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The history of music from the 80·s to now is very complicated, and has many
genres involved in it. The 80·s saw the breakthrough of pop music and other forms of
rock music, like glam metal, post-punk, and alternative rock. Post-punk developed
in the late 70·s and the early 80·s. It was really influenced by 70·s punk bands and
other bands like The Who and Velvet Underground (below left), and also the no
wave scene in the New York area that put a big emphasis on performance. Early
post-punk bands included The Residents, Devo, and Talking Heads. Some of the first
British post-punk bands like Siouxie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, The Cure, and The
Sisters of Mercy focused more on the dark qualities of their music. The second
generation of British post-punk bands in the 80·s moved away from dark sounds. The
most successful band that originated from post-punk was Irish band U2 (left), who
combined parts of religion together with political observation into their music, and
by the late 80·s U2 had become one of the biggest bands in the world. The post-punk
movement began to weaken in the mid 80·s but it·s been seen as a major part of the
creation of alt rock.
By the early 80·s, some of the first bands to be labeled as pop by the media
were Human League, Depeche Mode, and Soft Cell. Pop succeeded in the US,
especially in Detroit. AfrikaBambaata from New York invented the electro style of
hip-hop.
Even though many big heavy metal bands continued performing and recording,
popular bands that started in heavy metal like Motorhead and Judas Priest started
changing to a more different style. This change was known as the New Wave of
British Heavy Metal, or NWOBHM. (ha.) Bands inspired by those groups included
Iron Maiden, DefLeppard and Venom, who were very successful in the US. Inspired
by NWOBHM, a metal scene began to develop in So Cal in the late 70·s, based in
L.A·s Sunset Strip and including bands like Motley Crue, W.A.S.P, and Quiet Riot,
who had the theatrics, and sometimes makeup of glam rock artists like Alice Cooper
and Kiss. These glam metal bands· lyrics usually emphasized hedonism and chaos
and had fast shred guitar solos, anthem-ish choruses, and a pop-oriented approach.

By the mid-80·s, bands were beginning to arrive from the L.A scene that had a
less glam style and a rawer sound, especially Guns N· Roses (below picture),
breaking through with their chart topping album ±



 in 1987,
which is also the best-selling album of all time worldwide. Jane·s Addiction emerged
with their debut album   the following year.
Music in the 1990·s saw the emergence of grunge, punk pop, and alt rock,
and the rise of hip-hop. By the early 90·s, the mainstream music included
commercialized pop, rock, and hair metal that were focused on image and style. In
the mid 80·s, particularly in Seattle, bands created a new style of rock that highly
contrasted with the mainstream music. It was known as ´grungeµ, for the grungy
sound of the music and the unkempt look of most of the musicians. Grunge
combined parts of hardcore punk and heavy metal, and used a lot of guitar
distortion, fuzz, and feedback. The lyrics were usually weary and angsty. It was also
known for dark humor and parodies of commercial rock. But grunge was was pretty
much a local phenomenon until later, when the grunge band Nirvana (below left)
released their hugely successful album

 in 1991. During 1991 and 1992,
other grunge albums like Pearl Jam·s 
, Soundgarden·s
 and Alice
in Chain·s  were part of the 100 top selling albums of the time. However with the
death of Kurt Cobain, singer and guitarist for Nirvana, and the band·s breakup just
after his death, the genre began to decline, to be overshadowed by Britpop and
more commercialized post-grunge.
90·s punk pop originated from the original punk movement in the 1970·s. Pop-
punk usually uses power-pop melodies, fast tempos, and loud guitars. It inspired
some California bands in the early 90·s, such as Rancid, Green Day, and Weezer.
Green Day moved to a major record label in 1994 and produced their album 
,
which was a diamond selling success. They were soon followed by Weezer·s debut
album, 


, which had three top ten singles in the US. The first wave of punk pop
had their peak with Green Day·s  in 1997 and The Offspring·s ±
 in
1998. The second wave of pop-punk was spearheaded by Blink-182, with their best
selling album 


in 1999. Bands like Good Charlotte, Bowling for
Soup and Sum 41 were next, with a more radio friendly sound. Later pop-punk bands
like All-American Rejects and Fall Out Boy had a more alt metal sound but also had
big commercial success.
Alternative metal came from the hardcore scene of alternative rock in the US
in the late 80·s. Later in the 90·s, alt metal bands like Korn and Slipknot created a
new style of alternative metal called nu metal. Nu metal mixed grunge, punk, metal,
and rap. It inspired a generation of successful bands like Linkin Park, P.O.D, and
Staind.
Although there are a lot of genres that emerged in the 2000·s, there are two
most important genres. In 2009, many techno pop artists emerged into the
mainstream. Lady Gaga·s debut album 

was a major success. Other artists
like Owl City, Ke$ha, Elly Jackson from La Roux, and Jason Derulo were also popular.
In the early 2000s, new rock bands began to get popular, like The Strokes
from New York with their breakthrough album   in 2001, and The White
Stripes from Detroit with their debut album 

 in 2001. Other rock
bands like Interpol, Kings of Leon, and Arctic Monkeys from the US and Franz
Ferdinand and Placebo from the UK also became popular. Alternative rock and pop
punk bands like Paramore (above) and 30 Seconds to Mars became popular in the
later 2000s, and older bands like Green Day and The Smashing Pumpkins also
released hit albums. In 2010, MGMT released their album 
 , which
was also popular, along with My Chemical Romance·s 
 !


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$% & Lots of great artists and bands were a big part of the history of
music.