X is clearly punk but their style crept into the No Wave/Post Punk genre. Blondie did as well, as they did nearly everything, but I couldn't find a good representation of some of their post-punk work. Human League went New Wave after their first album but this early piece should give you an idea of why some of their later work sounds as bleak as it does. Mojo's a cowpunk icon sort of out there orbiting his own star but he too works into the genre. The rest clearly are though I have to give a nod to Brian Eno who was never quite anything other than Brian Eno save to say his influence over music since the early 70s is genuinely enormous. Sonic Youth is just the fountainhead of everything I consider post-punk. Very nearly as influential as Eno with a profound range of stunning work. Providence is one of my favorite tracks, wistful and otherworldly.
Blondie poses something of a problem: they never were anything but a pop band with an older woman singing flat. That having been said, they were vastly influential and popular, much more than The Pretenders (whom I preferred). But there is something undefinable but compelling about
Hanging On The Telephone, for instance, or
Dreaming, still.
And
Atomic is flat-out fabulous, even if
Heart Of Glass, Call Me, The Tide Is High, Rapture, etc are utter dreck. Even a recent relisten of
Sunday Girl and
Picture This proved unrewarding. Sigh.
Brian Eno laid the foundation for almost everything that followed, for sure. Heroes is a landmark in contemporary music. Personally I enjoy his ambient work like
Music For Airports , which I used to listen to when getting a therapeutic massage.
The David Byrne/B52's collaboration was one of the biggest disappointments of the era. It took several years before I could even listen to
Mesopotamia without wincing.
I always liked the detached quality of The Human League (despite
Don't You Want Me?), although groups like Bauhaus and
Depeche Mode had much more snob appeal.
There was a familiar pattern to the music. The first few efforts were pure and sincere, but with popularity came the inevitable compromise and "commercialization" that was the kiss of death very few acts could avoid.
The Psychedelic Furs are the best example of this. Their first two albums were astounding, with songs like
We Love You,
Sister Europe,
Pulse,
Imitation Of Christ,
Into You Like A Train,
Dumb Waiters,
No Tears,
All Of This & Nothing, etc. But their third album lost its punch, and even someone as un-mainstream as Richard Butler lost his cool.