Post-punk and the bassline as the compositional spine of the arrangement is something I want to trace through a few specific records.

In Joy Division's 'Disorder,' the bass is doing something extraordinary. It provides the melodic continuity of the song — you can hum the bass line and have the shape of the piece — while the guitar provides angular texture and the drums provide the forward momentum. The bass is simultaneously melodic lead, harmonic foundation, and rhythmic element. It's doing three things at once that other instruments in the arrangement are only doing one of.

In Gang of Four's 'Ether,' the bass is doing something different but equally sophisticated: it creates a rhythmic displacement against the drums that gives the track its specific quality of productive unease. The bass and the drums are in a dialogue where neither one is simply supporting the other; they're in productive tension.

These are compositional choices made by musicians who understood the bass as a lead instrument. The current post-punk revival often misses this because it approaches the bass as a rhythm section instrument, which is technically correct but aesthetically wrong.