Until recently, in most critical writing the post-punk era was "often dismissed as an awkward period in which punk's gleeful ructions petered out into the vacuity of the Eighties". Contemporary scholars have argued to the contrary, asserting that the period produced significant innovations and music on its own. Simon Reynolds described the period as "a fair match for the sixties in terms of the sheer amount of great music created, the spirit of adventure and idealism that infused it, and the way that the music seemed inextricably connected to the political and social turbulence of its era". Nicholas Lezard wrote that the music of the period "was avant-garde, open to any musical possibilities that suggested themselves, united only in the sense that it was very often cerebral, concocted by brainy young men and women interested as much in disturbing the audience, or making them think, as in making a pop song".
How did most critical writing treat the post-punk era, until recently? What do contemporary scholars feel the post-punk period contributed in hindsight? What did Simon Reynolds describe the era of post-punk as a match for in terms of great music created? Who wrote that the music of the post-punk era was avant-garde? What were the post-punk era artists more interested in doing to their audiences than in entertaining them with pop songs? What era was usually dismissed as merely an awkward phase of music? What do comtemporary scholars think that post-punk actually did for music? Which critic said that the post-punk period was open to any possibilities as far as music went? Who said that the post-punk movement rivaled the Sixties in the shear amount of great music produced? What did Nicholas Leonard say united post-punk?