Dance-Punk Music Guide: 5 Notable Dance-Punk Acts

Dance-punk music is a hybrid subgenre of rock and dance music that fuses the energy of punk rock and post-punk with dance-floor rhythms. It’s known alternately as disco-punk, techno-punk, or punk-funk, though the latter refers more to bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which merge hardcore punk with funk-inspired grooves, or groups like Trouble Funk and Q and Not U from the punk and go-go scenes in Washington, DC.

True dance-punk originated with No Wave and punk artists like Gang of Four and Talking Heads, who added soul, R&B, and disco beats to the dissonant underground sounds of the late ‘70s. Dance-punk music faded with the rise of New Wave in the early ‘80s but experienced a revival in the late ‘90s and early 2000s as part of the post-punk revival. Indie rock bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Franz Ferdinand added danceable beats to their bracing sound, while James Murphy’s LCD Soundsystem added electronica elements to the mix.

The origins of dance-punk music took root in the late 1970s when bands in the punk world capitals of New York City and London began to move away from the hard-driving, three-chord grind of the Ramones.

• No Wave beginnings: A select group of bands associated with the No Wave movement— like James Chance and the Contortions, ESG, and Liquid Liquid—earned a following by adopting a more dance-friendly sound. Other punk groups took notice, and by the early 1980s, established punk bands like Blondie and the Clash added more grooves to their core sound.
• Building the genre: The early dance-punk groups led to other post-punk bands with a dance-floor beat; chief among them were the United Kingdom’s Gang of Four, anchored by Dave Allen’s thunderous bass, and New York’s Talking Heads, who folded disco, Afrobeat, and R&B into their edgy creations. Other groups followed suit, like New Order, which emerged from the collapse of Joy Division, and Public Image, Ltd., which melded the snarling vocals of ex-Sex Pistols vocalist John Lydon with a bottom-heavy rhythm section.
• Evolution of the sound: Dance-punk gave way to New Wave in the 1980s and remained dormant until the early 2000s. A new group of dance-punk bands emerged from the pop-punk and garage rock revivals of the late ‘90s, much as the ‘70s dance-punk bands rose out of the hardcore and No Wave scenes. This second wave included LCD Soundsystem, the Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Death from Above 1979, and The Faint. While their music had echoes of their predecessors, the new dance-punk sound drew from dance music forms like EDM and hip-hop.
• New Rave debuts: The new dance-punk scene also spawned its own UK offshoot, New Rave, in the mid-to-late 2000s. Its main proponents—Klaxons, Late of the Pier, Shitdisco, and New Young Pony Club, among others—espoused a mix of psychedelic, rave, and indie rock. However, many musicians and critics considered New Rave a hipster media construct and not an actual music movement.

Several distinct characteristics define the dance-punk sound:

1. 1. Instrumentation: Early dance-punk takes its cues from funk and disco by putting the music’s rhythm section—bass and drums—up front. Bass lines are hard-driving and funky, while percussion has a steady, metronomic dance-floor beat. However, guitars retain the connection to punk with loud, snarling waves of sound. Dance-punk revival acts keep the heavy rhythm but often trade guitars for a wall of synths or EDM-influenced beats.
2. 2. Lyrics: Dance music lyrics focus on emotional release: feeling good, letting go of negativity, and expressing yourself. Dance-punk lyrics take a page from its punk roots and tackle a wider range of emotions. They could be confrontational, like Public Image, Ltd., and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, or aggressive, like Death From Above 1979. Dance-punk sounds could be edgy and eclectic, like Talking Heads, or introspective, like LCD Soundsystem.
3. 3. Vocals: Dance-punk borrowed the groove from R&B and disco, but not its soulful, gospel-influence vocal styles. Dance-punk singers focused on intensity, not melody; as a result, dance-punk vocals sounded gloomy, like the Faint’s Todd Fink, or raucous, like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O and the Rapture’s Luke Jenner. Some singers had unique vocals, like David Byrne’s nervous, yelping delivery and the swaggering tone of Brandon Flowers.

There are numerous notable dance-punk artists. Some of the best-known include:

1. 1. LCD Soundsystem: One of the biggest dance-punk acts from the revival in the 2000s, LCD Soundsystem brought ragged club beats and thrashing punk guitar to mainstream audiences and earned five Grammy nominations, including a win for Best Dance Recording (“Tonite”) in 2018. Frontman James Murphy brought the band’s successful run to a close in 2011 with a string of sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden but reformed the group three years later. In addition to LCD Soundsystem, Murphy also runs his own record label, DFA, and has produced remixes for David Bowie, Britney Spears, and others.
2. 2. Hot Hot Heat: Canadian indie rockers Hot Hot Heat moved from a punk rock sound to more dance-oriented material with their 2002 album, Knock Knock Knock. They remained favorites in Canada and the United Kingdom, issuing four additional albums between 2005 and 2016 and scoring a handful of Top 40 hits on the Billboard Modern Rock charts. Their self-titled 2016 album was their final release before disbanding that same year.
3. 3. The Pop Group: Formed in Bristol, England, in 1977, The Pop Group was a foundational element of the first wave of dance-punk. Frontman Mark Stewart intended to form a funk band but found punk’s intensity appealing. He soon added dub, jazz, and funk elements to their potent mix, culminating in their debut album, Y, in 1979. Legal problems brought down the curtain on The Pop Group in 1981, but Stewart and two other original members revived the band in 2010.
4. 4. The Rapture: This New York dance-punk band briefly captured national attention in 2006 with their major-label debut, Pieces of the People We Love, on Universal Records Motown. The band’s simmering mix of rock, jazz, disco, and EDM earned them critical praise and tours with Daft Punk, but internal tensions led to the departure of singer Luke Jenner in 2008. The band has since reunited without co-lead vocalist Mattie Safer, whose harmonies with Jenner were a high point of early recordings.
5. 5. Test Icicles: Teenagers Rory Attwell, Devonté Hynes, and Sam Mehran formed the cheekily named Test Icicles in 2004 and earned a following through songs posted on social media, including a remix of Death From Above 1979’s “Black History Month.” Signed to the Domino Recording Company in 2005, Test Icicles issued a handful of singles and an EP, Dig Your Own Grave, before disbanding in 2006. Hynes later formed Lightspeed Champion and Blood Orange, while Atwell is a producer and recording artist. Mehram died in 2018.

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