Rip It Up and Start Again

The Medium Was Tedium

It takes Ecstasy to make a white man dance

Jilted John and John Cooper Clarke

Cardiff’s Is the War Over? and Sheffield’s Bouquet of Steel.

Mekons, Gang of Four, the Scars, and the Human League

Raincoats, Stiff Little Fingers, the Fall

Stiff Little Fingers

Throbbing Gristle’s “United,” Cabaret Voltaire’s Extended Play EP, Human League’s “Being Boiled,” Robert Rental’s “Paralysis,” and Thomas Leer’s “Private Plane.”

Swell Maps, Scritti Politti, Young Marble Giants, the Television Personalities, Thomas Leer, and Daniel Miller, aka the Normal

In a sense, postpunk was progressive rock, but drastically streamlined and reinvigorated, and with a more austere sensibility (no ostentatious virtuosity), not to mention much better haircuts.