Post-punk (or postpunk) is a loosely defined music genre and period that emerged in the late 1970s in the wake of punk rock. The concept was originally outlined by Jon Savage in his "New Musick" editorial for Sounds magazine in November 1977. The term has been noted for lacking a universally agreed-upon definition. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, adopting instead a broader, more experimental approach that incorporated a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-rock influences. Inspired by punk's energy and DIY ethic but determined to move beyond rock clichés, artists drew influence from German krautrock and experimented with styles such as funk, electronic music, jazz, and dance music; the production techniques of dub and disco; and ideas from modernist art, cinema, literature, and politics. They also established independent record labels, created visual art, staged multimedia performances, and produced fanzines. Among the early post-punk bands, only Siouxsie and the Banshees and Public Image Ltd. achieved commercial success in 1978, with debut singles reaching the top ten of the UK Chart.
Regional scenes developed across Europe alongside new wave music, the most notable being the Netherlands' Ultra movement, Germany's Neue Deutsche Welle, Spain's La Movida Madrileña, and the coldwave scenes in France, Poland, and Belgium, as well as the Soviet and Yugoslav new wave. The original post-punk era emerged in parallel with the no wave and industrial music scenes, and later provided a foundation for British new pop and the Second British Invasion in the United States. Post-punk also influenced the development of numerous alternative and independent music genres, including gothic rock, neo-psychedelia, dark wave, dance-punk, jangle pop, ethereal wave, dream pop, and shoegaze. By the mid-to-late 1980s, usage of the term post-punk in music criticism and journalism waned as well as emergence of acts.
During the 2000s, several New York bands incorporated post-punk influences into contemporary indie rock, leading to the dance-punk and post-punk revival. By the 2010s, European, Nordic, Canadian and American post-punk acts inspired the South London scene, termed "gristle rock", which led to the Windmill scene and crank wave or "post-Brexit new wave", who were defined by a predominant style of "talk-singing". Some post-punk acts became briefly associated with the internet microgenre "doomer wave", sometimes associated with Russian post-punk and darkwave acts in the early 2020s. Around the same time, regional scenes developed in Russia and Latin America.
Etymology
Origins Post-punk refers to an era and diverse music genre that emerged from the cultural milieu of punk rock in the late 1970s. In 1976, New York poetry magazine Contact published the earliest known use of the term "post-punk" in an interview with painter and poet Jack Micheline, the interviewer asked Micheline, "What are your thoughts moving in a post-punk beat period?".
On 26 November 1977, Sounds magazine published an issue entitled "New Musick", with editorials by English journalists Jane Suck and Jon Savage. Savage wrote a piece on an emerging scene and style of music known as "new musick", suggesting that punk rock was becoming stagnant and evolving into new, more experimental forms, which he noted as "post punk projections". He mentioned Pere Ubu, while describing Throbbing Gristle and Devo as promoting "spontaneous physical reaction". He described the style as exhibiting "more overt reggae/dub influence", sounding "the same/manufactured in a factory," and characterized Subway Sect, the Prefects, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Slits, and Wire as exploring "harsh urban scrapings/controlled white noise/massively accented drumming".
Music historian Clinton Heylin stated, "it would be a while before New Musick metamorphosed into post-punk, these cub reporters were already hoping to chart punk's future course." According to Mimi Haddon, writers such as Simon Reynolds and Theo Cateforis have cited Savage's editorial as "the starting point for the emergence of the post-punk genre." Writer David Wilkinson states, "there was a sense of renewed excitement about what would be dubbed 'post-punk'". According to writer Ian Gittins, some journalists opted for the term "art punk" to describe artists who "delivered garage rock's adrenalin rush with a moderate degree of intelligence", though it was sometimes used by critics as a pejorative.
Heylin cites that in March 1979, Simon Frith proposed the term "Afterpunk" in an issue of Melody Maker, which stated "1979 is the year of Afterpunk", though Heylin defined the term as a "non-starter", further stating, "he [Frith] did recognize that punk was changing, nay evolving; and, like [Paul] Morley, he predicted that the battle would be between the chart-conscious and the art-conscious, or as he designated them, the populists and the progressives". At the time, "post-punk" was used interchangeably with "new musick" and "new wave", though the terms became differentiated as their styles perceptibly narrowed.
Definition Post-punk is often understood not only as a musical genre, but also as a period of alternative music. Reynolds defined the post-punk era as occurring roughly between 1978 and 1984. He asserted that the post-punk period produced significant innovations and music on its own. He 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". Musicologist Mimi Haddon notes that post-punk lacks a universally agreed-upon definition, and has argued that Reynolds' account of the genre fails to reflect contemporary consensus found on the Internet, citing artists such as the Chameleons and Echo & the Bunnymen as examples that fall outside his definition of a "post-punk vanguard".
