Art-Punk
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Art-Punk is punk treated as anti-rock experiment: fractured rhythms, conceptual lyrics, performance-art gestures, awkward grooves, unexpected structures and a deliberate suspicion of rock heroism. It can be funny, severe, political, feminist, absurd or confrontational, but it usually makes the listener aware that the band is questioning the form while using it. The style values invention over polish and friction over genre purity.
History
Pere Ubu and Devo grew from Midwest art damage, while Talking Heads, Wire, The Slits, The Raincoats, Minutemen and The Ex turned punk toward funk, dub, feminism, collage, political theory and improvisational logic. Art-punk overlapped with No Wave, post-punk and new wave but kept a sharper relationship to punk's DIY permissions. It remains influential because it gives punk musicians a license to be strange without becoming prog.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- art-punk histories
- post-punk histories
- AllMusic art punk overview
- SST and Rough Trade histories