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 Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:23 am
Post Punk: (from allmusic.com)
After the punk revolution of 1977, a number of bands inspired by the d.i.y. spirit and raw sound of punk were formed. However, instead of replicating the sound of the Sex Pistols, many of these bands forged into more experimental territory, taking cues from a range of artists and styles, such as Roxy Music, David Bowie (especially Low, Heroes and Lodger), disco, dub and Krautrock. The result was Post-Punk, a more adventurous and arty form of punk, no less angry or political but often more musically complex and diverse. Many of these groups — like Joy Division or the Cure — created dark, synthesizer-oriented soundscapes while others— like Orange Juice or XTC — had a lighter guitar-based musical approach but their lyrics and music were off-kilter and often subverted traditional pop/rock song structures. Post-punk eventually developed into alternative pop/rock in the '80s.
Key Artists:
Adam Ant
Bauhaus
The Cure
Devo
Echo & the Bunnymen
The Fall
Gang of Four
Joy Division
New Order
Pere Ubu
Public Image Ltd.
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Suicide
Talking Heads
Wire Links: www.allmusic.com www.wikipedia.com
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:30 am
New Wave Music: (from allmusic.com)
During the late '70s and early '80s, New Wave was a catch-all term for the music that directly followed punk rock; often, the term encompassed punk itself, as well. In retrospect, it became clear that the music following punk could be divided, more or less, into two categories — post-punk and new wave. Where post-punk was arty, difficult, and challenging, new wave was pop music, pure and simple. It retained the fresh vigor and irreverence of punk music, as well as a fascination with electronics, style, and art.
Therefore, there was a lot of stylistic diversity to new wave. It meant the nervy power pop of bands like XTC and Nick Lowe, but it also meant synth rockers like Gary Numan or rock revivalists like Graham Parker and Rockpile. There were edgy new wave songwriters like Elvis Costello, pop bands like Squeeze, tough rock & rollers like the Pretenders, pop-reggae like the Police, mainstream rockers like the Cars, and ska revivalists like the Specials and Madness. As important as these major artists were, there were also countless one-hit wonders that emerged during early new wave. These one-hit groups were as diverse as the major artists, but they all shared a love of pop hooks, modernist, synthesized production, and a fascination for being slightly left of center.
By the early '80s, new wave described nearly every new pop/rock artist, especially those that used synthesizers like the Human League and Duran Duran. New wave received a boost in the early '80s by MTV, who broadcast endless hours of new wave videos in order to keep themselves on the air. Therefore, new wave got a second life in 1982, when it probably would have died out. Instead, 1982 and 1983 were boom years for polished, MTV-radio new wave outfits like Culture Club, Adam Ant, Spandau Ballet, Haircut 100, and A Flock of Seagulls.
New wave finally died out in 1984, when established artists began to make professional videos and a new crop of guitar-oriented bands like the Smiths and R.E.M. emerged to capture the attention of college-radio and underground rock fans. Nevertheless, new wave proved more influential than many of its critics would have suspected, as the mid-'90s were dominated by bands — from Blur to Weezer — that were raised on the music.
Key Artists:
ABC
A Flock of Seagulls
Adam & the Ants
Adam Ant
The B-52's
Blondie
The Cars
Elvis Costello
Culture Club
Duran Duran
Eurythmics
The Human League
The Jam
Nick Lowe
The Police
The Pretenders
The Specials
Squeeze
Talking Heads
XTC
Links:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:381
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wave_music
http://altmusic.about.com/od/genresstyles/p/new_wave.htm
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:37 am
Synth Pop: (from allmusic.com)
Synth Pop was one of the most distinctive subgenres of new wave. In the early '80s, a number of bands — primarily British and heavily influenced by Roxy Music and David Bowie — adapted the electronic innovations of bands like Kraftwerk for pop songs. Initially, in the hands of artists like Gary Numan, the Human League, and Depeche Mode, the sound was eerie, sterile, and vaguely menacing, since the electronics droned on relentlessly without any change in inflections. However, these first stabs at synth pop were transformed into danceable, synthesized pop by Duran Duran, who made the synthesized hooks warmer and catchier by grafting them onto a dance beat.
Soon, a flood of bands followed Duran Duran's lead and although some of the groups weren't as infectious as that band, they nevertheless relied on the conventions of three-minute pop. Duran Duran became stars, while most other synth-pop groups were lucky to have more than one hit. There were some exceptions — the Human League and Eurythmics had several hits, as did Howard Jones — but the field was mainly occupied by one-hit wonders like A Flock of Seagulls.
By 1984, synth pop had begun to die out, but the music had helped establish the synthesizer as a primary instrument in mainstream pop music during its time in the spotlight. Key Artists: Depeche Mode Thomas Dolby Duran Duran Eurythmics The Human League Howard Jones Naked Eyes New Order Gary Numan Soft Cell ABC Marc Almond Bronski Beat The Buggles Devo A Flock of Seagulls Heaven 17 Klaus Nomi Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Talk Talk Links: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:18www.wikipedia.com
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:44 am
Goth: (from allmusic.com)
Frequently misunderstood in its aesthetics and misapplied as a term, goth rock is an offshoot of post-punk that existed primarily during the early to mid-'80s. Its reputation as the darkest and gloomiest form of underground rock is largely deserved, though today that reputation stems more from the visual theatricality of its bands and black-clad followers.
