New wave commercially peaked during the late 1970s into the early 1980s with an abundance ofone-hit wonders. In 1981, theMTV channel was launched, which heavily promoted and popularized new-wave acts in the United States. While regional new wave scenes developed across Europe, particularly the Netherlands'Ultra, Germany'sNeue Deutsche Welle, Spain'sLa Movida Madrileña, France, Poland and Belgium'scoldwave, as well as theYugoslav New Wave. Additionally, the movement inspired subgenres such asminimal wave anddarkwave.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, new wave music encompassed a wide variety ofpop-oriented styles that shared a quirky, lighthearted, and humorous tone.[7][18] Though the term was originally coined bySeymour Stein ofSire Records[19][20] as a catch-all for the various styles of music that emerged afterpunk rock. The phrase also alluded to theFrench New Wave, a 1960s film movement known for its experimental approach and departure from traditional forms.[18][21]
Common characteristics of new wave music include a humorous or quirky pop approach, the use of electronic sounds, and a distinctive visual style in music videos and fashion.[22] According toSimon Reynolds, new wave music had a twitchy, agitated feel. New wave musicians often played choppy rhythm guitars with angularriffs and fast tempos; keyboards, and stop-start song structures and melodies are common, with the use of jerky rhythms, andsynthesizers. Reynolds noted new-wave vocalists sound high-pitched, geeky, and suburban.[23][18][24]
In America, new wave became widely popularized by channels likeMTV, which would play British new wave music videos because most American hit records did not have music videos to play. British videos, according to head of S-Curve Records and music producerSteve Greenberg, "were easy to come by since they'd been a staple of UK pop music TV programs likeTop of the Pops since the mid-70s."[25] This rise in technology made the visual style of new wave musicians important for their success. In the early 1980s, virtually every new pop and rock act – and particularly those that employedsynthesizers – were tagged as "new wave" in the United States, while the term was also later used to label bands in the British post-punk scene.[22] The term has been described as so loose and wide-ranging as to be "virtually meaningless", according to theNew Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock.[26][27]
A nervous, nerdy persona was a common characteristic of new wave fans, and acts such asTalking Heads,Devo, andElvis Costello.[28] This took the forms of robotic dancing, jittery high-pitched vocals, and clothing fashions that hid the body such as suits and big glasses.[29] This seemed radical to audiences accustomed to post-counterculture genres such asdisco dancing and macho "cock rock" that emphasized a "hang loose" philosophy, open sexuality, and sexual bravado.[30][31][32]
Blondie, 1977. L–R: Gary Valentine, Clem Burke, Deborah Harry, Chris Stein and Jimmy Destri.
New wave may be seen as an attempt to reconcile "the energy and rebellious attitude of punk" with traditional forms of pop songwriting, as seen in therockabilly riffs and classic craftsmanship ofElvis Costello and the 1960smod influences ofthe Jam.[33][34]Paul Weller, who called new wave "the pop music of the Seventies",[35] explained to Chas de Whalley in 1977:
It's just pop music and that's why I like it. It's all about hooks and guitar riffs. That's what the new wave is all about. It's not heavy and negative like all thatIggy andNew York stuff. The new wave is today's pop music for today's kids, it's as simple as that.[36]
Although new wave shares punk'sdo-it-yourself artistic philosophy, the musicians were more influenced by the light strains of 1960s pop while opposed to mainstream"corporate" rock, which they considered creatively stagnant, as well as the generally abrasive and political bents of punk rock.[18] In the early 1980s, particularly in the United States, notable new wave acts embraced acrossover of pop and rock music with African and African-American styles.Adam and the Ants andBow Wow Wow, both acts with ties to formerSex Pistols managerMalcolm McLaren, usedBurundi-style drumming.[37] Talking Heads' albumRemain in Light was marketed and positively reviewed as a breakthrough melding of new wave and African styles, although drummerChris Frantz said he found out about this supposed African influence after the fact.[38] As the decade continued, new wave elements would be adopted by African-American musicians such asGrace Jones,Janet Jackson, andPrince,[39] who in particular used new wave influences to lay the groundwork for theMinneapolis sound.[40][41][42][43]
