| No wave | |
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| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Late 1970s,New York City |
| Derivative forms | |
| Other topics | |
No wave was anavant-garde musicgenre andvisual art scene that emerged in the late1970s inDowntown New York City.[4][5] The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercialnew wave music.[6] Reacting againstpunk rock's recycling ofrock and rollclichés, no wave musicians instead experimented withnoise,dissonance, andatonality, as well as non-rock genres likefree jazz,funk, anddisco.[7][8][9] The scene often reflected anabrasive, confrontational, andnihilistic world view.[10]
The movement was short-lived but highly influential in the music world. The 1978 compilationNo New York is often considered the quintessential testament to the scene's musical aesthetic.[11] Aside from the music genre, the no wave movement also had a significant influence in independent film (no wave cinema), fashion, and visual art.[12]
No wave is not a clearly definablemusical genre with consistent features, but it generally was characterized by a rejection of the recycling of traditionalrock aesthetics, such asblues rock styles andChuck Berryguitar riffs inpunk andnew wave music.[8] No wave groups drew on and explored such disparate stylistic forms asminimalism,conceptual art,funk,jazz,blues,punk rock, andavant gardenoise music.[4] According toVillage Voice writer Steve Anderson, the scene pursued anabrasivereductionism which "undermined the power and mystique of a rock vanguard by depriving it of a tradition to react against".[13] Anderson claimed that the no wave scene represented "New York's last stylistically cohesiveavant-rock movement".[13]
There were, however, some elements common to most no-wave music, such as abrasiveatonal sounds; repetitive, drivingrhythms; and a tendency to emphasize musical texture over melody—typical ofLa Monte Young's earlydowntown music.[12] In the early1980s,Downtown Manhattan's no wave scene transitioned from its abrasive origins into a moredance-oriented sound, with compilations such asZE Records'sMutant Disco (1981) highlighting a playful sensibility borne out of the city's clash ofhip hop,disco and punk styles, as well asdub reggae andworld music influences.[14]
No wave music presented a negative andnihilistic world view that reflected the desolation of late 1970s Downtown New York and how they viewed the larger society. In a 2020 essay,Lydia Lunch stated there were many problems in the years that led into the 1970s, and that calling 1967 theSummer of Love was a bald-faced lie.[15] The term "no wave" might have been inspired by theFrench New Wave pioneerClaude Chabrol, with his remark "There are no waves, only the ocean".[16][17]
There are different theories about how the term was coined. Some suggestLydia Lunch coined the term in an interview with Roy Trakin inNew York Rocker.[18] Others suggest it was coined by Chris Nelson (ofMofungo andThe Scene Is Now) inNew York Rocker.[19][20]Thurston Moore ofSonic Youth claimed to have seen the term spray-painted onCBGB'sSecond Avenue Theater at 66 Second Avenue before seeing it in the press.[21]
Nihilist Spasm Band were an earlynoise music/noise rock[22] band from the 1960s. Their debut record No Record, released in 1968, has been described as being a '60s precursor to no wave, with itsnihilistic world view and complete disregard for any sort of musical structure, as evinced by thefreely improvised noise of songs such as "Destroy The Nations" and "Dog Face Man". The band plastered the word "NO" on much of their equipment and handmade instruments, and recorded a film between 1965 and 1966 entitled "NO Movie". Member Bill Exley would sometimes wear a monkey mask on stage to conceal his identity.[23] They've been cited as an influence byThurston Moore ofSonic Youth.[24]
The Velvet Underground, a 1960s New York City band, are also seen as early contributors to the no wave movement. As described byPitchfork's Marc Masters: "Mixing thenoisy rock leanings ofLou Reed, the minimalist drones ofJohn Cale (via his work withavant-garde pioneerLaMonte Young), and the art world influence ofAndy Warhol's Factory, this seminal band provided a comprehensive model for No Wave."[25]
Captain Beefheart's polarizing brand ofavant-rock music has been cited as laying "the groundwork forpost-punk,new wave, and no wave, allowing the likes ofBrian Eno andDavid Bowie to pick up from where Beefheart had left off".[26]
