Originated in the late 1970s, dance-punk is a Post-Punk style characterized by mixing the energy of Punk Rock with the danceable rhythms of Funk and Disco. It was mainly prominent in New York City's Punk movement, and many dance-punk artists, including Lizzy Mercier Descloux and Liquid Liquid, had close associations with the concurrent No Wave and Mutant Disco scenes. A separate but smaller scene also originated from the United Kingdom's post-punk scene with bands such as A Certain Ratio and Gang of Four.

Following the rise of Post-Punk Revival in the early 2000s, bands such as Death From Above 1979 and LCD Soundsystem brought the genre much more into the public eye. This led to New Rave, an Alternative Dance-revival scene which gained huge popularity in the mid to late 2000s in the United Kingdom. Spearheaded by Klaxons, the scene blended uptempo dance-punk stylings and the polished modern-studio sound of post-punk revival with the up-to-date EDM production values of 2000s club styles such as Electroclash and Electro House.