The influence ofavant-garde andabstractart movements such asDada,Cubism and theBauhaus school would also influence the visual aesthetic and sound of new wave artists, which became contemporaneous with the development of theMemphis Design aesthetic adopted byMTV and many new wave artists during the 1980s.[55][56][57] Additionally,Peter Ivers early output was later recognized as a precursor to new wave with Ivers contributing to theEraserhead soundtrack and later hosting the influential showNew Wave Theatre.[58]
Early 1970s
The term "new wave" was originally coined bySeymour Stein ofSire Records[19][20] as a catch-all for more accessible music that emerged afterpunk rock in the United States.[59] At the time, due to the emergence of theSex Pistols, the American media portrayed punk rock as dangerous and violent, leading to a stigma that made music "virtually unmarketable,"[60] emerging groups who stemmed from the American punk scene, began to adopt "new wave" as a form of marketing that distanced themselves from the "punk" label.[22]
Between 1976 and 1977, the terms "new wave" and "punk" were used somewhat interchangeably.[70][71]Music historian Vernon Joynson said new wave emerged in the UK in late 1976, when many bands began disassociating themselves from punk.[2] That year, the term gained currency when it appeared in UK punkfanzines such asSniffin' Glue, and music weeklies such asMelody Maker andNew Musical Express.[72] In November 1976,Caroline Coon used the term "new wave" to designate music by bands that were not exactlypunk but were related to the punk-music scene.[73] The mid-1970s Britishpub rock scene became another source of many of the most-commercially-successful new wave acts, such asIan Dury andNick Lowe, as well as Ireland'sBoomtown Rats.[74]
In the US,Sire Records chairmanSeymour Stein, believing the term "punk" would mean poor sales for Sire's acts who had frequently played the New York clubCBGB, launched a "Don't Call It Punk" campaign designed to replace the term with "new wave".[75] Because radio consultants in the US had advised their clients punk rock was a fad, they settled on the new term. At first, most American writers used the term "new wave" exclusively in reference to British punk acts.[76] Starting in December 1976,The New York Rocker, which was suspicious of the term "punk", became the first American journal to enthusiastically use the term, at first for British acts and later for acts associated with the CBGB scene.[72] The music's stripped-back style and upbeat tempos, which Stein and others viewed as a much-needed return to the energetic rush of rock and roll and 1960s rock that had dwindled in the 1970s withprogressive rock and stadium spectacles, attracted them to new wave.[77][page needed]
In England, the terms "post-punk" and "new musick" were coined by music journalistJon Savage in the November 26, 1977 issue ofSounds in an article titled "New Musick: Devo Look Into the Future!" to describe a strain of bands that were moving passed thegarage rock conventions of punk rock and incorporating wider influences.[78] The terms "post-punk" and "new wave" were used interchangeably to describe these groups before the genres perceptibly narrowed, some artists adopted synthesizers.[79] In London, artists such as Ultravox,Elvis Costello andGary Numan'sTubeway Army later released influential new wave albums during this period. While punk rock wielded a major influence on the popular music scene in the UK, in the US it remained a fixture of the underground.[77]
By the end of 1977, "new wave" had replaced "punk" as the term for newunderground music in the UK.[72] In early 1978,XTC released the single "This Is Pop" as a direct response to tags such as "new wave". SongwriterAndy Partridge later stated of bands such as themselves who were given those labels; "Let's be honest about this. This is pop, what we're playing ... don't try to give it any fancy new names, or any words that you've made up, because it's blatantly just pop music. We were a new pop group. That's all."[80]
In the early 1980s, new wave gradually lost its associations with punk in popular perception among some Americans. Writing in 1989, music critic Bill Flanagan said; "Bit by bit the last traces of Punk were drained from New Wave, as New Wave went from meaning Talking Heads to meaning the Cars toSqueeze toDuran Duran to, finally,Wham!".[84] Among many critics, however, new wave remained tied to the punk/new wave period of the late 1970s. Writing in 1990, the "Dean of American Rock Critics"Robert Christgau, who gave punk and new wave bands major coverage in his column forThe Village Voice in the late 1970s, defined "new wave" as "a polite term devised to reassure people who were scared by punk, it enjoyed a two- or three-year run but was falling from favor as the '80s began."[85]
