New Wave

[Generic Eric]

I love new wave rock. I listen to alot of punk rock, but new wave is my guilty pleasure. My favorite new wave bands are Missing Persons, Bow Wow Wow, The vapors, Talking Heads, Dramarama and the flock of Seaguls. One of my favorite albums is '5th Overture' by The Adicts. Nothing like a legendary UK punk band experimenting with new wave. My favorite current era band keeping the new wave sound alive is the epoxies.

What are some of your own favorite new wave bands and albums?

[Buried Alien]

What are some of your own favorite new wave bands and albums?

The Romantics. They're remembered for two big hits ("What I Like About You" and "Talking In Your Sleep"), but they actually had a great catalogue of songs on their albums that casual fans never discovered. They were one of the few New Wave bands to eschew synthesizers and rely on guitars and drums. In a way, they were a New Wave take on British Invasion and 60s garage rock music.


Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Jonathan Bogart]

A golden oldie post returns:

I like Blondie, Talking Heads, the Cars, Elvis Costello, the Clash, the Jam, the Buzzcocks, Graham Parker, Joe Jackson, Kirsty MacColl, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Simple Minds, XTC, Devo, the Blasters, Bow Wow Wow, Cabaret Voltaire, the Damned, the Fall, Gang of Four, Human League, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, Iggy Pop, Joy Division, the Lambrettas, Magazine, the Only Ones, Rachel Sweet, the Ramones, the Selecter, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Television, Tubeway Army, Ultravox, Madness, Wreckless Eric, the Cure, the Passions, Mission of Burma, X, Depeche Mode, Japan, the Pretenders, the Killing Joke, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, the (English) Beat, the Specials, the Raincoats, the Smithereens, the Smiths, the Minutemen, the dB's, Echo & the Bunnymen, They Might Be Giants, the Psychedelic Furs, Public Image Ltd., Love and Rockets, the The, the Teardrop Explodes, Visage, Soft Cell, Kate Bush, Billy Bragg, U2, Missing Persons, the Stray Cats, the Go-Go's, Duran Duran, Naked Eyes, A Flock of Seagulls, Generation X, Patti Smith, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Nina Hagen, Nena, the B-52's, the Police, Thomas Dolby, the Soft Boys, Dramarama, the Cocteau Twins, X-Ray Spex, New Order, Robin Lane & the Chartbusters, Holly & the Italians, Nick Lowe, Rockpile, a-Ha, Altered Images, the Art of Noise, Berlin, the Durutti Column, the Flying Lizards, Cristina, Heaven 17, Icicle Works, Modern English, New Musik, the Plimsouls, the Pogues, the Pop Group, the Rezillos, the Secret Affair, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, the Sound, Suicide, Stiff Little Fingers, Spandau Ballet, Steve Forbert, Marshall Crenshaw, Telex, the Underdogs, the Vapors, the Waitresses, Wire, the Yachts, Yaz, the Bangles, the Boomtown Rats, Lene Lovich, Ian Dury & the Blockheads, Jona Lewie, Eddie & the Hot Rods, the Comsat Angels, Kim Wilde, the Bush Tetras, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, the Buggles, and Bram Tchaikovsky.

aaaaaand Orange Juice, Josef K, Felt, ESG, Scritti Politti, Desperate Bycycles, the Associates, 999, Throbbing Gristle, DNA, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, James Chance & the Contortions, Mars, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Talk Talk, Liquid Liquid, and some other bands that won't really fit into the definition of "New Wave" no matter how hard I push.

[Generic Eric]

A golden oldie post returns:
Wow, I did'nt even know most of those bands were even considered new wave. Alot of good choices though. Some bands are hard to completely define and sometimes you just have to define them as awesome. Like Devo for instance. Are they punk, post punk, new wave, nerd core ? Who cares because their awesomeness is almost transcendant of genre.

[Jonathan Bogart]

Crap, I totally forgot Adam & the Ants.

[bert]

aaaaaand Orange Juice


Orange Juice Jones!



I saw you. . . walking in the raaaaaaaiiiiiin

[Ilash]

I'm not much of a New Wave fan mainly because I find most of what I heard of it too cold and emotionally distant, I guess you could say, in comparison to the music I generally prefer but I'm confused as to why Generic Eric called it a "guilty pleasure". To my understanding New Wave is generally well regarded by most, isn't it?

And for the record my two favourite New Wave artists are the Clash and Elvis Costello. And props to Buried Alien for pointing out the Romantics to me because from what I've heard they also seem like a pretty nice band.

