicago House Happen". VICE Media. Retrieved 2014-06-01.
  77. ↑ "Let's Talk Chicago Classic House Music > The Frankie Knuckles Story by Michaelanglo Matos (DJ Mixes)". Boolumaster. Retrieved 2014-06-01.
  78. ↑ Reynolds 2005, pp. 353.
  79. ↑ "Goth Rock". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
  80. ↑ Lester, Paul (25 May 2012). "New band of the day: Savages (No 1,276)". Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2 October 2012.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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