Pop/Rock » Alternative/Indie Rock » New Wave/Post-Punk Revival

During the late '90s and early 2000s, a rash of bands -- including Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, the Strokes, and the Rapture -- surfaced with clear indebtedness to post-punk and new wave, bearing inspirations like Blondie, Gang of Four, Joy Division, and Wire. While this led journalists and music fans to talk about a post-punk/new wave revival, the movement was really more analogous to a continuum, one that could be traced back as early as the mid-'80s -- scattered bands like Big Flame, World Domination Enterprises, and Minimal Compact, all of whom seemed like natural extensions of post-punk. Some of the more notable bands that recalled the original era during the early and mid-'90s included Six Finger Satellite (who drew from Devo, Suicide, Gang of Four, and the Birthday Party), Brainiac (Devo again, if filtered through Pixies), and Elastica (who acknowledged lifting Wire and the Stranglers). As with the post-punk and new wave bands of the late '70s and early '80s, there was a lot of diversity in the approaches of the post-punk/new wave revivalists, ranging from atonal scrap heaps (Liars) to hyper-melodic pop songs (the Sounds).