Lester Bangs, another critical promoter of punk and new wave in the 1970s, when asked if new wave was "still going on" in 1982, stated that "The only trouble with New Wave is that nobody followed up on it ... But it was really an exciting burst there for like a year, year and a half."[86] Starting around 1983, the US music industry preferred the more generic term "new music", which it used to categorize new movements likenew pop andNew Romanticism.[87] In 1983, music journalist Parke Puterbaugh wrote that new music "does not so much describe a single style as it draws a line in time, distinguishing what came before from what has come after."[24]Chuck Eddy, who wrote forThe Village Voice in the 1980s, said in a 2011 interview that by the time of British new pop acts' popularity on MTV, "New Wave had already been over by then. New wave was not synth music; it wasn't even this sort of funny-haircut music. It was the guy inthe Boomtown Rats wearing pajamas."[88] Similarly in Britain, journalists and music critics largely abandoned the term "new wave" with the rise of synth-pop.[89] According to authors Stuart Borthwick and Ron Moy, "After the monochrome blacks and greys of punk/new wave, synth-pop was promoted by a youth media interested in people who wanted to be pop stars, such asBoy George andAdam Ant".[90]
In 2005,Andrew Collins ofThe Guardian offered the breakup ofthe Jam, and the formation of Duran Duran, as two possible dates marking the "death" of new wave.[91] British rock criticAdam Sweeting, who described the Jam as "British New Wave at its most quintessential and successful", remarked that the band broke up "just asBritish pop was being overrun by the preposterous leisurewear and over-budgeted videos of Culture Club, Duran Duran and ABC, all of which were anathema to the puritanicalWeller."[92] Scholar Russ Bestley noted that while punk, new wave, and post-punk songs had featured on theTop of the Pops album series between mid-1977 and early 1982, by the time of the firstNow That's What I Call Music! compilation in 1983 punk and new wave was "largely dead and buried as a commercial force".[93]
New wave was closely tied to punk, and came and went more quickly in the UK and Western Europe than in the US. At the time punk began, it was a major phenomenon in the UK and a minor one in the US. When new wave acts started being noticed in the US, the term "punk" meant little to mainstream audiences, and it was common for rock clubs and discos to play British dance mixes and videos between live sets by American guitar acts.[94]
Illustrating the varied meanings of "new wave" in the UK and the US, Collins recalled how growing up in the 1970s he consideredthe Photos, who released one album in 1980 before splitting up a year later, as the most "truly definitive new wave band". In the same article, reviewing the American bookThis Ain't No Disco: New Wave Album Covers, Collins noted that the book's inclusion of such artists asBig Country, Roxy Music, Wham!, andBronski Beat "strikes an Englishman as patently ridiculous", but that the term means "all things to all cultural commentators."[91] By the 2000s, critical consensus favored "new wave" to be an umbrella term that encompassespower pop, synth-pop,ska revival, and the soft strains of punk rock.[8] In the UK, some post-punk music developments became mainstream.[95] According to music critic David Smay writing in 2001:
Current critical thought discredits new wave as a genre, deriding it as a marketing ploy to soft-sell punk, a meaningless umbrella term covering bands too diverse to be considered alike. Powerpop, synth-pop, ska revival, art school novelties and rebranded pub rockers were all sold as "New Wave".[8]
In mid-1977,arena rock anddisco dominated the U.S. charts[96] while acts associated with punk/new wave received little or no radio airplay and music industry support, despite favorable lead stories byTime[97] andNewsweek.[98] Small new wave scenes developed in major cities, but public support remained limited to elements of the artistic, bohemian, and intellectual population.[72] In early 1979, Eve Zibart ofThe Washington Post noted the contrast between "the American audience's lack of interest in New Wave music" compared to critics, with a "stunning two-thirds of the Top 30 acts" in the 1978Pazz & Jop poll falling into the "New Wave-to-rock 'n' roll revivalist spectrum".[99] A month later, Zibart calledElvis Costello the "Best Shot of the New Wave" in America, speculating that "If New Wave is to take hold here, it will be through the efforts of those furthest from the punk center" due to "inevitable" American middle-class resistance to the "jarring rawness of New Wave and its working-class angst."[100]
