The Rise, Fall and Revival of British Post-Punk

How did we go from Joy Division to Black Midi? Well in this video I give a brief history of Post-Punk specifically in the United Kingdom and hopefully answer that question

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Post-Punk is a pretty broad genre. It basically encapsulates anything that is inspired by punk but also brings in other influences such as Jazz, Reggae, Disco and experimental music. Post-Punk began to rise in the early 80s with amazing bands like Joy Division, The Smiths, The Cure and Wire. However the genre was a little short lived. Shortly after Joy Division released their influential album Unknown Pleasures, the genre started to decline in popularity

Now-a-days though there are some incredible Post-Punk bands being started. Obviously Black Country, New Road just released their amazing album Ants From Up There, just a short year after For The First Time. Last year, Black Midi released Cavalcade, the follow up to their album Of Schlagenheim. The band Shame also released Drunk Tank Pink last year. Along with Dry Cleaning releasing their album New Long Leg and IDLES releasing Crawling. Squid released Bright Green Field and there are so many other bands releasing music and it makes it such an exciting time for the genre

#KyleReid #PostPunk #HistoryOfPostPunk

[jmckenzie]

One thing to note about the current wave of UK post-punk bands is that I think there is a distinction to be made between the broader contemporary post-punk bands like Idles, Dry Cleaning and Fontaines DC and the much more specific "Windmill scene" which is where black midi and Black Country, New Road are. The Windmill scene is so named because those bands all originated by playing in a club in Brixton called the Windmill and are still very heavily involved with that venue currently. It's sort of like a CBGB type thing. Other bands in the Windmill scene include Squid, Shame, Goat Girl and Yard Act. black midi and BCNR tho have undoubtedly come to be the core of the Windmill scene - not only are those two bands by far the most innovative and acclaimed bands in the entire contemporary UK post-punk scene, but they are also really good friends with each other personally/offstage, and have played numerous times together as "Black Midi New Road". Geordie Greep even said I think that he was adamant that Black Midi New Road would eventually record an album together as one band at some point. Very exciting stuff, black midi and BC, NR are easily two of the most rewarding bands to follow right now.

[a.xhtonc]

I've said for the past few months now that growing up with these bands in London will be the formative music of my young adulthood and I'm ok with that

[tyler_keeble]

"Let me know if you missed anything"
Juju by Siouxsie and the Banshees
That is all.

[massivegat]

What I consider to be the greatest largely unknown post punk band of all time is The Sound. Frontman Adrian Borland draws a lot of comparison to Ian Curtis given that both of them made some incredibly dark and morbid music and sadly, both committed suicide. The Sound's original debut was set to release in 1979 but was shelved and instead their debut album Jeopardy! released in 1980. It's a raw record, retaining a lot of the energy from the original UK punk movement; Adrian himself is responsible for the first self released punk LP in the UK which came out in 1977 under his first band The Outsiders.

His lyrics are some of the best in the genre, and his own personal struggles can be seen all over his music. He suffered from schizoaffective disorder and jumped in front of a train in 1999 after two decades of going sorely overlooked in the industry and being in and out of psychiatric institutions. The Sound's second album From the Lions Mouth is an absolute masterpiece and deserves so much more attention. It's dark, introspective, desperate and at times furious. He must've been in a huge depressive episode during its creation because it's bleak as all hell. Strangely, his songs contain a lot of hope somehow. In the midst of all that torment he found a way to make a faint light shine brightly.

[Xottapchenko]

You’re talking about post-punk groups like The Cure, Joy Division, etc. but you didn’t mention Siouxsie and The Banshees. Siouxsie literally inspired Curtis and Smith was her guitarist before The Cure’s biggest post-punk works. And don’t forget the “true post-punk” (or actually experimental post-punk, as most people call it now) Throbbing Gristle - they’re like Fugazi of post-punk (Fugazi is considered one of the first actual posts-hardcore groups but the post-hardcore we know now was actually “mainstream post-hardcore”)

[andrewreed]

Nice video primer on one of my favorite genres! The only big one I didn't catch you mention in the early days of the genre was Siouxsie and the Banshees. Especially Siouxsie's first album from 1978, while a little more punk leaning, was big in developing the more gothic sound that Joy Division/Bauhaus/The Cure and even Siouxsie herself would go on to define. Robert Smith actually played in Siouxsie's live band for a little while between Cure albums, around the time he was writing the Pornography album I think. Also, in America, the band DEVO was at the forefront along with Talking Heads and others at their brand of post-punk that sorta merged into New Wave once the 80s hit. But I know this was more focused on the British scene.