Additionally, post-punk has been viewed as a direct reaction to the mainstream success of punk rock in 1977. Though Reynolds states that many of the groups later labeled as post-punk had roots predating punk's commercial breakthrough. In October 2009, music critic Alex Ogg in a critique of Reynolds' 2005 book Rip It Up and Start Again, stated, "Soon, doubtless, we shall have a fresh backlash and convoluted tautological expressions such as pre-post-punk." Mimi Haddon suggested that "post-punk" was a misnomer and that the style had originally emerged alongside punk.
Observers such as Haddon, Simon Reynolds, David Buckley, David Wilkinson and Alex Ogg have noted that several artists associated with post-punk predated the late-1970s punk explosion. Haddon argues that the prefix "post-," in post-punk need not be understood solely in a chronological sense. Drawing on multiple linguistic meanings through citing the definition for postmodern feminism by political theorists Carolyn Dipalma and Kathy Ferguson. Haddon proposes definitions in relation to postmodernism, noting the prefix can function as a noun ("the postmodern") denoting a vantage point from which one assesses punk, as well as a verb ("to post"), in the sense of announcing or signposting punk's limitations and consciously or unconsciously critiquing perceived shortcomings in punk while seeking new musical directions.
Writer Ian Trowell echoed this interpretation stating, "We can consider the meaning of post as a simple temporal delineator (as in post-war or a post-watershed television programme) or an ontogenetic shift in genre and thinking (as in postmodern)".
Characteristics Although post-punk is associated with a specific period of alternative music, the term also refers to a subgenre of rock music. Additionally, it has been characterized as the "ugly twin sister" of new wave music by Scott Rowley of Louder. Discussing the term, he said: "It describes artists inspired by punk in some way – maybe by its ability to address issues, its flouting of convention, or just by its sheer energy." The genre is known for its distinctive approach to rhythm, instrumentation, and atmosphere. While rooted in punk rock's rawness, it diverges through experimental influences and unconventional structures, absorbing elements from various global music traditions, often pushing boundaries beyond punk's simplicity.
Simon Reynolds advocated that post-punk be conceived as "less a genre of music than a space of possibility", 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. Reynolds remarked that post-punk was "not all fractured guitars and angst-racked vocals - it could also be eccentric and ethereal". Although post-punk aims to defy convention, many identifiable musical traits and patterns can still be found across the genre, such as melodic basslines, angular guitars, steady drumming, and spoken singing. Reynolds also noted that post-punk bassists often took "a melodic role", "freeing guitarists to experiment with atmosphere and timbre—pushed beyond rock music’s aesthetic conventions".
Writer Nicholas Lezard described the term "post-punk" as "a fusion of art and music" and "so multifarious that only the broadest use ... is possible". He 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". Artists defined punk as "an imperative to constant change" rather than a standardized template, believing that "radical content demands radical form". Though the music varied widely between regions and artists, post-punk has been characterised by its "conceptual assault" on rock conventions.Stanley, Bob (2014). Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyoncé. W. W. Norton & Co.
Influences In the 1970s and early 1980s, British post-punk bands were shaped by bleak and deteriorating urban environments, abandoned brutalist architecture and widespread social disillusionment brought on by deindustrialization and austerity—trends that intensified under Thatcherism. In the United States, acts in the New York and Ohio punk scenes were similarly inspired by their city's harsh, smog-infested industrial landscape to create jagged, chaotic, and dissonant music.
Artists sought to refuse the common distinction between high and low culture and returned to the art school tradition found in the work of artists such as Roxy Music and David Bowie. Author Gavin Butt linked art education as a "really important part of the cultural ecology" of Leeds-based post-punk bands such as Delta 5, Gang of Four, Scritti Politti and the Mekons. Jon Savage identified influences such as the Velvet Underground and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, as well as glam rock, krautrock and art rock. Other previous musical styles such as art pop, garage rock, psychedelia and music from the 1960s were also influential. Captain Beefheart's "primitivist" approach influenced the deconstruction of rock music that was found within post-punk. Additionally, post-punk absorbed darker and heavier elements from early heavy metal, particularly Black Sabbath. Writer Edmond Maura noted that Sabbath shared commonality with post-punk bands in being influenced by the industrial and bleak environment surrounding them. Although often mythologized as an enemy of the wider punk scene, post-punk also drew from progressive rock, Louder noted: "the post-punk generation were making a new kind of prog". Avant-garde jazz and free jazz also stood out as influences, highlighted by releases like Miles Davis' On the Corner.