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Gothic music is a kind of music composed of a lot of genres.

Post-Punk

During the first wave of punk, roughly spanning 1974–1978, acts such as the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Ramones, Patti Smith and The Damned began to challenge the current styles and conventions of rock music by stripping the musical structure down to a few basic chords and progressions with an emphasis on speed. Yet as punk itself soon came to have a signature sound, a few acts began to experiment with more challenging musical structures, lyrical themes, and a self-consciously art-based image, while retaining punk's initial iconoclastic stance.

Classic examples of post-punk outfits include Genghis Khan, The Sound, Section 25, Sad Lovers and Giants, The Chameleons, Orange Juice, The Psychedelic Furs, Devo, The Birthday Party, The Fall, Gang of Four, Public Image Limited, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Lords of the New Church, Joy Division, New Order, Killing Joke, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Cure, Bauhaus, Magazine, Wire, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Talking Heads, and Tubeway Army. Bands such as Crass also came within the scope of post-punk, as with several outfits formed in the wake of traditionally punk rock groups: Magazine was formed by a member of Buzzcocks, for instance, and Public Image Ltd derived from the Sex Pistols. A list of predecessors to the post-punk genre of music might include Television, whose album Marquee Moon, although released in 1977 at the height of the punk movement, is considered definitively post-punk in style. Other groups, such as The Clash, remained predominantly punk in nature, yet were inspired by the experimentalism of the post-punk movement, most notably in their album Sandinista!.

Championed by late night BBC DJ John Peel and record label/shop Rough Trade (amongst others, including Postcard Records, Factory Records, Axis/4AD, Falling A Records, Industrial Records, Fast Product, and Mute Records), "post-punk" could arguably be said to encompass many diverse groups and musicians.

The influence of this "new sound" was significantly carried throughout the world. Although many North American and other non-British bands failed to achieve worldwide recognition, some notable exceptions include North Americans Pere Ubu, Suicide, Mission of Burma, and early Hüsker Dü, Australia's The Birthday Party and The Church, Ireland's U2 and The Virgin Prunes.

Around 1977, in North America, the New York-led No Wave movement was also tied in with the emerging eurocentric post-punk movement. With bands and artists such as Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Mars, James Chance and the Contortions, DNA, Bush Tetras, Theoretical Girls, Swans, and Sonic Youth. The No Wave movement focused more on performance art than actual coherent musical structure. The Brian Eno-produced No New York compilation is considered the quintessential testament to the history of No Wave.

The original post-punk movement ended as the bands associated with the movement turned away from its aesthetics, just as post-punk bands had originally left punk rock behind in favor of new sounds. Many post-punk bands, most notably The Cure and Siouxsie & the Banshees, evolved into gothic rock (formerly a style of the larger post-punk movement) and became identified with the goth subculture. Some shifted to a more commercial New Wave sound (such as Talking Heads), while others were fixtures on American college radio and became early examples of alternative rock (such as U2).

1. Masters, Marc (2008). No Wave. City: Black Dog Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 190615502X.