The concept of the social outlier has lived on for an extensive portion of United States history. However, in the late twentieth-century, society’s outcasts converged and discovered how to characterize their differences in creative ways, particularly through music. Thus, the birth of “the underground” as a place of refuge for the offbeat sensibilities and perspectives of an inherently different group of people and creators. Relishing in its authenticity and uncensored expression, genres such as punk and disco developed and thrived under the radar of commercial music, but naturally found their way to the mainstream due to gradual social acceptance of differences through the seventies. It was then that the music world realized the value and significance of the underground, where music and new ideas were cultured and collectivized through experimentation, away from the expectation and judgement of society. This emphasis on the desired outlook of uninfluence and creation from a different sphere of influence surfaced in its most prominent way during the post-punk movement of the late nineteen-seventies and eighties, as artists adhered to the complete upheaval of musical influence and industry in an effort to preserve the underground. For these reasons, the post-punk movement and its accompanying ideas and sound represent a major turning point for modern music and expression.
The emergence of the creative underground as a collectivized unit of artists sharing similar ideas and perspectives was greatly tied into the social history of the time. The overall idea of mass movements lead by the youth was still in full function as a result of the country’s recent intervention with Vietnam and the public controversy that followed it throughout the sixties. However, the public controversies that catalyzed the formation of the creative underground were more relative to the widely shared societal perspectives on the increasingly ethnic and homosexual communities of the nineteen-seventies. The dominating musical genre of the time, known as “hard rock”, presented a particularly strong resistance to integration of these groups, as well as women, especially on part of the industries. Major record labels such as EMI and Warner Brothers dominated the nineteen-seventies music industry and curbed their priorities towards consumerism and profit rather than the creative interests of the artist. This would naturally lead to underground as an outlet for the growing, yet controversial interest of punk in the United States, as the punk outfit embraced authenticity and therefore, the independence of its production. This same sense of independence was what was greatly sought after and influential to the development of the underground aesthetic in the post-punk movement.
The post-punk era and sound was the result of the dwindling presence and gravitas of punk’s presence as an underground-oriented genre. It had suddenly become too mainstream, too easy to listen to, or too involved with the affairs of the dominating labels. This fate was particularly apparent with the 1977 release of the Sex Pistols’ “Never Mind the Bollocks”. The album and its major-label distribution was thought to be prosaic and conventional, making people question the climax of the punk revolution itself. “‘Bollocks’ was product, eminently consumable.”. As the punk presence in New York City lost its steam with each new record, the post-punk movement began to take its form from underneath it. “A creative explosion” occurred in New York City, as the artists of the city lead the movement that reflected new perspectives and ideas, not only concerning music but modern living. Music that manifested through the newly-discovered art-based and philosophical ideas of nihilism, dadaism, and absurdism gave new life to the underground during the post-punk-oriented transition of “No Wave”. The development of No Wave would prove significant in its characterization and influence on the music and ideas of the era, making New York City a major cornerstone for the post-punk movement in the United States.
While the punk movement in the underground was a natural development as a result of societal expectations, the post-punk movement marks the first time music was sought after in disassociation from airplay and alleged notions of success. In doing so, post-punk innovators tried their best to erase their influences. It prompted “The killer urge to create in order to destroy everything that had originally inspired me.”. It was thought to be “anti-everything”, but particularly anti-sixties love and peace, as well as anti-70s drug-use in both ideas and sounds. In its attempted inversion of its influences, post-punk established many significant differences and characteristics of its creative existence. As a result of the large artistic presence in the new underground, the era pioneered in the idea of visual potential, placing emphasis on the art and film that could accompany the music, rather than just the sounds themselves. “Bands were assembled with members who knew more about painting than playing music”. The movement was also seen to have undercut the former punk notion of male authority and “belligerence” in music with developments such as the Riot Grrrl movement and the increased presence of feminist ideals and androgyny on the west coast. Post-punk was also thought to be seen as more emotionally and metaphorically-based, music that transcended past-listening experiences with new layers of provocation that depicted state of mind or hallucination. A prime example of 360 degree creative exposition comes from the post-punk band known as “The Pixies”, as their music was thought to portray insanity and conjure obscure artistic images. The music began to require comprehension rather than simple pleasure listening.
The post-punk “anti-everything” continued throughout the movement and gradually started to place emphasis on developing social ideas entailing religious, philosophical, gender-based, and musical standards. The music became pessimistic and sardonic, dwelling in existential skepticism, rejection, alienation and social-marginalism. These characteristics played a major part in the development of the post-punk underground and the unmonitored indie subculture that centered around the music through college radio broadcasting, urban community clubs and fanzine hacks. “I will never like whatever is popular,” Black Francis, frontman of The Pixies. The significance of staying under the radar of popular music was seen through the indie culture, the lyricism, and even the sound itself.
