In literal terms, post-punk just means “after punk”, but it is not supposed to represent everything recorded in the last 30 years. Punk’s explosion between 1975-77 inspired millions of young music fans, and post-punk generally refers to the music created by those who were directly influenced by punk, which tends to tie its strict definition to the timespan between 1977-83.

Important post-punk acts from this era include Talking Heads, Joy Division (who famously formed after attending an early Sex Pistols gig), Gang of Four and The Fall. All represented an experimental attitude to rock music that was careful to avoid the bloated excess identified in experimental pre-punk by rock bands like Pink Floyd and Genesis.

A related style from the same era was new wave, which included artists like Blondie, The Police and The Human League. New wave is a better term for poppier bands from this era, because post-punk (like punk) claimed to have little or no interest in mainstream popularity. New wave artists weren’t quite so reticent to commercial success, so new wave may be seen as the popular arm of post-punk.

Ultimately many post-punk bands were influential in spawning further sub-genres and styles. Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Cure and Bauhaus were all post-punk bands with gothic edges who developed into the cornerstone acts of goth-rock. Almost all modern indie-rock bands can be traced back to a post-punk band: more post-punk bands with formative sounds include Echo & The Bunnymen, The Psychedelic Furs, Television and New Order.

In the early 21st century, a so-called ‘second wave’ of post-punk arrived with popular bands including The Strokes, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand and Maximo Park all displaying clear stylistic origins in the original post-punk period.