Post-no wave is a form of
experimental rock music that emerged from, or drew its inspiration from, the
no wave scene. It's considered to have arisen after the disintegration of the original scene in 1980, expanding beyond its
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
boundaries.
It further differs from no wave by exploring new music genres, making use of modern technology and studio techniques, embracing
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
or
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
idioms, a greater rhythmic complexity or a tongue-in-cheek nihilistic humor. As a result, post-no wave usually fuses the angular and deconstructive approach of its predecessor with a more song-oriented sound.
Significant examples of post-no wave bands can be found in the works from former scenesters
and new acts that were shaped by no wave in the 1980s —like
Rat at Rat R
Rat at Rat R was a band formed in 1981 by guitarist Victor Poison-tete. The music of Rat at Rat R can best be described as no wave guitar-oriented noise music.
History
Originally hailing from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, they initially relocate ...
,
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...
and
Swans—, the ephemeral
Chicago No Wave scene in the 1990s
and a nebula of scattered artists since the 2000s —such as
Erase Errata,
Talk Normal,
Liars and
Girl Band—.
History
Shortly after the recording of ''
No New York'' in 1978, no wave, as an avant-garde movement and music scene, started disintegrating.
The Gynecologists disbanded in 1978,
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
followed between 1978/1979,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks were an influential American no wave band, based in New York City, who formed part of the city's no wave movement.
Background
Lydia Lunch met saxophonist James Chance at CBGB and moved into his two-room apartment. ...
in 1979,
Theoretical Girls in 1981,
James Chance and the Contortions
James Chance and the Contortions (initially known simply as Contortions, a spin-off group is called James White and the Blacks) was a musical group led by saxophonist and vocalist James Chance, formed in 1977. They were a central act of New York ...
in 1981 and
DNA in 1982. Several key artists then focused on non-musical projects or delved into more accessible rock genres.
Lydia Lunch went on a solo career as a
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
act,
Rhys Chatham
Rhys Chatham (born September 19, 1952) is an American composer, guitarist, trumpet player, multi-instrumentalist (flutes in C, alto and bass, keyboard), primarily active in avant-garde and minimalism, minimalist music. He is best known for his "g ...
and
Glenn Branca developed
totalism
Totalism is a style of art music that arose in the 1980s and 1990s as a response to minimalism. It paralleled postminimalism but involved a younger generation of creators, born in the 1950s. This term, invented by writer and composer Kyle Gann, h ...
in electric guitar ensembles,
Arto Lindsay embarked on
free improvisation and
avant-garde jazz collaborations; others, such as
Ut,
The Lounge Lizards and
Mofungo
Mofungo was a New York City-based band that was active from 1979 to 1993. It featured guitarist Elliott Sharp and food writer Robert Sietsema. Members Chris Nelson and Jeff McGovern were also founding members of The Scene Is Now.
Robert Christga ...
, continued playing until the 1990s, but far removed from their no wave roots. During this period, posthumous studio recordings and VV.AA. compilations from the scene were published for the first time, contributing to its underground popularity. While new generations of musicians outside the scene and from all around the world had been influenced by no-wave music, played with former scenesters —for instance, members from Sonic Youth and Swans played in Chatham's and Branca's ensembles— or claimed to be its successors. Thus, no longer a scene or a movement, a post-no wave came into existence.
Although other expressions have been used to describe this kind of music (now wave, a second wave of no wave
or no wave revival
), Marc Masters helped popularize the term post-no wave in the 2000s,
following its coinage in the 1990s
See also
*
Neutral Records
Neutral Records is an independent record label. Glenn Branca ran the label during the No Wave and post-punk scene in the Lower East Side, New York City, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Among their releases were early records by Swans and the ...
*
''Lumpen'' (magazine)
*
Skin Graft Records
*
ugEXPLODE
References
{{Navbox, name=New wave and post-punk, title=
New wave and
post-punk, group1=Associated
genres or scenes, list1=*
Alternative dance
Alternative dance (also known as indie dance or underground dance in the U.S.) is a musical genre that mixes alternative rock with electronic dance music. Although largely confined to the British Isles, it has gained American and worldwide expos ...
*
Art punk
Art punk is a subgenre of punk rock in which artists go beyond the genre's rudimentary garage rock and are considered more sophisticated than their peers. These groups still generated punk's aesthetic of being simple, offensive, and free-spirit ...
*
Coldwave
A cold wave (known in some regions as a cold snap, cold spell or Arctic Snap) is a weather phenomenon that is distinguished by a cooling of the air. Specifically, as used by the U.S. National Weather Service, a cold wave is a rapid fall in tem ...
*
Dance-rock
*
Dance-punk
Dance-punk (also known as disco-punk, punk-funk or techno-punk) is a post-punk subgenre that emerged in the late 1970s, and is closely associated with the disco, post-disco and new wave movements.Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984 ...
**
New rave
New rave (also typeset as nu-rave, nu rave or neu rave) is a genre of music described by ''The Guardian'' as "an in-yer-face, DIY disco riposte to the sensitive indie rock touted by bands like Bloc Party." It is most commonly applied to a British ...