In late 1978 and 1979, punk acts and acts that mixed punk with other genres began to make chart appearances and receive airplay on rock stations and rock discos.[101]Blondie, Talking Heads, the Police, and the Cars charted during this period.[70][96] In 1979, "My Sharona" bythe Knack wasBillboard magazine's number-one single; its success, combined with new wave albums being much cheaper to produce during the music industry's worst slump in decades,[101] prompted record companies to sign new wave groups.[70] At the end of 1979,Dave Marsh wrote inTime that the Knack's success confirmed rather than began the new wave movement's commercial rise, which had been signaled in 1978 by hits for the Cars and Talking Heads.[102] In 1980, there were brief forays into new wave-style music by non-new wave artistsBilly Joel (Glass Houses),Donna Summer (The Wanderer), andLinda Ronstadt (Mad Love).[70]
1980s
Early in 1980, influential radio consultantLee Abrams wrote a memo saying with a few exceptions, "we're not going to be seeing many of the new wave circuit acts happening very big [in the US]. As a movement, we don't expect it to have much influence."[103][22] A year earlier, Bart Mills ofThe Washington Post asked "Is England's New Wave All Washed Up?", writing that "The New Wave joined the Establishment, buying a few hits at the price of its anarchism. Not a single punk band broke through big in America, and in BritainJohn Travolta sold more albums than the entire New Wave."[104] Lee Ferguson, a consultant toKWST, said in an interview Los Angeles radio stations were banning disc jockeys from using the term and noted; "Most of the people who call music new wave are the ones looking for a way not to play it".[105] Second albums by new wave musicians who had successful debut albums, along with newly signed musicians, failed to sell and stations pulled most new wave programming,[70] such as Devo's socially critical but widely misunderstood song "Whip It".[106]
In 1981, the start of MTV began new wave's most successful era in the US.[citation needed] British musicians, unlike many of their American counterparts, had learned how to use the music video early on.[96][107] Several British acts on independent labels were able to outmarket and outsell American musicians on major labels, a phenomenon journalists labeled the "Second British Invasion" of"new music", which included many artists of theNew Romantic movement.[107][108] In 1981,Rolling Stone contrasted the movement with the previous new wave era, writing that "the natty Anglo-dandies ofJapan", having been "reviled in the New Wave era", seemed "made to order for the age of the clothes-conscious New Romantic bands."[109] MTV continued its heavy rotation of videos by "post-New Wave pop" acts "with a British orientation" until 1987, when it changed to aheavy metal and rock-dominated format.[110]
In a December 1982Gallup poll, 14% of teenagers rated new wave as their favorite type of music, making it the third-most-popular genre.[111] New wave had its greatest popularity on the West Coast. Unlike other genres, race was not a factor in the popularity of new wave music, according to the poll.[111]Urban contemporary radio stations were the first to play dance-oriented new wave bands such asthe B-52's,Culture Club, Duran Duran, andABC.[112]
New wave soundtracks were used in mainstreamBrat Pack films such asSixteen Candles,Pretty in Pink, andThe Breakfast Club, as well as in the low-budget hitValley Girl.[96][113]John Hughes, the director of several of these films, was enthralled with British new wave music, and placed songs from acts such asthe Psychedelic Furs,Simple Minds,Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, andEcho and the Bunnymen in his films, helping to keep new wave in the mainstream.[114] Several of these songs remain standards of the era.[115] Critics described the MTV acts of the period as shallow or vapid.[96][107]Homophobic slurs were used to describe some of the new wave musicians.[116] Despite the criticism, the danceable quality of the music and the quirky fashion sense associated with new wave musicians appealed to audiences.[96]Peter Ivers, who started his career in the late 1960s, went on to become the host for the television programNew Wave Theatre that showcased rising acts in the underground new wave scene. He has been described byNTS Radio as "a virtuosic songwriter and musician whose antics bridged not just 60s counterculture and New Wave music but also film, theater, and music television."[117][118]
In September 1988,Billboard launched itsModern Rock chart, the acts on which reflected a wide variety of stylistic influences. New wave's legacy remained in the large influx of acts from the UK, and acts that were popular in rock discos, as well as the chart's name, which reflects the way new wave was marketed as "modern".[119] According to Steve Graves, new wave'sindie spirit was crucial to the development ofcollege rock andgrunge/alternative rock in the latter half of the 1980s and onward.[96] Conversely, according to Robert Christgau, "in America, the original New Wave was a blip commercially, barely touching the nascent alt-rock counterculture of the '80s."[120]
