I Hate 'Post-Punk'.

and genre descriptors in general.

[omer-sela-rothenberg]

The term "post" doesn't just mean that it came after it chronologically, it also means that it functions as a reaction to punk. In a nutshell, post-punk takes the ideas and ideologies that drive punk music into being made, and says, "I see what you're saying there, but what if we frame it this way?" therefore it doesn't have to be a genre that is sonically unified, it just has to carry that image of discussion with punk music.

[gpeddino]

Calling Talking Heads post-punk is as bizarre as calling Radiohead post-grunge.

[Healibord]

Never tell bro about Post-Rock and Post-Hardcore

[classCexplosive]

One of the best descriptions I heard was if punk is "f--k you", then post punk is "we are f--ked."

[DanBurnette]

Post-Punk makes sense when looked at as an umbrella for music that was influenced by the punk movement but expanded out from its limitations

[paulgomusic]

All I know is that, when it's called "post-punk" I almost always love it!!!

[druid_bielanski]

Joy division is a great example what post punk represents. Even before when joy division was called "Warsaw" you could see thay transformation from straight up punk into experimental slower punk with deeper meaning, but still the same core instruments

[emrekulac]

It called post punk because it comes from punk but had different aesthetic aims

[ek_films]

as a huge Devo fan, "whatever the hell Devo is" perfectly describes their sound

[chaseharley]

The term "post" being strictly temporal is the funniest take I've heard today.

[isaacgraham]

Describing Talking Heads as “sardinic Afro beats” is so contemptuous, lazy, inaccurate, and downright wrong that by necessity I had to disregard everything else you said.

[BraydonMcCallum]

Bro absolutely loathes “Post Malone” 😂

[kfdyy]

Post-Punk is just Punk but they actually know how to play their instruments

[musicforplants]

I always kinda felt the same way about the “indie” genre, it’s incredibly hard to pin down the aesthetics of indie apart from it just not being an industry product which it actually ended up being in a lot of cases :/

[logrun]

Back in the day, those bands were all referred to as "new wave", as I recall. I never heard the term "post-punk" well into the 90's or later even.

[zejwzux]

Pere Ubu, who also began at exactly the same time as punk rock, are usually identified as "post-punk" yet they started at exactly the same time as the punk rock bands. The Residents, Half Japanese, Chrome, Cabaret Voltaire pre-date punk and other bands like Wire, The Fall, and The Wipers also started around the same time. Plus, bands like The Stranglers, with thier synths and keyboards and adventurous bass, and X-Ray Spex with thier saxophone, are always called "punk" and not post-punk. Even the Sex Pistols song Submission sounds more post-punk than punk, doesn't it? The idea of "post-punk" wasn't really meant to signify "after" punk or "later than" punk, as much as it was intended to mean "beyond" punk, or "more advanced than" punk rock, to explain that bands like Killing Joke, The Tubeway Army, and Mission of Burma have more advanced influences than the direct and straightforward approach of early punk bands like The Ramones, The Damned, The Dictators, The Heartbreakers, and The Saints. Still, when you go really to the beginning, you are correct, in that Television, Patti Smith Group, and Suicide were right there at the beginning of the Max's CBGB and Mercer Arts Center scene that happened with Ramones, Dead Boys, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Wayne County, etc. So, some people now prefer the term Art-Punk to describe the more poetic and artistic approach of the genre, when it is a bit more advanced than basic punk.

[jdinman]

IDK if you think of it as a mix between Post Modernism and Punk it fits pretty well

[DMgrue]

The name is more of a description of music in the context of the time and place the term originated from. Post punk was used to describe the music that was being made by the punk scene of England after they moved on from punk. Which is why you have bands that are post-punk coming out seemingly right next to famous punk releases. These bands all existed in the same scenes and included a lot of the same musicians and core music values.

So to put a complicated topic simply, it's post-punk because it's the music that the British punk scene were making after punk

[experi-mentalproductions]

Post-Punk is the darker version of New Wave.

EDIT: Reply to some of the replies: I'm speaking in terms that were used in the 70's. No-Wave, Dark-Wave, Goth-Wave and others are more modern subcategories.

[gwgwgwgwgwgwgwgwgw]

Post-punk is a broad term, just as punk is, it wasn't meant to be super specific. It just refers to bands that took elements of punk (stripped back instrumentation, DIY aesthetic, anti-establishment, etc) while going beyond the confines of punk, combining other influences. It's music that undoubtedly shares the ethos of punk while not being able to be defined as "punk rock."