The Ever-Evolving Post-Punk

Post-punk's significant impact on both music and fashion is a dynamically evolving force that mirrors and molds societal shifts, continuously reflecting and shaping new cultural aesthetics as it moves through the decades.

Derek Ridgers captures the night in 1977 when punk icon Jordan sang with The Ants at the Vortex. Courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.

If we're going to dive into how fashion and music shape each other, we’ve got to start by going back to the roots of post-punk before the revival. That means heading straight to the late 1970s. And what do we find there? David Byrne and Talking Heads, of course. This band, which I believe represents the breaking down of genres before they even had meaning, continues to hold a special place today for their influence on both fashion and music.
Can you feel the irony of people making music against the grain of global trends, all while wearing baggy suits that look like they’ve stepped out of the show “Severance”? Talking Heads might have been the first to make us realize that "tough-sounding music doesn’t need to come with a tough look."
We all know those quirky, sharp-dressed, black-suited people with wild hair and eye makeup. We've seen enough of the rebel looks of the late '70s that pushed back against disco and its colorful, flashy outfits. Post-punk was an introverted journey against that candy-coated world. Naturally, the fashion of the time proved you weren't there to greet warm-hearted people. So, where did all this come from?

The Impact of Post-Punk Narrative on Fashion
If we’re going to talk about post-punk as a genre outside of time, we’ve got to have a look at what this music actually says and how it’s evolved over the years.
At its core, post-punk has always been a powerful voice for anti-war narratives and expressing the conflicts within society. When I dive deep into the genre, from The Cure to Interpol, IDLES to Sonic Youth, I notice this recurring theme: a feeling of being isolated from society, yet there’s a certain pride in not sitting at the same table as everyone else.
Post-punk is also the voice of the streets outside the suburbs.

"My blood brother is an immigrant / A beautiful immigrant" - IDLES, Danny Nedelko.

So, does all this dissatisfaction and social isolation in the lyrics push the people making this music to adopt a "tough guy" image? The answer to that is “yes, over time,” but I feel like we’re starting to circle back to the David Byrne vibe again.
While the tough sunglasses of the ’90s created a distance and the faded tones of the 2000s made it hard to connect with the music, post-punk artists were basically telling us, “We don’t want everyone around us.” But if you look at the fashion and lyrics of the ’70s and ’80s, there was a warmer welcome on stage. Today’s post-punk, though, is being guided by a completely different fashion vibe.

Via IG Tom Ham

The Post-Brexit New Wave
People dressed like football hooligans, with colorful hair and stylish glasses from the post-punk revival scene, seem to be pushing a different message, even though their music still carries that '80s gloom in the lyrics.
Maybe the problem is calling it post-punk revival. Bands like Editors and Interpol stood out with their serious music and behavior, while bands we see now like Fontaines D.C. and IDLES are all about loudness and eye-catching looks.
People are still trying to come up with a name for this genre, but "The Post-Brexit New Wave" is being suggested by Matthew Perpetua, and I think it fits nicely.
When I mentioned that this style looks like "hooligans," it's also giving a nod to hip-hop fashion. Notice something? Musically, even though we still hear punk influences instrumentally, there's a sort of location-based vocal that we encounter almost throughout this entire genre. It’s kinda hip-hop-ish, right?
One of the things that undoubtedly brings post-punk closer to hip-hop is the musical similarities. In recent years, bands like Dry Cleaning and Sleaford Mods, who use a spoken word vocal style, have been adding depth to the UK's musical spectrum.

The Post-Brexit New Wave is rising since 2018 seems like it's going to keep influencing both music and fashion. As we watch, follow, and absorb this process, our job should be to understand this special obsession and keep track of the changing aesthetics.