Post-punk in the context of "Cold wave (music)"

U2 are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1976. The group comprises Bono (lead vocals), the Edge (lead guitar, keyboards, and vocals), Adam Clayton (bass guitar), and Larry Mullen Jr. (drums and percussion). Initially rooted in post-punk, U2's musical style has evolved throughout their career, yet has maintained an anthemic quality built on Bono's expressive vocals and the Edge's chiming, effects-based guitar sounds. Bono's lyrics, often embellished with spiritual imagery, focus on personal and sociopolitical themes. Popular for their live performances, the group have staged several elaborate tours over their career.

The band was formed when the members were teenaged pupils of Mount Temple Comprehensive School and had limited musical proficiency. Within four years, they signed with Island Records and released their debut album, Boy (1980). Works such as their first UK number-one album, War (1983), and singles "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" helped establish U2's reputation as a politically and socially conscious group. Their fourth album, The Unforgettable Fire (1984), was their first collaboration with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, whose influence resulted in a more abstract, ambient sound for the band. By the mid-1980s, U2 had become renowned globally for their live act, highlighted by their performance at Live Aid in 1985. Their fifth album, The Joshua Tree (1987), made them international stars and was their greatest critical and commercial success. One of the world's best-selling albums with 25 million copies sold, it yielded the group's only number-one singles in the US: "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".

New wave is a music genre that encompasses pop-oriented styles that emerged in the mid- to late 1970s as a lighter and more melodic "broadening of punk culture". The term new wave initially held distinct regional differences between the United States and United Kingdom. In the US, "new wave" had originally been used by music critics to label New York punk bands during the early-to mid 1970s. The term was later adopted by Sire Records founder Seymour Stein, who launched the "Don't Call It Punk" campaign in October 1977 to replace "punk" with "new wave". In the UK, new wave was less rooted in punk and had a more diverse definition. Over time, the genre became a catch-all for several musical styles that emerged after the initial popularity of punk rock, such as synth-pop, alternative dance and post-punk.

New wave commercially peaked during the late 1970s into the early 1980s with an abundance of one-hit wonders. In 1981, the MTV channel was launched, which heavily promoted and popularized new-wave acts in the United States. Regional new wave scenes developed across Europe, particularly the Netherlands' ultra, Germany's Neue Deutsche Welle, Spain's La Movida Madrileña, France, Poland and Belgium's coldwave, as well as the Yugoslav new wave. Additionally, the movement inspired subgenres such as minimal wave and darkwave.

Glam rock (also known as glitter rock) is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was primarily defined by the hairstyles, makeup, and flamboyant clothing of its musicians, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diverse sources, ranging from bubblegum pop and 1950s rock and roll to cabaret, science fiction, and complex art rock. The flamboyant clothing and visual styles of performers were often camp or androgynous and have been described as playing with other gender roles.

The UK charts were inundated with glam rock acts from 1971 to 1975. The March 1971 appearance of T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan on the BBC's music show Top of the Pops—performing "Hot Love"—wearing glitter and satins, is often cited as the beginning of the movement. Other British glam rock artists included David Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Sweet, Slade, Mud, Roxy Music, Alvin Stardust, Wizzard and Gary Glitter. In the United States, the scene was much less prevalent, but US artists such as New York Dolls, Sparks, Suzi Quatro, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Lou Reed and Jobriath achieved success in the UK and/or US. Glam rock declined after the mid-1970s, but influenced other musical genres including punk rock, post-punk, gothic rock and glam metal. The new romantic movement, which began as an underground fashion subculture movement in nightclubs in the late 1970s before becoming mainstream in the early 1980s, was also inspired by the visuals of the glam rock era.

Suicide was an American musical duo composed of vocalist Alan Vega and instrumentalist Martin Rev, intermittently active between 1970 and 2016. The group's pioneering music used minimalist electronic instrumentation, including synthesizers and primitive drum machines, and their early performances were confrontational and often ended in violence. They were among the first acts to use the phrase "punk music" in an advertisement for a concert in 1970—during their very brief stint as a three-piece including Paul Liebegott.

Though never widely popular among the general public, Suicide has been recognized as among the most influential acts of its era. The band’s debut album Suicide (1977) was described by Entertainment Weekly as "a landmark of electronic music", while AllMusic stated that it "provided the blueprints for post-punk, synth pop, and industrial rock."

Australian musicians played and recorded some of the earliest punk rock, led by the Saints who released their first single in 1976. Subgenres of punk music, such as local hardcore acts, still have a strong cult following throughout Australia.

Many of the pioneers, like the Saints, Sydney band Radio Birdman, and young Perth musician Kim Salmon, were highly influenced by proto-punk sounds from Detroit. A distinct Brisbane punk scene emerged in the 1970s. By 1977, other bands began to form in Sydney, under the influence of Radio Birdman and other local and overseas acts. During the late 1970s, former members of Radio Birdman contributed to several new bands. These bands and other Australian and overseas punk acts were supported by public radio stations. In Melbourne scene, art rock had segued into punk, then evolved into post-punk, typified by the careers of Nick Cave, Rowland S. Howard and the Little Band scene. Another pioneering figure of Australian postpunk was Saints founder Ed Kuepper.

