Hüsker Dü
Out of Minneapolis's hardcore scene, Hüsker Dü sped punk up, turned up the distortion, and then, almost defiantly, started writing melodies underneath all that noise. Bob Mould and Grant Hart's songs were as tuneful as they were bruising, proving punk energy and pop songcraft weren't mutually exclusive. Their run of mid-'80s albums became a foundational text for the alternative-rock decade that followed.
Bob Mould has said he picked up a guitar in the first place because of the Ramones — that band's stripped-down, breakneck template is the foundation Hüsker Dü built their whole early sound on top of.
listen forListen to the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" next to Hüsker Dü's "In a Free Land" — both hit full speed within seconds and never let up, the same buzzsaw guitar-bass-drums attack, just louder and more distorted.
Bassist Greg Norton has called Buzzcocks a big influence on the band, and you can hear it in how Hüsker Dü never abandoned pop melody even at their most hardcore-fast and distorted.
listen forSet Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen in Love" against Hüsker Dü's "Makes No Sense at All" — both bury a genuinely catchy pop melody under speed and distortion, proof that punk aggression and hooks were never actually opposites.
Hüsker Dü's early sound drew on the terse, art-damaged British punk of bands like Wire, whose clipped, no-frills songwriting shaped the discipline behind Hüsker Dü's own tightly wound arrangements.
listen forPlay Wire's "Pink Flag" next to Hüsker Dü's "New Day Rising" — both strip a song down to its most essential, driving parts and refuse to overstay their welcome, treating economy itself as a kind of aggression.