Cromagnon were a 1960s New York City band whose sole albumOrgasm was cited byAllMusic's Alex Henderson as foreshadowing no-wave.[27]
Suicide was a New York City duo that was formed in 1970 byAlan Vega andMartin Rev. They have been cited by Marc Masters as having "the biggest influence on no-wave".[25]
In 1978, apunk subculture-influencednoise series was held at New York'sArtists Space.[28] No wave musicians such asthe Contortions,Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,Mars,DNA,Theoretical Girls andRhys Chatham beganexperimenting with noise,dissonance and atonality in addition to non-rock styles.[29] The former four groups were included on the compilationNo New York, often considered the quintessential testament to the scene.[30] The no wave-affiliated label ZE Records was founded in 1978, and would also produce acclaimed and influential compilations in subsequent years.[14]
In 1978,Rhys Chatham curated a concert atThe Kitchen with twoelectric guitarnoise music bands that involvedGlenn Branca (Theoretical Girls and Daily Life, performed by Branca,Barbara Ess, Paul McMahon, and Christine Hahn) and another two electric-guitar noise music bands that involved Chatham himself (The Gynecologists and Tone Death, performed by Robert Appleton, Nina Canal, Chatham, andPeter Gordon). Tone Death performed Chatham's 1977 composition for electric guitarsGuitar Trio, that was inspired byLa Monte Young's minimalist compositionTrio for Strings and Chatham's exposure toThe Ramones atCBGB via Peter Gordon.[31] This proto-No Wave concert was followed a few weeks later whenArtists Space served as a site of concrete inception for the No Wave music movement, hosting a five night underground No Wave music festival, organized by artistsMichael Zwack andRobert Longo, that featured ten local bands; includingRhys Chatham'sThe Gynecologists,Glenn Branca'sTheoretical Girls,Rhys Chatham's Tone Death,[32] and Branca's Daily Life.[33][34]
The final two days of the show featuredDNA and theContortions on Friday, followed byMars andTeenage Jesus and the Jerks on Saturday.[34] English musician andproducerBrian Eno, who had originally come to New York to produce the secondTalking Heads albumMore Songs About Buildings and Food, was in the audience.[34] Impressed by what he saw and heard, and advised byDiego Cortez to do so, Eno was convinced that this movement should be documented and proposed the idea of a compilation album,No New York, with himself as a producer.[35]
By the early 1980s, artists such asLiquid Liquid,the B-52's,Cristina,Arthur Russell,James White and the Blacks andLizzy Mercier Descloux developed a dance-oriented style described byLucy Sante as "anything at all + disco bottom".[36] Other no-wave groups such asSwans,Suicide,Glenn Branca,the Lounge Lizards,Bush Tetras andSonic Youth instead continued exploring the forays into noise music abrasive territory.[37] For example,Noise Fest was an influential festival of no wave noise music performances curated byThurston Moore of Sonic Youth at the New York City art spaceWhite Columns in June 1981. Sonic Youth made their first live appearances at this show.[38]
The Noise Fest inspired Speed Trials, thenoise rock five-night concert series held May 4–8, 1983, that was organized byLive Skull members in May 1983, also at White Columns (then located at 91 Horatio Street). Among anart installation created byDavid Wojnarowicz andJoseph Nechvatal, Speed Trials included performances bythe Fall, Sonic Youth,[39]Lydia Lunch,Mofungo,Ilona Granet, pre-rapBeastie Boys,3 Teens Kill 4,Elliott Sharp as Carbon, Swans,the Ordinaires, andArto Lindsay[40] as Toy Killers. On May 10, theSan Francisco noise-punk bandFlipper closed the series out with a live concert atStudio 54. This event also included performances byZev andEric Bogosian and a video presentation byTony Oursler. Speed Trials was followed by the short-lived after-hoursaudio art Speed Club that was established by Nechvatal andBradley Eros atABC No Rio that summer.[41]
No Wave Cinema was an underground low-budget film scene inTribeca and theEast Village from the late-1970s to the mid-1980s. Rooted in the gritty, rebellious ethos of the Lower East Side’s no wavepost-punk art scene, No Wave Cinema was marked by itsDIY approach, low budgets, and an unpolished aesthetic that rejected mainstream filmmaking conventions. Musicians, visual artists, and filmmakers converged, regularly working across multiple mediums. This interdisciplinary collaboration and a sense of community was a hallmark of No Wave Cinema.
