During the early 1980s, the genre was reconfigured by
independent bands who enjoyed success on
college rock charts and radio stations. This included groups such as
R.E.M. and
Let's Active, who emerged from
post-punk scenes and appropriated the sounds of jangle acts from the 1960s, as well as the adjacent
Paisley Underground movement, which incorporated
psychedelic influences.
AllMusic categorized jangle pop as a subgenre of
alternative or
indie rock while describing it as a "pop-based format", but not mainstream, as the lyrics could often be "deliberately cryptic", and the sound "raw and amateurish" with
DIY production. According to music journalist
Denise Sullivan, "all signs point toward
the dB's reinventing 'jangle-rock,' before R.E.M. made it famous." In addition to R.E.M., English band
the Smiths were a prominent early jangle pop group. Subsequent jangle pop bands largely imitated R.E.M. and, despite its foundations in 1960s
folk rock bands such as the Byrds, groups were sometimes unfamiliar with the genre's 1960s predecessors. An article in
Blogcritics magazine claims that, besides R.E.M., the "only other jangle-pop band to enjoy large sales in America were
the Bangles, from Los Angeles". The
Dunedin sound was a key scene of jangle pop. Bands such as
the Chills,
the Clean,
the Verlaines,
the Bats and
Straitjacket Fits synthesised 1970s
alternative rock and
post-punk with jangle, and the scene soon spread to
Auckland and other New Zealand cities. In
Austin, Texas, the term
New Sincerity was loosely used for a similar group of bands, led by
the Reivers,
Wild Seeds and True Believers. ==See also==