Art-Punk / Synth-Punk
Art-Punk / Synth-Punk is punk's weird laboratory: conceptual lyrics, stiff rhythms, anti-rock guitar, cheap electronics, performance-art tension, nervous vocals and a refusal to let punk settle into one guitar formula. Art-punk uses punk as an idea machine; synth-punk replaces some rock instrumentation with machines, beeps and hostile minimalism. The family runs from Devo and Pere Ubu to Screamers, The Units, egg-punk and modern basement mutants.
History
Cleveland, Akron, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London all produced punk bands that treated art school, electronics and absurdity as weapons. Pere Ubu, Devo, Talking Heads, Wire, The Slits, The Raincoats, Suicide and The Screamers broke rock grammar in different ways. Later synth-punk, electroclash, egg-punk, noise rock and DIY cassette scenes inherited the idea that punk could be cheap, conceptual, funny, alien and physically abrasive at once.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- art-punk histories
- synth-punk scene guides
- AllMusic art punk and synth-punk overviews
- No Wave and Akron/Cleveland punk histories