of Rock Lists, XTC were ranked number 15 for its list of the "17 Loudest Bands in the World", ahead of Queen and Kiss. XTC were the only group besides the Stranglers to emerge from the punk scene with a keyboardist. Journalist Steven Hyden of The A.V. Club wrote that their style of "post-punk guitar pop" became popular in the early 2000s among bands such as Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, Hot Hot Heat, and Bloc Party. During the decade, there was a reevaluation of post-punk: Shabe wrote that it "led to XTC being revered in association with the groundbreakers of that era." Musicologist Alex Ogg listed XTC as one of several "unheralded" events in the history of post-punk, while Eric Klinger of PopMatters posited: "You might not hear of bands talking about XTC as a big influence the way they talk about, say, Gang of Four, but they were certainly in the mix that became the music that was to come." British reception Despite their "Englishness", the group's fanbase has been more concentrated in the US than the UK. They refused to conform to punk's simplicity, a point that the British press initially criticised. Partridge believed "we were trying to push music into a new area. And so we had to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous name calling because we refused to just play stupid." He recalled that when he played at a jam session with punk bands in the late 1970s, the drummer from X-Ray Spex shouted "Oh, you can fucking play, can you? Oh, listen to him, he can play." In 1988, writer Chris Hunt observed that "XTC have largely not found favour in their homeland. To a nation that judges success in terms of tabloid coverage and appearances on Top Of The Pops, the retiring bards of rural olde England didn't really strike too loud a chord with the record buying public. XTC had just become 'too weird' for their own good." Musician and journalist Dominique Leone argued that they "deserved more than they ever got. From the press, the public, their label, and various managers, XTC have been a tragically under-appreciated band in every sense." Swindon did not have a respected music scene as others in Britain. Partridge cited the group's origins as the main reason for their ill-repute: "if we came from a big city like London or Manchester, we would have probably