[DDM]

New Wave is commercially friendly post-punk music. Basically, virtually any punk inspired band that released albums from the early 80's is considered "new wave." I like Siouxsie & the Banshees Kaleidoscope LP. Anything from the Human League. Missing Persons first album...

[Generic Eric]

I consider new wave to be a guilty pleasure because it's generally considered cheesy and many new wave artists have the stigma of being one hit wonders. Many bands only had one or two well known radio hits and thier general image is known mostly by thier images from lame old Mtv videos.

[Generic Eric]

A cool website to learn about lesser known and obscure new wave bands is the mp3 blog called 'Lost bands Of The New Wave Era'.
lostbands.blogspot.com

[Adam Crocker]

Wow, I did'nt even know most of those bands were even considered new wave.

Well I suppose it's the sense in which you want to use the term "New Wave" to either mean the new pop bands of the late 1970s and 1980s or in the all-inclusive sense, which usually the British use. (Though Seymour Stein of Sire did come up with the term to market punk bands like the Ramones and Richard Hell and the Voidoids.)

Either way you were using it in the poppy sense. Now I have to shun Johnathan for not lecturing you about how 'new wave' as a pop movement is a false consciousness instilled by record companies to obscure the fact that it meant more than skinny ties and synths. Bad Johnathan! Bad!

(I also need to lecture him for including post-New Wave alt rock bands like the Smiths, the Pogues, and Minutemen in there. :p )


They were one of the few New Wave bands to eschew synthesizers and rely on guitars and drums.

Few? Considering the Clash from London Calling on, the Specials (perhaps the whole Two Tone movement, Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Joe Jackson, XTC, the Stray Cats, the B-52s, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Marshall Crenshaw, Ian Dury & the Blockheads (at least from what I heard of them), the Soft Boys, Rockpile, Nick Lowe, and the Jam from All the Mod Cons (and the whole mod revival) on I'd have to say that the number of New Wave bands that didn't rely on synths is hardly few. (Granted most of them were English.)

In a way, they were a New Wave take on British Invasion and 60s garage rock music.

Which leads me to ask, have you heard any of the Jam yet? They started out as a punk take on Mod, and then becomes the New Wave take on British Invasion guitar pop with the album All the Mod Cons, albeit informed by punk anger and cynicism. Hell Weller got even more bitter and strident the further he got musically into sixties British pop and American soul.

[Adam Crocker]

To my understanding New Wave is generally well regarded by most, isn't it?


New Wave generally refers to "cheesy skinny tied synth pop bands" in popular parlance. So no, not really.

(Unless, maybe you're British. And even then that's mostly from what I heard from musicians who were a part of it or remembered it, or writers. I don't know how it is to average Briton on the street.)

[Ilash]

New Wave generally refers to "cheesy skinny tied synth pop bands" in popular parlance. So no, not really.

(Unless, maybe you're British. And even then that's mostly from what I heard from musicians who were a part of it or remembered it, or writers. I don't know how it is to average Briton on the street.)

Oh well, learn something new every day. Mind you, I figured with guys like the Clash, the Jam, Elvis Costello, the Police etc. running around, the whole movement that they came from/ represent would be well remembered but I guess people prefer to remember the bad.

[Adam Crocker]

Oh well, learn something new every day. Mind you, I figured with guys like the Clash, the Jam, Elvis Costello, the Police etc. running around, the whole movement that they came from/ represent would be well remembered but I guess people prefer to remember the bad.

Well remember that the Clash tend to get associated more with punk than New Wave. I think that applies to the Jam as well, but they aren't all that well known outside of Britain.

[Krys Nyteshade]

I find myself digging New Order. And the Cure, but I've only really listened to their older stuff and the "Trilogy" disks. The couple of New-Wave-y tracks on their greatest hits are okay, though.

And does Big Audio Dynamite count?

[Shellhead]

Oh well, learn something new every day. Mind you, I figured with guys like the Clash, the Jam, Elvis Costello, the Police etc. running around, the whole movement that they came from/ represent would be well remembered but I guess people prefer to remember the bad.

Personally, I never thought of the Police as New Wave. Early Police was kind of white reggae, and their later stuff was more in the vicinity of pop rock with prog rock pretentiousness.

[Dennis K]

Personally, I never thought of the Police as New Wave. Early Police was kind of white reggae, and their later stuff was more in the vicinity of pop rock with prog rock pretentiousness.


The Police were certainly labled as a New Wave band though, at least through their first two albums.

