What are your favorite albums, songs or bands from this often misunderstood period?

I don't have a lot of Post Punk experience so I don't have much to add but I just started giving Joy Division a real listen and I really like them. Is Killing Joke Post Punk? I love their first five albums.

Yeah, they are post punk, specially their first albums. I just have a certain predilection for the late 70.

I live, in part, on Minutemen records. And the first two Mission of Burma records are indispensable.

I love Post-Punk!! \m/

Speaking of Killing Joke, did they ever comment on Nirvana stealing their riff?

I love The Sound. It's a real shame that they aren't more well known.

Somebody make a spotify playlist of these

Killing Joke stole the riff from the Damned so it wouldn't have been a good idea to bitch about Nirvana.

post punk is good

I need someone to explain to me exactly what "post punk" is. That has always alluded me and im pretty certain i listen to and love a lot of this music.

I probably just call it punk.

Yeah me too

I thought post meant after

Major post-punk person here. Some of my favorite albums:

The Chameleons - Strange Times
Echo And The Bunnymen - Heaven Up Here
The Jesus And Mary Chain - Psychocandy
Joy Division - Closer
Killing Joke - Night Time
Love And Rockets - Love And Rockets
New Order - Brotherhood
Talking Heads - Remain In Light
The The - Soul Mining
XTC - Black Sea


It took cues from punk, but added some influences from other genres. The "post" part is because punk had started around five-ish years prior, much like how when we talk about post-grunge, we're talking stuff that started around 1994. Not that far removed in the timeline, but still "post" the beginning of its roots. All that said, it's a somewhat problematic genre, being a bit too much of an umbrella term. Things like goth and college rock, for example, have some bands here and there that fit under this banner.

Yeah, for me post-punk shares the same primal simplicities as punk (or proto-punk) where it's mostly about creative expression rather than technical abilities.
But it feels more creative and free than the punk bands. Since Ramones and Television both played the CBGB's at around the same time you can't even say that post-punk came later than punk. I would agree that it's an umbrella term. I allso feel that punk started a lot of genres which all became alternative a decade later.

PUNK >> Hardcore Punk >> Alternative
PUNK >> College Rock >> Alternative
PUNK >> Post-Punk >> Alternative.

That's mostly in the US. In the UK Post-Punk kinda merged with New-Wave/New-Romance. So, is that also Post-Punk?

Punk was a response to all the sophisticated and pretentious rock from the first part of the 70s, it was like a reset, a palate cleanser, a back to basics in terms of music, sensibilities and ideals. So the post-punk just build upon this, but without the restraint of the "3 chords" and with all the palette full of colors and sounds, ready to merge with other sub genres (like dub) and inevitably, getting as ambitious as the kind of rock they were rebelling to, morphing into new wave, new romantics, goth, dance punk, shoegaze, dream pop, etc. Punk and post punk practically start at the same time, the difference is that punk born dead. 

SO GOOD!!!!

Would you guys say that Murmur by R.E.M could be categorized as post-punk

I definitely would. But also jangle pop.

I don't know what post punk means, but I would say no.

In an overly generalized sense, it could be. But the more accurate category for pre-stardom R.E.M. would be college rock.