Avant-garde filmmakers likeAndy Warhol,Pier Paolo Pasolini,Jean-Pierre Melville,Rainer Werner Fassbinder andJack Smith were notable influences, as was FrenchNouvelle Vague cinema,Italian neorealism, early 1970s intimate low budget European films, such asBernardo Bertolucci’s 1972 filmLast Tango in Paris, and a general interest in the history offilm noir. HandheldSuper 8 film cameras were initially the means to shoot the films often in the street, in downtown nightclubs, in cars, or apartments using available light.
The first No Wave film wasIvan Kral andAmos Poes 1976 filmThe Blank Generation that explored the No Wave music scene inCBGB's with theRamones,Talking Heads,Blondie andPatti Smith, among several others. No Wave filmmakers includedAmos Poe,Eric Mitchell,Scott B and Beth B,Jim Jarmusch,Jamie Nares,Coleen Fitzgibbon,Diego Cortez,Charlie Ahearn,Tom DiCillo,Lizzie Borden,Susan Seidelman,Vincent Gallo,Charlie Ahearn,Adele Bertei,David Wojnarowicz,Vivienne Dick,Kiki Smith, Michael McClard,Andrea Callard and Seth Tillett.[42] Eric Mitchell’s 1985 filmThe Way It Is or Eurydice in the Avenues is considered the climatic apogee of low-budget production values of no wave filmmaking as the film’s dialogue track was dubbed over the 35mm film in editing.[43]
For many years the scene was centered around theMudd Club andColab's New Cinema Screening Room onSt. Marks Place in the East Village. No Wave Cinema actors includedPatti Astor,Steve Buscemi,Cookie Mueller,Debbie Harry,John Lurie,Eric Mitchell,Rockets Redglare,Vincent Gallo,Duncan Hannah,Anya Phillips,Rene Ricard,Arto Lindsay,Tom Wright,Richard Hell, andLydia Lunch.[citation needed]
Visual artists played a large role in the no wave scene, as visual artists often were playing in bands, or making videos and films, while making visual art for exhibition. An early influence on this aspect of the scene wasAlan Vega (aka Alan Suicide) whose electronic junk sculpture predated his role in the music group Suicide, which he formed with fellow musicianMartin Rev in 1970. They releasedSuicide, their first album, in 1977.
Important exhibitions of no wave visual art wereBarbara Ess'sJust Another Asshole show and subsequent compilation projects andColab's organization ofThe Real Estate Show,The Times Square Show,[44][45] and theIsland of Negative Utopia show atThe Kitchen.[46][47]
No wave art found an ongoing home on theLower East Side with the establishment ofABC No Rio Gallery in 1980, and a no wave punk aesthetic was a dominant strand in the art galleries of the East Village (from 1982 to 1986).[41]
In a foreword to the bookNo Wave,Weasel Walter wrote of the movement's ongoing influence:
I began to express myself musically in a way that felt true to myself, constantly pushing the limits of idiom or genre and always screaming "Fuck You!" loudly in the process. It's how I felt then and I still feel it now. The ideals behind the (anti-) movement known as No Wave were found in many other archetypes before and just as many afterwards, but for a few years around the late 1970s, the concentration of those ideals reached a cohesive, white-hot focus.[48]
In 2004,Scott Crary made the documentaryKill Your Idols, including such no wave bands as Suicide, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, DNA and Glenn Branca as well as bands influenced by no wave, including Sonic Youth, Swans,Foetus and others.
In 2007–2008, three books on the scene were published: Stuart Baker's (editor)Soul Jazz RecordsNew York Noise (with photographs by Paula Court),[49] Marc Masters'Black Dog PublishingNo Wave (with a foreword byWeasel Walter),[50] andThurston Moore andByron Coley'sHarry N. AbramsNo Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976–1980 (for whichLydia Lunch wrote the Introduction).[51]
Coleen Fitzgibbon andAlan W. Moore created a short film in 1978 (finished in 2009) of a New York City no wave concert to benefit Colab titledX Magazine Benefit, documenting performances by DNA, James Chance and the Contortions, andBoris Policeband. Shot in black and white and edited on video, the film captured the gritty look and sound of the music scene during that era. In 2013, it was exhibited atSalon 94, an art gallery in New York City.[52]
In 2023, the No Wave movement received institutional recognition at theCentre Pompidou with a Nicolas Ballet curated exhibition entitledWho You Staring At: Culture visuelle de la scène no wave des années 1970 et 1980 (Visual culture of the no wave scene in the 1970s and 1980s). Musical performances and three recorded conversations with No Wave artists were included as part of the exhibition.[53]
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