The one band I wish I heard more people mention in the same breath as Joy Division or The Cure or Siouxsie -- is The Chameleons. They got started in the early 80s so they weren't the ones who created the sound, but they are just so damn good. I feel like they were one of the earlier bands along with Cocteau Twins to take things in a more melodic and atmospheric/dreamy direction which had a big influence on shoegaze 5+ years later. Check out their 1985 album "What Does Anything Mean, Basically?" for a good example of the shimmering dreamy guitars mixed with driving post-punk rhythms. Amazing stuff and still sounds fresh today.

I think others have mentioned some of the great modern post-punk bands coming out of North America like Parquet Courts, Ought, Protomartyr, and Preoccupations but it's cool that you focused in on the British scene because that's where that NEW NEW stuff is coming from for sure. Also worth mentioning the UK band "shame" and the Ireland band Fontaines DC. It's been surreal to see the Belarusian band Molchat Doma sorta break into mainstream culture recently too through Tik Tok memes.

[thanos]

Great video. I would also consider Siouxsie and the Banshees as an irreplaceable part of post punk's history and one of the pioneers of the genre. The evolution of Siouxsie's music from punk to avant garde, experimental and finally post punk also shows the link between punk and post punk and how the latter was built upon the former through experimentation and a post-modernist philosophy.

[c.r.bouton]

Post punk from the former Soviet bloc is really fuckin awesome too

[jonahkidd]

i dont think you've understood the distinction between new wave and post punk here in the UK

[Nicohoho]

Pere Ubu & Devo made post-punk music in the mid 70s before punk was big ;)

[summerhead_]

I'd say you missed The Psychedelic Furs, almost undoubtedly had the best 3 album run in post-punk and are up there with the most influential bands in the genre if not of all time.

[anabellelei]

The Fall, Echo and Xtc. Can't love them more. RIP Mark E.

[jabberthebut]

I would go with Magazine's Real Life from 78 as the first post punk record. New Wave was a term used to enable Punk bands to avoid being banded from gigs - generally used to define less confrontational bands like XTC. You missed Bauhaus, The Sound, Comsat Angels, The Psychedelic Furs

[leonardoguerrero]

Love this video, I've been saying this for awhile now. When I first found Squid with Houseplants, I fell in love, they're probably my favorite band right now, and it opened up the new wave of UK post punk to me. It's the most excited I've been for music in awhile and I hope it's what people think of when they look back at the 2020s

[WiloPolis]

Great vid! I do have two little nitpicks though:

- New wave and post-punk basically started out as interchangeable terms, so one didn't really come before or after the other (in fact, the term "new wave" originally described punk bands very early on). It's just when it sort of split into two factions - one being more radio-friendly and the other being super artsy - that a distinction emerged.

- I'd argue The Strokes were more important to post-punk revival than the White Stripes. Both were essential to the popularization of the genre, but the White Stripes's music was more important to the side of it that's called garage rock revival (even if the terms are pretty much synonyms), with classic rhythm n blues-influenced bands like the Black Keys or Spoon.

[cpunctn]

Good video! Another very good early post-punk band was Magazine formed by Howard Devoto, he was Buzzcocks' original vocalist. Their first album "Real Life" is great and can be considered as one of earliest records of the genre, because it was released in early 1978

[katecurtis-hawkins]

A Kyle video on my favorite genre? It's not even my birthday.

Also, I'd argue that Iggy Pop's debut solo album, "The Idiot" is probably the first post-punk record. It came before anything else developed in the genre but it's hard to describe it as anything but Post-Punk. Additionally, it's worth looking into the bands that came just before the new revival of Post-Punk and inspired some of those artists like Iceage, Protomartyr, Seagulls, Ought, and Parquet Courts

[bigfluffypancake]

Siouxsie and the Banshees The Scream is widely considered the first post punk album. Television’s Marquee Moon cannot be considered because it was not released post (“post” means after). Some consider it proto-punk but listen to it again - maybe because of the band attitude and it included Richard Hell in the band.

[maurogonzalez]

I think a super important band you missed was The Jam. Their first two albums (both released in 1977) is pretty typical British punk, their middle two albums (All Mood Cons in ‘78 & Setting Sons in ‘79) I’d classify as post-punk, then their last two albums I’d call early new wave. Lead singer Paul Weller disbanded the group on his own accord in 1982 & formed the Style Council, which was new wave/soul-inspired

[perfectelectricman]

man i love how passionate you are about music, there are hundreds if not thousands of music review-ish channels on youtube, but none bring that young burning excitement to the videos like you do, keep having fun and lovig music man.
also i know you are not into metal/heavier music, but i think there is a lot of music in the genre that you would enjoy (i think idk) if you ever feel like dipping your toes; opeth - pale communion, candlemass -epicus doomicus metallicus, leprous - malina (metal elitists will say those are not "true" metal albums and that's ma point tbh, gateway drugs i guess haha)