In the US, new wave continued into the mid-1980s but declined with the popularity of theNew Romantic,new pop, and new music genres.[121][70] Some new wave acts, particularlyR.E.M., maintained new wave'sindie label orientation through most of the 1980s, rejecting potentially more lucrative careers from signing to a major label.[96] In the UK, new wave "survived through thepost-punk years, but after the turn of the decade found itself overwhelmed by the more outrageous style of the New Romantics."[34] In response, many Britishindie bands adopted "the kind of jangling guitar work that had typified New Wave music",[122] with the arrival ofthe Smiths characterised by themusic press as a "reaction against the opulence/corpulence of nouveau rich New Pop"[123] and "part of the move back to guitar-driven music after the keyboard washes of the New Romantics".[124] In the aftermath ofgrunge, the British music press launched a campaign to promote thenew wave of new wave that involved overtly punk and new-wave-influenced acts such asElastica, but it was eclipsed byBritpop, which took influences from both 1960s rock and 1970s punk and new wave.[63][125] Robert Christgau identified the mid-1990s NWONW movement as the peak of a new wave revival that has continued on and off since, stating in 1996, "1994 was the top of a curve we can't be certain we've reached the bottom of".[126]
During the 2000s, a number of artists that exploited a diversity of new wave and post-punk influences emerged through the alternative rock scene. In New York, these acts were encompassed by theelectroclash[127] andpost-punk revival movement, sometimes labeled "New New Wave".[128][129]
According to British music journalistChris Nickson, Scottish bandFranz Ferdinand revived both Britpop and the music of the late 1970s "with their New Wave influenced sound".[130]AllMusic notes the emergence of these acts "led journalists and music fans to talk about a post-punk/new wave revival" while arguing it was "really more analogous to a continuum, one that could be traced back as early as the mid-'80s".[131] In England, the resurgence ofindie rock music that emerged through the 2000s post-punk revival scene led to a proliferation of formulaic acts collectively labelled "landfill indie". James New ofMumm-Ra, an artist associated with this era, stated "I went into a weird new-wave band, because it felt so saturated seeing the same bands with kids in skinny jeans."[132]
New wave revivalism influenced later internetmicrogenres such aszolo,[133]bloghouse,[134]chillwave,synthwave andvaporwave. In the mid-to late 2010s, an onlineinternet meme, led to the coining of a microgenre originally known as "devo-core", and later renamed "egg punk". The style was pioneered by Indiana band the Coneheads and characterized by the zany, lo-fi and edgier aspects of new wave band Devo.[135]
In 2021, the New York electroclash and bloghouse scenes of the 2000s which drew inspiration from new wave music, led a woman named Olivia V. to coin aninternet aesthetic known as "indie sleaze", through the launching of theInstagram account @indiesleaze, which was dedicated to documenting the visual style of that period.[136]
During the 1970s and 1980s, under theSoviet Union, an underground music scene influenced by thepunk subculture in the United States and UK led to the development of severalpost-punk and new wave influenced acts in countries such as Bosnia, Estonia, Russia, Serbia, and Belarus. In Russia, prominent post-punk acts were centered inLeningrad such asKino,Akvarium,Auktyon,Nautilus Pompilius andPiknik.[137][138][139]
In post-Francoist Spain during the late 1970s and early 1980s, the influence of punk rock led toLa Movida Madrileña (The Madrid Scene),[140] a countercultural movement centered inMadrid that emerged after the death of Spanish dictatorFrancisco Franco. The movement musically drew influences frompost-punk,synth-pop and new wave music.[141] In the 2010s and 2020s, the Spanish post-punk scene became encompassed by acts such as Depresión Sonora.[142]
^Strauss, Neil (22 April 1996)."Bernard Edwards, 43, Musician In Disco Band and Pop Producer".The New York Times.As disco waned in the late 70s, so did Chic's album sales. But its influence lingered on as new wave, rap and dance-pop bands found inspiration in Chic's club anthems
^abcSmay, David (2001)."Bubblegum & New Wave". In Cooper, Kim; Smay, David (eds.).Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth. Feral House. p. 248.ISBN0-922915-69-5.Nobody took the bubblegum ethos to heart like the new wave bands.
