Top 10 post punk bands

The Minutemen
Joy Division
PiL
Magazine
Siouxsie & The Banshees
The Cure
Talking Heads (?)
Gang Of Four
The Monochrome Set
Husker Du

 

Pere Ubu has a post punk phase, so they totally qualify. Like someone mentioned that third Peter Gabriel album earlier, that’s a post punk album for sure.

 

As with Pere Ubu, they were gigging in 1975, I just don't see how they qualify as anything other than punk.
But, as Sopor Joe mentioned re Ubu: there is a punk phase and then they continued on as something else. But the origins are in punk and that's how I see them. YMMV.

 

Here's a conundrum then.

Magazine, one of my fave bands and beautifully mentioned by @Zoot Marimba - 77-81 but then 09-11 for a last hurrah.

Post-punk? Or...

 

I can't tell if the question if The Cure are a post-punk band is serious or not - they check so many boxes for the genre description.

You could say that, but in a literal sense, they are a post punk band. Michael Stipe and Peter Buck played together due to their shared interest in Patti Smith and New York Dolls - and they absolutely embody a bit of it, personally.

Post punk

I posted in the other thread that Ultravox was the "first" post punk album (it isn't, but it's close) but punk was still a thing. Blame the fact we have post-punk and new wave kind of being the same thing for why genre definitions of these artists is all over the place. I guess if it was pre-punk, it would fall under the literal definition of progressive rock, or experimental rock, or something like that.

 

.... and indie doesn't really exist etc etc... it's the labelling that has confused issues for aeons, too many genres and sub-genre the cause for threads like this where we lack clear definitions, guidance and will just go around arguing in circles. As you mention REM let's hope for a perfect circle!

 

Fascinating! In just 2 pages we've achieved a fairly comprehensive microcosm of the confusion attached to genre blood lines. The magnitude of my ignorance was quickly revealed with a bit of internet reading, and I've included a few of the dozen or so links below. The most insightful to my mind is the following response from urban dictionary (yeah, I know, Wikipedia slumming, but still...) that dispelled my presumed notion of a linear chronology, as in post-punk necessarily followed punk like the Cenozoic followed the Mesozoic Era (dinos' demise, mammals rise).

Apologies for length - and indeed there are a number of immediately contestable ideas here - but this proved enjoyable and edifying:

"A term referring the first real wave of art punk bands, and probably the most influential and popular movement in the history of art punk. In truth, the term "post-punk" is something of a misnomer, as post-punk developed with and along side late 1970s classic punk as opposed to after it, as the prefix "post-" would imply.

The roots of post-punk lie in the early work of the Velvet Underground, a mid-to-late 1960s act associated with artist Andy Warhol and one of the first to blend hard-edged garage rock with avant-garde concepts pioneered by classical music in the 20th century. Similarly-minded groups that followed soon after like Roxy Music, Hawkwind, and the Krautrock movement on the whole were also important, in addition to African-American and Carribean music styles like harder-edged funk and soul and certain types of reggae, in particular dub reggae, respectively. Some solo work by artists such as Iggy Pop, David Bowie and Brian Eno also contributed much to post-punk's development.

Post-punk came right with punk. In America, bands like Talking Heads and Television played right along side more traditional punk bands the Ramones and the Dead Boys at New York City venues CBGB's and Max's Kansas City. In England as well, Wire and Siouxsie and the Banshees were art rock influenced band who shared the stage with the Sex Pistols and the Damned. Although the post-punk movement lasted more or less from 1977 to 1984, its prime years were from 1978 to 1981, which saw classic releases by bands like Joy Division, one of the most well known, accessible, and popular bands of the post-punk era, Mission of Burma, Gang of Four, Bauhaus and Pere Ubu, as well as lesser known bands like Pylon, the Fire Engines, and Metal Urbain, a band from France and one of the most aggressive groups in the whole post-punk scene. There was also a purist strain of post-punk known as no wave, which flourished in the New York City underground for a brief period in the late 1970s after many of the original classic punk and post-punk bands had either signed to major labels or broken up.

Post-punk came to an end around 1984 as most of the leading artists had either disintegrated or turned to making more commercial music, though in a subtle way its influence has permeated to myriad corners of the popular music and youth culture worlds. Accessible groups with post-punk roots like R.E.M. and U2 became very popular almost universally and remain so today, and more pop-leaning tracks by Talking Heads, New Order, and Devo among others are considered an important part of the early 1980s pop culture landscape. Goth is probably the closest to a subcultural front of the initial post-punk movement, as death rock took much from gloomy, more atmospheric post-punk like Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cure. The progressive spirit and sound of just about all post-punk was revived in the late 1980s and 1990s in the post-hardcore movement, hard-edged art punk played by musicians initially drawn into music by hardcore punk who had since become disenchanted with that limited form. Like goth to original post-punk, emo has arisen as a subcultural front for post-hardcore. Finally, a movement for better or worse dubbed the post-punk revival earlier this decade provided some of the most exciting and innovative music of the new millennium."

*Me again: So, with a somewhat different perspective on the music you've listened to for decades, acceptance of post-punk's pre- (and co-) punk origins liberates you from the obstruction of that myopic inquiry, "how could you possibly say that ______ evolved from the Pistols?"; which is where I was getting stuck.

Urban Dictionary: post-punk
Post-Punk 101: What Is Post-Punk?
Post-punk - Wikipedia
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-post-punk-and-new-wave
Post-Punk: The Cerebral Genre

And in the "carrying the torch" category: Post-Punk.com

 

Anyone fancy a pint?

 

For reference, see this thread:
How do you define punk?

 

I reckon call it what you want. The beauty is in the ear of beholder. If you think it's punk or new wave or garage. so be it. I ain't for arguin'.

 

Post-punk.

 

Obviously if you haven't already, read Rip it up and start again by Simon Reynolds.

 

Yeah I read a book about camping once. It was intense.

 

My take is quite simple and doesn't use as many words:
If I saw them at CBGB or Max's or any other local club from 1974 to 1976 they're punk. Everything else is open for debate.
Except No-Wave, of course.

 

Wire
Joy Division
The Smiths
The Cure
Mission of Burma
The Fall
The Cult (for a while there)
Gang of Four
Public Image Ltd.
U2 (again, for a while there)

 

6 months. 15 posts. Legend.

 

OK...

Wire
Magazine
Joy Division
Siouxsie & Banshees
Gang of Four
This Heat
Throbbing Gristle
The Slits
PiL
The Pop Group

The first two are in my top bands of all time.

Early Scritti Politti and A Certain Ratio should get a mention too.

Pere Ubu are pre-punk post-punk...

 

Good list, nice call on This Heat. I'd add Raincoats, Swell Maps and The Associates.

 

I'd show a bit of respect, you're saying "this is post punk" or "everything can be post punk" at the same time, and other people are attempting to give their insight. Regardless of inactivity I want that book.

 

You're not getting mine.

I was thinking about Mekons then too.

 

"Post punk" is a time continuum. Essentially after classic 70s first wave punk.

 

Swell Maps are great!

 

I was going to post a few of my favorites, then I read the posts here.

I have a negative physical reaction when J River forces me to input a Genre. Personally, I have no need to categorize music genres. That said, to each his or her own. I enjoy many, probably most, of the great artists mentioned in this thread.