The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became culturally influential in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Kingdom, with their clothes and hairstyles becoming a significant influence on the punk subculture and fashion. On 4 June and 20 July 1976, their performances at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall inspired future members of bands such as Joy Division, New Order, the Smiths, the Fall, Simply Red, Magazine and Buzzcocks to pursue music, as well as Martin Hannett, Tony Wilson and Alan McGee, the founders of Factory and Creation Records, who later contributed to the development of England's independent music scene, and several post-punk, indie, and alternative rock artists.

The Sex Pistols' first line-up consisted of vocalist Johnny Rotten (byname of John Lydon), guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook, and bassist Glen Matlock, with Matlock replaced by Sid Vicious in early 1977. Under the management of Malcolm McLaren, the band gained widespread attention from British press after swearing live on-air during a December 1976 television interview. Their May 1977 single "God Save the Queen", which described the monarchy as a "fascist regime", was released to coincide with national celebrations for the Queen's Silver Jubilee. The song was promptly banned from being played by the BBC and by nearly every independent radio station in Britain, making it the most censored record in British history.

The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they are considered one of the most influential acts in the original wave of British punk rock, with their music fusing elements of reggae, dub, funk, ska, and rockabilly. The band also contributed to the post-punk and new wave movements that followed. For most of their recording career, the Clash consisted of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Joe Strummer, lead guitarist and vocalist Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon, and drummer Nicky "Topper" Headon.

The Clash achieved critical and commercial success in the United Kingdom with the release of their debut album The Clash (1977) and their second album Give 'Em Enough Rope (1978). Their experimental third album London Calling, which was released in the UK in December 1979, earned them popularity in the United States, where it was released the following month. A decade later, Rolling Stone named London Calling the best album of the 1980s. Following continued musical experimentation on their fourth album Sandinista! (1980), the band achieved further commercial success with the release of Combat Rock (1982), which includes the US top-10 hit "Rock the Casbah", helping the album to achieve a 2× platinum certification there.

Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, both active since the 1960s. With an eclectic style drawing on psychedelia, outlandish fashion, and surreal humor, they have released albums such as Maggot Brain (1971), Mothership Connection (1975), and One Nation Under a Groove (1978) to critical praise, and scored charting hits with singles such as "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker" (1975) and "Flash Light" (1978). Overall, the collective achieved thirteen top ten hits in the American R&B music charts between 1967 and 1983, including six number one hits. Their work has had an influential effect on subsequent funk, post-punk, hip-hop, and techno artists of the 1980s and 1990s, while their collective mythology has helped pioneer Afrofuturism.

The collective's origins date back to the doo-wop group the Parliaments, formed by Clinton during the late 1950s in suburban New Jersey. By the late 1960s, Clinton had gained experience as a producer-writer for Motown Records and, inspired by artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, and Frank Zappa, he relocated to Detroit and enlisted musicians from his New Jersey days in his own two sister bands Parliament and Funkadelic; the first would go on to develop a commercially successful style of science fiction–inspired funk, while the second pursued a heavier sound which blended funk with psychedelic rock. The name "Parliament-Funkadelic" became the catch-all term for the dozens of related musicians recording and touring different projects in Clinton's orbit, including the female vocal spinoff groups the Brides of Funkenstein and Parlet. Financial and label issues slowed the collective's recorded output in the 1980s while Clinton and other members began solo careers, with Clinton also consolidating the collective's multiple projects and touring under names such as George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars. In the 1990s, their sound became the chief inspiration for the West Coast hip hop subgenre G-funk.

Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term "post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad constellation of groups. Initially taking inspiration from post-punk and noise rock, post-hardcore began in the 1980s with bands like Hüsker Dü and Minutemen. The genre expanded in the 1980s and 1990s with releases by bands from cities which had established hardcore scenes, such as Fugazi from Washington, D.C. as well as groups such as Big Black, Jawbox, Quicksand, and Shellac who stuck closer to post-hardcore's noise rock roots. Dischord Records became a major nexus of post-hardcore during this period.

The genre also began to incorporate more dense, complex, and atmospheric instrumentals with bands like Slint and Unwound, and also experienced some crossover from indie rock with bands like The Dismemberment Plan. In the early- and mid-2000s, post-hardcore achieved mainstream success with the popularity of bands like At the Drive-In, My Chemical Romance, Dance Gavin Dance, AFI, Underoath, Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, the Used, Saosin, Alexisonfire, and Senses Fail. In the 2010s, bands like Sleeping with Sirens and Pierce the Veil achieved mainstream success under the post-hardcore label. Meanwhile, bands like Title Fight and La Dispute experienced underground popularity playing music that bore a closer resemblance to the post-hardcore bands of the 1980s and 1990s.