Sonically, goth rock took the cold synthesizers and processed guitars of post-punk and used them to construct foreboding, sorrowful, often epic soundscapes. Early on, its lyrics were usually introspective and intensely personal, but its poetic sensibilities soon led to a taste for literary romanticism, morbidity, religious symbolism, and/or supernatural mysticism. Goth rock was generally not a critically acclaimed style, given its penchant for florid poetry, relentlessly mournful dirges, and melodramatic excess. However, it spawned a devoted, still-thriving subculture that kept its aesthetics alive long after the music's initial heyday had passed.
The godfathers of goth-rock were British post-punkers Joy Division, whose bleak, remote, obsessively introspective music and lyrics laid the initial foundation for goth. But for all intents and purposes, the true birth of goth rock was "Bela Lugosi's Dead," the 1979 debut single by Bauhaus. Already chilly post-punk outfits like the Cure and Siouxsie & the Banshees became full-on goth bands around the same time, and their heavy, menacing makeup and dark clothes became an important part of their fans' expression. As goth rock's popularity spread among a certain segment of sensitive, alienated youth (first in the U.K., where most of its bands came from, then in the U.S.), its fashion sense grew more and more outlandish, and the original sound evolved somewhat. The Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees, and the Mission UK incorporated more pop and alternative elements in their music, while the Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim, and the American band Christian Death took a heavier, sometimes metal-influenced approach.
By the end of the '80s, the original goth-rock movement had ceased to exist, but the music mutated into new forms and continued to influence many of rock's darker subgenres. During the '90s, the goth sound began to cross-pollinate with industrial music, producing hybrids that appealed to both sides, as well as the darkwave subgenre (which also incorporated '80s synth-pop and dream-pop).
The latter half of the '90s also saw goth rock's influence cropping up all over heavy metal; a new breed of progressive black metal bands drew heavily from goth's sound and style, while some alternative metal bands also borrowed from goth rock's visual imagery (including Marilyn Manson, who — despite countless news reports to the contrary — is not a goth-rock artist).
Key Artists:
Bauhaus
The Cure
Fields of the Nephilim
Love and Rockets
The Mission UK
Peter Murphy
Siouxsie and the Banshees
The Sisters of Mercy
Tones on Tail
Alien Sex Fiend
Christian Death
Clan of Xymox
The Creatures
Flesh for Lulu
Gene Loves Jezebel
Miranda Sex Garden
Sex Gang Children
Southern Death Cult
All About Eve
.45 Grave Links: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:387http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goth_rockhttp://www.scathe.demon.co.uk/histgoth.htm
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:49 am
Old School Punk: (from allmusic.com)
Punk Rock returned rock & roll to the basics — three chords and a simple melody. It just did it louder and faster and more abrasively than any other rock & roll in the past. Although there had been several bands to flirt with what became known as punk rock — including the garage rockers of the '60s and the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, and the New York Dolls — it wasn't until the mid-'70s that punk became its own genre. On both sides of the Atlantic, young bands began forsaking the sonic excesses that distinguished mainstream hard rock and stripping the music down to its essentials. In New York, the first punk band was the Ramones; in London, the first punk band was the Sex Pistols. Although the bands had different agendas and sounds — the Ramones were faster and indebted to bubblegum, while the Pistols played Faces riffs sloppier and louder than the Faces themselves — the direct approach of the bands revolutionized music in both the U.K. and the U.S. In America, punk remained an underground sensation, eventually spawning the hardcore and indie-rock scenes of the '80s, but in the UK, it was a full-scale phenomenon.
In the U.K., the Sex Pistols were thought of as a serious threat to the well-being of the government and monarchy, but more importantly, they caused countless bands to form. Some of the bands stuck close to the Pistols' original blueprint, but many found their own sound, whether it was the edgy pop of the Buzzcocks, the anthemic, reggae-informed rock of the Clash, or the arty experiments of Wire and Joy Division.
Soon, punk splintered into post-punk (which was more experimental and artier than punk), new wave (which was more pop-oriented), and hardcore, which simply made punk harder, faster, and more abrasive. Throughout the '80s, punk was identified with the hardcore scenes in both America and England.
In the early '90s, a wave of punk revivalists — led by Green Day and Rancid — emerged from the American underground. The new wave of punk rockers followed the same template as the original punks, but they tended to incorporate elements of heavy metal into their sound.
Key Artists:
Blondie
Buzzcocks
The Clash
The Damned
The Germs
Richard Hell
The Jam
The Ramones
The Saints
The Sex Pistols
Stiff Little Fingers
Television Wire
X
Angelic Upstarts
Crass
Dead Boys
Eddie & the Hot Rods
Fear
Generation X Links: www.wikipedia.com http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:204
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:51 am
I'd say I covered every main genre, except I couldnt find a good one of darkwave or deathrock.
If I missed one or you want to add a defintion, feel free to post.
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