[Poka Lola Luau]

Not sure which category these fit into. I have In The City and The Modern World by The Jam on DIY English punk compilations. Energetic. I love Alternative Ulster by The Stiff Little Fingers, Gary Gilmor's Eyes by The Adverts, and Hong Kong Garden by Siouxsie, also on those compilations. I'm a Blondie maniac and I also like The Buzzcocks, X Ray Specs first album, Talking Heads, Missing Persons, The Damned, Seagulls, Berlin, New Order, and some Wayne/Jayne County.

Anyone remember the Brave New Waves show that was syndicated out of Canada? I stopped my car and listened when I first heard the DJ play Horses and Gloria by Patti Smith.

[ZombieHavoc]

i use this simple little formula to properly distinguish between punk rock and new wave.

if it came out 1979 or before, its punk. if it came out 1980 or after its new wave.

but then that would make x's los angeles new wave. and slaughter and the dogs' bite back. and that doesnt work.

actually, in all seriousness, i've just always considered new wave to be punk bands who wanted to sell more records.

i like a lot of what is considered new wave, but i prefer the punk rock counterparts, where applicable.

and the first two police records are so punk.

[Lubichev]

Devo.
Devo.
Devo.
Devo.
Devo.
Devo.
Devo.
Devo.

[Dennis K]

Devo.
Devo.
Devo.
Devo.
Devo.
Devo.
Devo.
Devo.

Are we not men?

[OhMyGato]

Personally, I never thought of the Police as New Wave. Early Police was kind of white reggae, and their later stuff was more in the vicinity of pop rock with prog rock pretentiousness.

i don't really classify them as such either, mainly given the lack of synth-dominance that typifies most new wave bands. that being said, The Police are amazing no matter what genre you call 'em....

great thread, btw.

[Phrozen]

Many bands only had one or two well known radio hits and thier general image is known mostly by thier images from lame old Mtv videos.

I acutally find the older videos much more creative then what we see today. Sure the cinenmatography wasn't as sophisticated but they had this lets do something new and interesting vibe that just isn't there today.

[Lubichev]

Are we not men?
"I'm a man with a mission
A boy with a gun.
I got a picture in my pocket of the lucky one."

[Indigo Al]

Does anyone else find their former passion for New Wave music to be dampened by the Nu Wave bands - like The Bravery, The Fall, etc etc.?

[Adam Crocker]

Does anyone else find their former passion for New Wave music to be dampened by the Nu Wave bands - like The Bravery, The Fall, etc etc.?

The Fall aren't nu-wave. They've been around since 1977 and leaving aside all their members and releases over the years their sound is generally far too abrasive, skronky, and just weird to ranked in with Nu Wave. In fact they're closer to Pavement more than anything else, and Stephen Malkmus has always been open about Pavement's debt to the Fall.

[Indigo Al]

The Fall aren't nu-wave. They've been around since 1977 and leaving aside all their members and releases over the years their sound is generally far too abrasive, skronky, and just weird to ranked in with Nu Wave. In fact they're closer to Pavement more than anything else, and Stephen Malkmus has always been open about Pavement's debt to the Fall.

My bad, I think i meant to type Arcade Fire

[Adam Crocker]

i don't really classify them as such either, mainly given the lack of synth-dominance that typifies most new wave bands. that being said, The Police are amazing no matter what genre you call 'em....

Well I regard them as a New Wave band, even if I were to limit it to the pop end of the class of '77-'83 rather than use the older, all-inclusive definition. Over on the first page of the thread I pointed out to Buried Alien that there were a fair number of New Wave bands that didn't primarily rely on synths, even if they were more popular in Britain than the United States. More than anything 'New Wave' was just a meaningless marketing term used to describe a bunch of new pop bands in the time frame I mentioned that didn't fit into previous styles. And this included Elvis Costello, the English Beat, Dexy's Midnight Runners, and the Pretenders (and early Blondie didn't rely on synths either).

So I guess that the Police fit in there as well. Besides those synth bands are just 'synth pop' so they have their sub-genre, and a much better defined one.

[Generic Eric]

I acutally find the older videos much more creative then what we see today. Sure the cinenmatography wasn't as sophisticated but they had this lets do something new and interesting vibe that just isn't there today.
Yeah, I have to admit alot of the newer videos are kind of lame. I used to miss music videos not being played anymore. But then I've discovered I don't really need to see music videos to enjoy the music. I mainly watch music videos to know what bands not to listen to.