*
Death rock
*
Dark wave
**
Ethereal Wave
Ethereal wave,Glasnost Wave magazine, issue # 42, p. 32/34, genre classification of the bands Trance to the Sun (''"Ghost Forest"''), This Ascension (''"Light and Shade"''), Soul Whirling Somewhere (''"Eating the Sea"''), Cocteau Twi ...
**
Neoclassical
*
Electroclash
Electroclash (also known as synthcore, retro-electro, tech-pop, nouveau disco, and the new new wave) is a genre of music that fuses 1980s electro, new wave and synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) ...
*
Electropunk
*
Garage rock revival
Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...
*
Gothic rock
Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie a ...
*
Indie pop
Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and sub ...
*
Jangle pop
*
Madchester
**
Baggy
*
Minimal wave
Minimal wave is a broad classification of music that comprises obscure, atypical examples of genres such as new wave, stripped-down electronic or synthesizer music, synth-pop, post-punk, and coldwave. Most of the music tends to focus on elect ...
*
Minimal synth
Minimal wave is a broad classification of music that comprises obscure, atypical examples of genres such as new wave, stripped-down electronic or synthesizer music, synth-pop, post-punk, and coldwave. Most of the music tends to focus on elect ...
*
Minneapolis sound
*
Mod revival
The mod revival was a subculture that started in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and later spread to other countries (to a lesser degree). The mod revival's mainstream popularity was relatively short, although its influence lasted for deca ...
*
Neo-psychedelia
Neo-psychedelia is a diverse genre of psychedelic music that draws inspiration from the sounds of 1960s psychedelia, either updating or copying the approaches from that era. Originating in the 1970s, it has occasionally seen mainstream pop su ...
**
Dream pop
Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...
**
Shoegaze
Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volu ...
*
Neue Deutsche Welle
*
New Pop
New Pop was a loosely defined British-centric pop music movement consisting of ambitious, DIY-minded artists who achieved commercial success in the early 1980s through sources such as MTV. Rooted in the post-punk movement of the late 1970s, the ...
*
New Romantic
The New Romantic movement was an underground subculture movement that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement emerged from the nightclub scene in London and Birmingham at venues such as Billy's and The Blitz. The New ...
*
New wave of new wave
*
No wave
*
Post-hardcore
Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has been ...
*
Post-punk revival
Post-punk revival (also known as garage rock revival,J. Stuessy and S. D. Lipscomb, ''Rock and roll: its History and Stylistic Development'' (London: Pearson Prentice Hall, 5th edn., 2006), , p. 451. new wave revival,. and new rock revolution) is ...
*
Romo
Romantic Modernism, more commonly known as Romo, was a musical and nightclubbing movement, of glam/style pop lineage, in the UK circa 1995–1997, centred on the twin homes of Camden-based clubnight Club Skinny and its West End clone Arcadia ...
*
Sophisti-pop
__NOTOC__
Sophisti-pop is a subgenre of pop music which developed out of the new wave movement in the UK during the mid 1980s. The term has been applied retrospectively to describe acts who blended elements of jazz, soul, and pop with lavish p ...
*
Synthpop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...
*
Synth funk
*
2 Tone
Two-tone, two tone, or 2 tone, etc., may refer to:
Audio and sound
* Two-tone analysis, in nonlinear system measurement
* Two-tone attention signal
* Two-tone chime, such as the "ding dong" sound of a doorbell
* Two-tone sequential paging, sel ...
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New wave artists
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Post-punk bands
*
Synth-pop artists, basestyle=color: white; background: crimson;, titlestyle=, , bodyclass=hlist, group5=Other topics, list5=* ''
C86''
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CBGB
CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for '' Country'', '' BlueGrass'', and '' Blues'', Kri ...
*
Chillwave
*
Electro
* ''
New Wave Theatre
''New Wave Theatre'' is a television program broadcast locally in the Los Angeles area on UHF channel 18 and eventually on the USA Network as part of the late night variety show ''Night Flight'' during the early 1980s. The show was created and ...
''
*
Neue Deutsche Welle
**
Neue Deutsche Härte
Neue Deutsche Härte (; "new German hardness"), sometimes abbreviated as NDH, is a subgenre of rock music that developed in Germany and Austria during the early-to-mid 1990s and during the early 2000s. Alluding to the style of Neue Deutsche Well ...
*
La Movida Madrileña
*
Little band scene
*
Punk rock
*
Industrial
Industrial may refer to:
Industry
* Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry
* Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems
* Industrial city, a city dominate ...
* ''
Rip It Up and Start Again
''Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984'' is a book by Simon Reynolds on the post-punk musical genre and era. It was first released in the UK in April 2005 by Faber & Faber. The US edition was published by Penguin Books and released in ...
''
*
Second British Invasion
* ''
Sounds''
*
Synthwave
*
Yugoslavian new wave
No wave
Industrial music
Music scenes