More about: Post-punk

Across the last week the discourse of post-punk has been a hot topic on Twitter, debating whether several new releases qualify for the descriptor. Post-punk is a sub-genre you’d imagine most music journalists can pinpoint, but sadly, if last week has told us anything it’s that this is in fact, not the case. We’re sorry to tell you but not every song that has grunge undertones and embraces a sad boy aesthetic is a post punk tune. Attempting to define the sound, Laviea Thomas has pieced together an article with some promising answers on what post-punk even means...

Whilst music journalism comes with the rhetoric that it is all indeed very subjective, one thing that you cannot debate, is the identity of genres and sub-genres. This is one of the very few topics, that honestly aren’t up for discussion across the music industry. Blossoming in the late 70s, following the explosive outburst of punk, is the wonderfully corrupt emergence of post-punk. Originating in London 1978, with English quartet; Public Image are notoriously known for being the founding members of this movement. Consisting of frontman John Lydon, lead guitarist Lu Edmonds, bassist Scott Firth and drummer Bruce Smith, some of Public Image’s most notable tracks include self-titled, ‘Public Image,’ melodic, ‘Rise,’ and synth-pop ‘(This Is Not a) Love Song.’ With John Lydon as the band’s backbone, Public Image certified themselves as a stapled asset to the evolution of post-punk. Lydon is one of the most famous names across the punk scene from his work with Public Image, to the Sex Pistols, to his book Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, and (of course) his very questionable politics…By the end of the 70s Public Image had taken the post-punk scene by storm with righteous spoken word, unusual music videos, and gloomy chord progressions.

Post-punk is a genre that’s origins are famously known to have circulated UK major cities London, Manchester and Birmingham. Some of the most successful and renowned post-punk bands of our generation include The Cure, Joy Division, Wire and honourable mentions, Bauhaus, Talking Heads, and Siouxsie & The Banshees.

It's with these bands can we give thanks to some of the most critically acclaimed post-punk albums of all time - including Joy Division’s ’78 debut studio album, Unknown Pleasures, the Cures Disintegration, and Bauhaus’s Press The Eject and Give Me The Tape. Between 1978 – 1989 post-punk was in its absolute prime, and harvested earnest lyrics around crippling mental health, poverty, the job crisis, and an ill ran government.

In terms of sound, post-punk is best described as eerie, grungy, slow, and usually welcoming to a lot of spoken-word. Post-punk is sad and longing music that isn’t quite heavy enough to be grunge and isn’t quite angsty enough to be completely punk - it’s a happy medium of mellow melodies and often welcomes lo-fi electronica tendencies.

Post-punk originally stood as music for the damned, similarly to emo, yet so far from it, this sub-genre saw a niche movement form and you were only in on it, if you too felt just as passionate about the pain you grew up to mask. Bands like Joy Division, The Fall, and the Cure are famous for expressing all the above. Ironically their fame is something none of them have ever been the upmost impressed by. Equally as powerful as it is heart-breaking, notoriously, post-punk has brought us some of the best music, all whilst riddled us with such big loss.

Fast forward to now, the music industry has evolved, and subsequently so has post-punk. Some of today’s most promising and renowned post-punk bands include Molchat Doma, Black Midi and Squid. But the music industry is forever shapeshifting with the new talent that surfaces, and post-punk has been welcomed across an array of sounds. Typically labelled new wave bands like Black Midi and Black Country New Road are great examples of current bands who often shimmer new wave, electronica, and post-punk through their sound. In a completely different light to which we might view predominantly post-punk bands like Sonic Youth or most recently, Goat Girl, Black Midi and Black Country New Road are great examples of the evolution of post-punk.

Being a sub-genre of punk and a sub-sub-genre of rock, post-punk is one of those spaces in today’s society that is more of an additional influence rather than a primary factor. And this is where I think journalists could be getting it wrong. There are many ways in which post-punk can be and has crossed over with complimentary genres. One of the most popular examples of this is via electronica, despite being two very contrasting fields, the two often pair together very nicely.  We’ve seen it across Alan Vega’s dauntingly cryptic and menacing track, ‘Nike Soldier,’ to LCD Soundsystem’s ground-breaking, ‘Losing My Edge.’

Realistically the only genre that I personally can really understand to be quite difficult to differentiate with post-punk is new wave. The Fall are an honoured new wave group, who, despite influences (Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart and The Stooges), still toyed with a lot of post-punk tendencies.

The music industry is fortunate to have a sub-genre like post punk for many reasons, it’s not often this genre is done badly… But it’s a shame, that despite its relatively very obvious appearance, post-punk is still misjudged across the industry. It’s important for writers to do their research, (we’re all accountable for this), for factual sake and, sake of the band they’re covering. It’s never nice to feel like you’ve not given something the right justice, or to feel like you don’t know what you’re talking about. Subjectively, post-punk is one of the greatest things to come out of the punk scene, it’s never great to see music clumsily criticized.

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More about: Post-punk