Genre story · Punk
Synth-Punk
Punk's refusal of musical rules carried by synthesizers and electronic noise instead of a conventional guitar band.
Synth-punk developed around the late-1970s underground in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities. The Screamers made a high-voltage, keyboard-driven stage performance without the expected guitars, while San Francisco's Units combined punk and performance art with Electronic arrangements. New York's Suicide had already built an abrasive minimalist approach from synthesizers and drum machines. These bands pursued related experiments from different scenes, and synth-punk should not be treated as a single later offshoot of synth-pop.
Machines under attack
Distorted electronic tones can replace guitar riffs, while drum machines or live drums drive short, tense songs. Vocals might be shouted, detached or theatrically confrontational. Some records are deliberately raw; others have unusually exact rhythmic programming. The energy belongs to punk even when its instrumentation does not.
Close to electronic punk and new wave
Synth Punk overlaps with Electro-Punk, New Wave and Industrial, but their cultural histories are not identical. Music from these scenes could also anticipate later electronic dance and digital hardcore developments without being a strict parent of everything with a synthesizer.
Listening landmarks, note record availability
- 1977SuicideSuicideNew York electronic minimalism with punk confrontation.
- 1980The UnitsDigital StimulationSan Francisco synth-punk rooted in performance art.
- 1978DevoQ: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!Angular, electronic-minded new wave as a neighboring reference, not a pure synth-punk album.