When did the term "post-punk" come into general currency?

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I was around at the time and I can't ever remember anyone saying post-punk. I'm pretty sure the term then was "new wave". Backed up by the fact that Bowie mentions the "new wave boys" in Teenage Wildlife (1980), and by a 1979 interview I heard the other day in which Ian Curtis talks about the "new wave scene" or the "new wave bands" I can't remember which.

Similarly, I can't remember anyone at the time talking about "new pop". I gather the term was invented by Paul Morley but I don't think it was used by anyone apart from him then. There were the New Romantics, blue-eyed soul and various other sub-genres that would probably now be folded into "new pop", but not "new pop" per se.

― next year at marienbad, Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Obvious answer: too soon.

― nathalie, a bum like you (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:29 (eighteen years ago) link

The day after Punk.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:31 (eighteen years ago) link

The Day Before You Came

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:33 (eighteen years ago) link

I know exactly what you mean, next year. I wasn't familiar with either of these terms until I started reading ILM and didn't suffer for it. However, I think history has validated the "post punk" tag as something distinctive from other new music that was happening at the time, so I'm more or less comfortable with it now.

― Jeff W (zebedee), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 13:50 (eighteen years ago) link

I've always thought that post-punk was an academic moniker created by rock critics to separate the music they wrote about from more fey, poppy artists, once the term "new wave" was co-opted by the mainstream to mean "British dudes with wavy hair who play synthesizers".

Would you want to call Gang of Four, Siouxsie, or the Cure "new wave" when most people pictured Duran Duran and Flock of Seagulls?

― Matt Carlson (mattsoncarlhew), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 14:04 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't recall reading / hearing the expression until the late '80's....

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 16:42 (eighteen years ago) link

I thought new wave was Elvis Costello and Blondie?

― trappist monkey, Tuesday, 11 October 2005 16:45 (eighteen years ago) link

Not in my mall circa '83.

― Matt Carlson (mattsoncarlhew), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 16:47 (eighteen years ago) link

Dude, Tom Petty was promoted as New Wave in '79!

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 16:50 (eighteen years ago) link

Maximumrocknroll was using 'post-punk' in the mid-80's, I think as a means of classifying (mostly British) stuff that had diverged totally from hardcore.

Seem to remember them describing Southern Death Cult as such.

― Soukesian, Tuesday, 11 October 2005 17:56 (eighteen years ago) link

The original unpublished first draft of William Burroughs' Naked Lunch contained a reference to a certain Dr. Fester, who used the term "post-punk." It's difficult to tell what he was on about, but the theories at the time were that, during a visit in Tangiers, he was teasing Burroughs' and Brion "monkey boy" Gysin about their sexual habits.

Unfortunately, we will never know for sure, because when Burroughs showed Dr. Fester the draft, Fester told him it was "a piece of shit," and proceeded to cut it into pieces and tossed them on the floor. "Put it back together and I guarantee it'll be better," he said. “We must destroy all dogmatic verbal systems!” Burroughs angrily complied, as he had no other choice...

― Fastnbulbous (Fastnbulbous), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 18:46 (eighteen years ago) link

I did a "postpunk" themed (and named) radio show in 1988, so it definitely existed then.

― mike a, Tuesday, 11 October 2005 19:02 (eighteen years ago) link

I have several documents (fanzines and whatnots) and interviews that use the term as early as mid-1978. I used it pretty frequently myself in high school ('82 or so).

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 19:16 (eighteen years ago) link

I first remember hearing it mid-to-late 80s, possibly first years of college.

― whiteout (bobnope), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 19:31 (eighteen years ago) link

C'mere, you big hunk 'a man!

ihttp://bostondirtdogs.boston.com/Headline_Archives/10.11_nyy_crash_get.jpg

― bubba crosby, Tuesday, 11 October 2005 19:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Post-punk = Punk + Art

Therefore all British punk is not real punk, but post-punk. The Sex Pistols, Clash, Jam, Buzzcocks, all of it. Artistes all of 'em.

The only true punk is Ramones.

And the only true metal is Judas Priest. Everything else is post-metal.

― mcmc (mattsoncarlhew), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 19:58 (eighteen years ago) link

Didn't the Rough Trade kinda bands self-identify as post-punk? I don't think they were calling themselves New Wave or No Wave or anything like that.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 11 October 2005 20:01 (eighteen years ago) link

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