Post-punk is a
rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial
punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and
experimental.
[1] Post-punk laid the groundwork for
alternative rock by broadening the range of punk and
underground music, incorporating elements of
Krautrock (particularly the use of
synthesizers and extensive
repetition), Jamaican
dub music (specifically in
bass guitar), American
funk, studio experimentation, and even punk's traditional polar opposite,
disco, into the genre.
It found a firm place in the 1980s indie scene, and led to the development of genres such as gothic rock, industrial music and alternative rock.
The term "post-punk" was used as early as 1980. Critic Greil Marcus referred to "Britain's postpunk pop avant-garde" in a 24 July 1980 Rolling Stone article. He applied the phrase to such bands as Gang of Four, The Raincoats and Essential Logic, which he wrote were "sparked by a tension, humour, and sense of paradox plainly unique in present-day pop music."[2]
During the first wave of punk, roughly spanning 1974–1978, acts such as the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Ramones, Patti Smith and The Damned began to challenge the current styles and conventions of rock music by stripping the musical structure down to a few basic chords and progressions with an emphasis on speed. Yet as punk itself soon came to have a signature sound, a few acts began to experiment with more challenging musical structures, lyrical themes, and a self-consciously art-based image, while retaining punk's initial iconoclastic stance.
