Post-punk is a popular musical movement with its roots in the mid to late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the early 1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental.Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Post-Punk" Allmusic. Retrieved November 2 2006. 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.

History

See also List of post-punk bands.

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 The Sound, Section 25, Sad Lovers and Giants, The Chameleons, Orange Juice, The Psychedelic Furs, Devo, The Birthday Party, The Fall, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Lords of the New Church, Joy Division, New Order, Killing Joke, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Cure, Bauhaus, Magazine, Wire, Talking Heads, 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 a 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 disc jockey 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, and early Hüsker Dü, Australia's The Birthday Party and The Church, Ireland's U2 and The Virgin Prunes.