Oftentimes, the sound of the post-punk era was far from easy-listening. Artists did everything in their power to deconstruct the “classic rock structure” and 3-chord, guitar-riff-driven formula of the decade’s popular music. This refusal to adhere to sound of the time gave way to the development of new directions and genres, at the level of musical experimentation that could only have taken place beneath the husk of the underground. Electronic sound emerged as a dominating subcategory of the movement, surfacing from the influence of British bands like Depeche Mode and The Human League. “Suddenly the format of guitars, bass, and drums, seemed archaic, exhausted.” The new sounds also placed a greater emphasis on a dissonant and droning sound, which came as a result of the extended usage of synthesizers, pads, and the newly introduced MOOG software. What was left of the guitar-bass formula in the underground manifested in a modal, anti-blues, and choppy guitar style that has since worked its way into much of modern rock today through bands such as Franz Ferdinand and Interpol. With great influence from the art-based music collectives and left-over ambition from the seventies underground, rock became art-rock in the post-punk era. The formula became more intricate, fusing rock with the likes of jazz to create a new brand of rock with the intention of analysis.
Throughout the late twentieth-century, women consistently struggled to find their way in the major-label dominated industry. The existence of the creative underground helped female musicians from across the country to merge and network during multiple major outgrowths of their oppression throughout the seventies and eighties. With the rise of the singer-songwriter genre in the early seventies, Olivia Records became the first women-run record label, based out of Washington DC and backed by feminist groups such as the Furies Collective. While the music itself sometimes surfaced, the industry was quick to minimize it’s impact, labeling the genre as “womyn’s” or “wimmin’s” music to lessen its “threat to dominate the social order,”.
The careers of female artists such as Suzi Quatro, (who would later be a direct influence to the success of Debbie Harry, Pat Benatar, and Tina Weymouth) flopped as a result of their refusal to embrace the traditional role of women in music. The industry and press was consistently “unsure how to deal with her,” and her music and image was therefore pushed into the underground. However, the female presence in the underground was only strengthened throughout the seventies and surfaced with new potential in the post-punk nineteen-eighties. This presence was especially strong in No Wave New York City at the time, thus conceiving the post-punk subcategory known as the “Riot Grrrl” movement. This was the movement that demonstrated female potential and importance while defying the former punk and industry standards of male authority in both the mainstream and the underground. With the artistic momentum from No Wave itself, the Riot Grrrl movement became a forum for responding to societal backlash through art, film, and mainly music. It emerged initially for the purpose of making a network of female, or “sister” musicians during the post-punk movement, as well as becoming a safe place for artistic interpretation and the processing of situations like rape and abuse. This new genre of aggressive, politically-charged, feminist rock from the likes of New York City artists such as Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, transformed the standards and expectations of music made by women. As a result of post-punk’s Riot Grrrl movement, what was formerly seen as “wimmin’s music” became regarded as a legitimate art form, forever changing the course of alternative music and beyond.
The post-punk era not only called for the upheaval of former musical and societal standards, but also that of the industry based around the music itself. Post-punk embraced independence and creative integrity, a leftover characteristic of early-seventies punk ambition. This influence is best portrayed by The Buzzcocks’ “Spiral Scratch”, a punk album which was released independently on their own “New Hormones” label. Although it was not the first independent record, it was one of the first to make a real “polemical point of independence”, inspiring thousands to carry out the “do-it-yourself/release-it-yourself” attitude of production which would greatly influence the fate of the post-punk underground. The ability to create and release and album independently demonstrated the capabilities, potential, and raw creativity that went into the music of the post-punk underground. It gave artists a way to create and find success without intervention on part of the major labels. There were always “progressive” independents like Virgin and Island but “they had the support of major record company distribution, finance, and marketing.” – Iain McNay. This sense of independence promoted further experimentation in the underground, therefore increasing the post-punk movement’s longevity and changing the format of the industry for years to come.
The post-punk movement of the late twentieth-century represented a major turning point for modern music, as artists sought all-encompassing change to the music and ideas of its influences in an effort to preserve the creative underground as refuge for experimentation. As the sound itself developed, doors were opened for new forms of expression and carried out by emerging subgroups, tied closely to their beliefs and the developing underground social ideals. It was this level of free expression and emphasis on the significance of independent production that converged to transform the record industry and music business forever. The movement played a major role in transcending the listening experience and expanding upon formerly upheld notions of musical and idealistic innovation. Although it was widely ignored as an overall idea and characterized more by the successes of those who surfaced as a result of its progressive nature, the post-punk movement in itself deserves recognition for everything it had the ability to catalyze and everything it entailed.
Despite its many unprecedented endeavors in underground expression, the post-punk era shares many similarities with societal counteraction from previous decades, namely the nineteen-sixties. The genres of the movement were defiantly anti-sixties, but their varying notions parallel with how they came about. Both the post-punk movement and the counterculture worked to invert the upheld societal beliefs and expectations of the years that preceded them. While counterculture turned the common perspective of conservatism and familial significance on its head, the post-punk movement did the same thing on a smaller scale, inverting the music industry, the sound, and the expressive ideas of earlier genres like punk. Both eras also represent a time where the music surfaced as a gateway to social concerns with deeper roots beneath the facade of creativity. While the counterculture is greatly characterized by the music of Woodstock, the post-punk movement is greatly characterized by developments such as No Wave New York City. These two significant times in twentieth-century American history represent the potential posed by creativity on behalf of the social outliers. They have shaped the fate of modern expression and have catalyzed a new sense of progression from underground that has the power to shape United States history for years to come.
FREE YOUR MIND 