Listen To Blondie
Visage
The Cure
Adam & The Ants
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New Wave is 'an ambiguous
category of Pop or Rock music from between the late 1970s to mid-1980s with ties to the original wave of Punk rock. New wave music was first considered the same as Punk rock before being identified as a genre in its own right, incorporating aspects of electronic and experimental music, Mod subculture, Disco and 1960s Pop music.' The Police - Roxane
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RM Radio
Coming Soon Elvis Costello
Pet Shop Boys
Big Country
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After all, most bands (and their record companies) can
tolerate - and at times even encourage-public outrage, unless it becomes so extreme that customers refuse to buy records and concert tickets. Also, it is understandable that impaling oneself with pins and slicing one's chest open with broken glass begins, after a few performances, to lose its appeal, even to the most devoted of fans and performers....Thus beginning in about 1979, many of the revolutionary punk bands, including the Clash, lessened the aggressive tone of their music, making it more palatable and acccessible to a wider audience. This change thus initiated a move towards the 'New Wave'...' (sources) |
Gary Numan - Cars
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As part of the New Wave Movement, some refocused punk bands such as The Police, The Cars and Blondie offered a bright, pop alternative to postpunk depression. |
Blondie - Heart Of Glass
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Duran Duran - Planet Earth
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'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 to Squeeze to Duran Duran to, finally, Wham! " - Music critic Bill Flannigan writing in 1989 |
Wham - Wake Me Up Before You
Go Go |
Flock Of Seagulls - I Ran
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New Wave musicians quite often played 'choppy rhythm' guitars with fast tempos. Common also were keyboards and stop- and-start song structures and melodies. New Wave vocalists often sounded 'high-pitched, geeky and suburban'. |
Visage - Fade To Grey
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Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
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By the early 1980s, British journalists largely had abandoned using the term "new wave" in favor of subgenre terms such as "synthpop". |
The Cure - Friday I'm In Love
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By 1983, in the US the term 'new music' largely replaced 'new wave' within the industry. However to the majority of US fans it was still 'new wave'. While it is generally believed new wave ended in the mid-1980s, due to the emergence of various guitar-driven rock music in response to new wave, for the rest the 1980s the term "new wave" was used in the US for nearly every new pop or pop rock artist predominantly using synthesizers. Moreover, during the early 21st century in the US, "new wave" was still used to describe artists such as Morrissey, Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper and Devo. |
Tears For Fears - Mad World
Simple Minds - Love Song
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The B-52's - Private Idaho
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Ian Dury & The Blockheads -
Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick |
The Human League - Fascination
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Ultravox - Dancing With Tears
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The Psychedelic Furs - love My Way
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The Jam - Town Called Malice
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Elvis Costello - Everyday
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The Knack - My Sharona
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Haircut 100 - Love Plus One
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Orchestral Maneuvers In The Dark - If You Leave
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Missing Persons - Words
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Cyndi Lauper - I Drove All Night
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In essence, New Wave represented a massive onset of music - post rock, post pop , post punk, 'new romantics', whatever terminology you choose. 'New Wave' is really an umbrella term for the sub gneres of music that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s. All were a form of New Wave if you like, as has Ska, Synthpop, Technopop, Postpop, etc. You can go left now to see them. |
New Wave is seen as one of the definitive genres of the 1980s. It also became a major fixture on MTV, with many New Wave artists receiving considerable exposure because of it. New Wave has continued a resurgence since the 1990s. |