User:St. Jimmy Jammy/Electropunk

Electropunk
Other names	Synthpunk
Stylistic origins	Punk rock electronic rock
Cultural origins	Mid-late 1970s United States
Typical instruments	Vocals electric guitar bass guitar drum kit synthesizer
Derivative forms	EBM
Regional scenes
Coldwave
Other topics
Dance-punk digital hardcore electro-industrial electroclash electronicore industrial rock new wave

Not to be confused with Electroclash.

Electropunk is a music genre combining elements of electronic music and punk rock.

Characteristics

Due to the predominant use of guitars in punk's rock music roots, the use of synthesizers was controversial within the punk scene even though the punk music culture collectively embraced an anti-establishment political stance. It was very rare, particularly in America, for punk musicians to use synthesizers or keyboards at all to make punk music, let alone replacing the guitars with them. While the rejection of using guitars was an extension of the logic of punk music's anti-establishment politics, synthpunk bands went farther than many fans were willing to extend that principle, and synthesizer-based punk rock groups had small following as a whole. It is probably due to this issue that the identification of a synthesizer-based, subgenre of punk rock took so many years to become identified as a collective genre.

History

A rehearsal tape by Suicide in 1975, The Units 4-song 7" on 9 August 1979, Pere Ubu's "My Dark Ages" (October 1979) with Alan Ravenstine on EML synthesizer (re-released on Rough Trade 049 on a 7" in 1980) and the first demo session by The Screamers with Pat Garrett on 7 July 1977 are candidates for the earliest synthpunk recording. The Units were referred to as "Punks playing keyboards" in an article in the "The San Francisco Examiner" in 1979, The Screamers were referred to as "techno-punk" in an article in the Los Angeles Times in 1978, but this did not become established as a genre name. However, in the USA, while a number of art bands moved more towards ambient, or art gallery collage sounds (Ant Farm, Ralph Records) The Units nailed it with ferocious singles like "i-night" which foreshadows The Prodigy and the more intense early work of the Chemical Brothers's "Block Rockin' Beats" for its intensity. The following year saw releases such as Minimal Man's live at The Deaf Club, "She Was A Visitor", and from (Seattle) Enstruction's 1982 "Keep Out Of My Body Bag" with its scattered and unsettling instructions. In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Billy Synth and the Janitors (1978-1982) and later the Turn Ups took an ARP Odyssey synthesizer directly to punk.

Recent usage

The term is used in retroactive reference to these early bands, such as when Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post describes early 1980s Devo, "...the band's sci-fi synthpunk is revealed as the missing link between the Ramones and Depeche Mode." But the term is increasingly used in print media for loosely describing new bands that have a punk guitar sound with a synthesizer sound added to the mix, such as Le Tigre, or The Epoxies, Blowoff/Bob Mould, Ima Robot, or Full Minute of Mercury, as well as a description of re-discovered and re-released artists such as Futurisk from the original pre-midi period of the late 1970s through early 1980s. Modern bands like New Jersey's "Parenting", or New York's Mindless Self Indulgence continue to expand on punk/rock based ideas using only synthesizer, drums, and vocal. Since 2011 there has been a growing resurgence in popularity of this genre in the North of England, with bands such as Petrol Bastard, Syd.31, Kurt Dirt and Autopsy Boys playing live and releasing new material regularly.

External links

• Synth punk
• www.ElectronicMusicMp3s.com – Electro Punk Magazine
• TC Electropunk
• The Units – San Francisco Examiner 02-08-1979
• The Quietus – UNITS interview
• ;– Synthpunk français