An Introduction to Irish Post-Punk
District
Jack Daniel’s and District share an authentic love for music culture and as Ireland continues to produce innovative and subversive new sounds we’ve teamed up to…
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District Magazine
Jack Daniel’s and District share an authentic love for music culture and as Ireland continues to produce innovative and subversive new sounds we’ve teamed up to chart the key acts and developments that got us to where we are now. Dean Van Nguyen has selected 10 seminal records that help join the dots between the island’s disruptors while putting the rebellious spirit that refuses to die into sharp focus.

Punk rock was both the kerosene and the match. It was a rejection of hippie psychedelic and “peace and love” serenity. Simply put, punk wanted to dismantle what came before. And so to nail down the meaning of post-punk is to answer one question: what’s the next step after a musical revolution?

Trying to define genres is a tough assignment; trying to put sub-genres into words is like trying to catch a radio wave. What we can say is that post-punk loved the punk rock spirit but hated the clichés. It subverted the subversion.

Irish punk and post-punk had much in common: the musicians, for one, as many transitioned out of punk and into daring new sounds made possible by increasingly affordable synthesizers and drum machines. Crucially, they retained the independent spirit of their punk days and it powered a wave of inventiveness in the 1980s. That ethos has since been rejuvenated by a new generation of Irish musicians, currently forming one of the most inventive corners of guitar music on the planet. Here’s 10 Irish post-punk and post-punk revival songs to get you started.