Post-punk Movement

By Louise Cremonezi Nazareth

Post Advanced I – NEC14

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. 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.

Origin of the term

The term "post punk" was used in late 1977 by Sounds

magazine to describe Siouxsie and the Banshees. In 1980 Critic Greil
Marcus referred to "Britain's post punk 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, humor, and sense of paradox plainly unique in
present-day pop music."

History

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.

Classic examples of post-punk outfits include Public Image

Limited, The Fall, Joy Division, New Order, New Model Army, Sad
Lovers and Giants, Talking Heads, Gang of Four, The Chameleons,
Magazine, Wire, Echo & the Bunny men, The Birthday Party, Orange
Juice, The Psychedelic Furs, Adam and the Ants, The Sound, Siouxsie
and the Banshees, Lords of the New Church, The Monochrome Set,
Section 25, Killing Joke, The Cure, Bauhaus, Devo, The Jesus and Mary
Chain, and Tubeway Army. Bands such as Crass also came within the
scope of post-punk, as with several outfits formed in the wake of
traditionally punk rock groups: Magazine was formed by Howard
Devoto, a former member of Buzzcocks, for instance, and Public
Image Ltd derived from the Sex Pistols. A list of predecessors to the
post-punk genre of music might include Television, whose album
Marquee Moon, although released in 1977 at the height of the punk
movement, is considered definitively post-punk in style. Other groups,
such as The Clash, remained predominantly punk in nature, yet were
inspired by the experimentalism of the post-punk movement, most
notably in their album Sandinista!.

Championed by late night BBC DJ John Peel and record

label/shop Rough Trade (amongst others, including Postcard Records,
Factory Records, Axis/4AD, Falling A Records, Industrial Records, Fast
Product, and Mute Records), "post-punk" could arguably be said to
encompass many diverse groups and musicians.

The influence of this "new sound" was significantly carried

throughout the world. Although many North American and other non-
British bands failed to achieve worldwide recognition, some notable
exceptions include North Americans Pere Ubu, Suicide, Mission of
Burma, Australia's The Birthday Party and The Church, Ireland's U2
and The Virgin Prunes.

Around 1977, in North America, the New York–led No Wave

movement was also tied in with the emerging eurocentric post-punk
movement. With bands and artists such as Teenage Jesus and the
Jerks, Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Mars, James Chance and the
Contortions, DNA, Bush Tetras, Theoretical Girls, Swans, and Sonic
Youth. The No Wave movement focused more on performance art
than actual coherent musical structure. The Brian Eno-produced No
New York compilation is considered the quintessential testament to
the history of No Wave.

The original post-punk movement ended as the bands

associated with the movement turned away from its aesthetics, just
as post-punk bands had originally left punk rock behind in favor of
new sounds. Many post-punk bands, most notably The Cure and
Siouxsie and the Banshees, evolved into gothic rock (formerly a style
of the larger post-punk movement) and became identified with the
goth subculture. Some shifted to a more commercial New Wave
sound (such as Gang of Four), while others were fixtures on American
college radio and became early examples of alternative rock (such as
U2).

Post-punk revival

The turn of the 21st century saw a post-punk revival in British

and American alternative rock, which soon started appearing in many
different 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, Elastica, Interpol, The Killers,

and The Strokes, surfaced in the late 1990s to early 2000s. These
bands made music with recognizable post-punk influences, even
accompanied by arty, almost Mod fashions copied from original post-
punk and new romantic bands. Modern post-punk is far more
commercially successful than in the 1970s and 1980s. The post-punk
revival has retained a strong following even after similar revival
genres such as electroclash have fallen out of style.
 The Cure

The Smiths

The post-punk esthetics in the movies

Movies aligned to this esthetics:

- The Right Side Of My Brain, from the north american Richard

Kern, 1985
- Asas do Desejo (Der Himmel Über Berlin), from the german Wim
Wenders, 1987

Famous for incorporating characters and references to the post-

punk culture:

• Fome de Viver (The Hunger), an English movie from Tony Scott,

1983. With especial participation from Bauhaus.
• Cidade Oculta, from the brazilian Chico Botelho, 1987. With
participation from Patife Band, in the famous dark club Madame Satã.
• Donnie Darko (Donnie Darko) from Richard Kelly, 2001.
That has an shadowed, (dark) atmosphere in the late 1980s and
wich the famous soundtrack has bands as Echo and the Bunnymen,
Joy Division, The Psychedelic Furs and The Cure.

In the HQ´s (drawned band)

• Sandman, from Neil Gaiman
• Many works from Alan Moore (that produced the hq-disco, Old
gangsters never die with Bauhaus band members)
 Post-punk scene in Brazil

Enthusiastics and members from the brazilian post-punk

generation in the 1980s are known as darks, (later passed to be
called as gothic music). The band Cabine C is considered the pioneer
in the paulista dark scene. Other bands in destack areAkira S e As
Garotas Que Erraram, Akt 2, Black Future, Chance, Fellini, Legião
Urbana, Ira!,Titãs, Plebe Rude, As Mercenárias, Patife Band, Smack,
Harry, Violeta de Outono, (embora esta também tenha flertado com o
psicodelismo dos anos 60 e com o rock progressivo dos anos 70),
Varsóvia and Vzyadoq Moe,.