^Reynolds, SimonRip It Up and Start Again PostPunk 1978–1984 p.160
^abPuterbaugh, Parke (10 November 1983)."Anglomania: The Second British Invasion".Rolling Stone. Penske Media Corporation. Archived fromthe original on 10 March 2022. Retrieved18 March 2022.New music betokens a kind of pop modernism with a British bias, without getting too specific. It can be said to have originated in the U.K. around 1977 with the noisy, infidel insurrections of the Clash, the Sex Pistols and the Jam, and it continues—in a broken line and through all manner of phases and stages—to the present day, with such bands as Culture Club, Duran Duran and Big Country.
^Greenberg, Steve."From Comiskey Park To 'Thriller' (How The Pop Music Audience Was Torn Apart, And Then Put Back Together)".S-Curve Records. S-Curve Records. Retrieved18 March 2022.Why did MTV choose to play videos of songs that weren't on the radio, rather than concentrating on the biggest pop hits? Quite simply, music videos for most of the American hit records of the day did not exist. Desperate to fill a round-the-clock schedule with videos, MTV's initial playlists were chock full of clips by British new wave acts unfamiliar to American radio audiences. British videos were easy to come by since they'd been a staple of UK pop music TV programs like "Top of the Pops" since the mid-70s.
^Reed, John (1996).Paul Weller: My Ever Changing Moods. Omnibus Press.ISBN9780857120496.In half a year, the Jam sound had evolved considerably - and for that alone, the LP was an achievement. Weller once spoke of the album as their attempt to "cross over" into new wave - "the pop music of the Seventies," as he called it. They were patently keen to progress beyond the punk mould ofIn the City, as evidenced by the melodic rush of Paul's slower, more contemplative songs and the cover photo by legendary Sixties photographer Gered Mankowitz.
^Joynson, Vernon (2001).Up Yours! A Guide to UK Punk, New Wave & Early Post Punk. Wolverhampton: Borderline Publications. p. 12.ISBN1-899855-13-0.
^abcdGendron, Bernard (2002).Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press), pp. 269–270.
^Clinton Heylin,Babylon's Burning (Conongate, 2007), pp. 140, 172.
^Adams, Bobby. "Nick Lowe: A Candid Interview",Bomp magazine, January 1979, reproduced at[1]. Retrieved 21 January 2007.
^Whitburn, Joel (2004).The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (8th ed.). New York:Billboard Books (Nielsen Business Media, Inc.). p. 53.ISBN978-0-8230-7499-0.
^Whitburn, Joel (2004).The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (8th ed.). New York:Billboard Books (Nielsen Business Media, Inc.). p. 53.ISBN978-0-8230-7499-0.
^Abrams, Lee; Goldstein, Patrick (16 February 1980)."Is New-Wave Rock on the Way Out?"(Image). Retrieved18 March 2022.With the exception of the Boomtown Rats, the Police and a few other bands, we're not going to be seeing many of the New Wave circuit acts happening very big over here (in America). As a movement, we don't expect it to have much influence.
^Huey, Steve."Whip It Review". AllMusic. Archived fromthe original on 4 September 2015.But even though most of the listening public took 'Whip It' as just a catchy bit of weirdness with nonsensical lyrics about a vaguely sexy topic, the song's actual purpose – like much of Devo's work – was social satire. Putting the somewhat abstract lyrics together, 'Whip It' emerges as a sardonic portrait of a general, problematic aspect of the American psyche: the predilection for using force and violence to solve problems, vent frustration, and prove oneself to others.
^abcRip It Up and Start Again Postpunk 1978–1984 bySimon Reynolds Pages 340, 342–343
Majewski, Lori: Bernstein, JonathanMad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s.Abrams Image, 15 April 2014.ISBN978-1-4197-1097-1
