February

The Remains Of The Ramones

After the detours of the previous two albums, Subterranean Jungle, released on 28 February 1983, was welcomed as something of a return to what The Ramones did best, if not exactly a return to vintage form. Producers Ritchie Cordell and Glen Kolotkin, heads of the power-pop and punk label Bomp!, were credited with getting The Ramones back on track. On ‘Time Bomb’ Dee Dee Ramone enjoys his first lead vocal on a Ramones album. The sessions saw the dismissal of drummer Marky Ramone because of alcoholism. Subterranean Jungle set the template for the rest of the band’s career and was their last album to reach the Billboard chart.

March

Post-Punk Crosses Over

A term coined by the British music press, post-punk was used to describe a variety of disparate artists, from those originally associated with punk, like Siouxsie & The Banshees, to those galvanized by it, like XTC. The most successful post-punk bands added a commercial edge to their music and entered the mainstream. Emerging from the ashes of Joy Division, New Order blended rock and dance rhythms to become one of the most important bands of the 1980s and 1990s. Their hit single ‘Blue Monday’, released on 7 March 1983, became the UK’s biggest-selling 12-inch single of all time. Meanwhile, The Cure’s atmospheric gothic rock earned them large audiences in both Britain and America.

Styles & Forms | Introducing Punk
Styles & Forms | Punk | The Aftermath (Mid-1990s) | Key Events