New Wave music
New Wave music originated in the late 1970s as a genre that evolved from punk rock while incorporating more polished sounds and diverse musical influences. The term "New Wave" was coined by Seymour Stein of Sire Records as a marketing strategy to attract radio play for bands that were previously labeled as punk. Bands associated with this movement, such as Talking Heads, Blondie, Elvis Costello, and the Police, often melded punk’s anti-establishment ethos with catchy pop hooks and experimental sounds. Unlike punk rock, which favored raw aesthetics, New Wave embraced a refined production style and experimented with elements from funk, disco, reggae, and ska.
The arrival of MTV in the early 1980s amplified the visual aspect of New Wave, introducing vibrant music videos that became integral to the identity of bands like Duran Duran and Culture Club. A notable subgenre, "New Romantic," emerged during this time, characterized by elaborate costumes and theatrical performances. While New Wave enjoyed mainstream success primarily in the 1980s, its influence persisted, impacting various musical movements and inspiring contemporary artists in genres like synthpop and chillwave. Although the popularity of New Wave declined by the mid-1980s, several of its key artists continued to evolve and find success in the music industry for decades.
New Wave music
Genre of rock music
Out of the self-destructive punk rock scene of the mid- to late 1970’s, a more pop and refined genre of rock known as New Wave emerged. It became prominent during the early 1980’s, becoming associated both with mainstream groups and with a continuing fringe sensibility.
New Wave music can trace its beginnings to the late 1970’s. It is believed that the head of Sire Records, Seymour Stein, coined the term “New Wave” in relation to music. He wanted a marketing term to use for some bands that had recently been signed to his label. It was no longer fashionable to promote bands as being “punk,” so Stein believed that the “New Wave” label would generate interest among radio stations and clubs. He believed that this new musical direction could be compared to the 1960’s French New Wave movement in film. As with the filmmakers of the French New Wave, the New Wave rock performers were primarily anti-establishment and believed in taking musical risks, but they tended to be less aesthetically rough-edged than were punk rockers.
Punk Attitude with a Musical Twist
Several important New Wave groups—including Talking Heads, Blondie, Elvis Costello , the Cars, and the Police —released important recordings during the late 1970’s. It can be said that both Talking Heads and Blondie had one foot in punk rock and one foot in the music scene that was in the process of emerging into New Wave. In addition to Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, and Blondie, Television, the B-52’s, the Jam, Devo, and Patti Smith originally had been labeled as being part of the punk rock scene. One of the most striking distinctions between punk and New Wave was that New Wave groups tended to combine the sensibilities and pretense of art with basic musical hooks that came from pop music.
While punk rock celebrated a take-no-prisoners approach to recording and performance that often eschewed traditional pleasing melodies, New Wave bands found a way to refine their sound. This refinement allowed the bands to garner a level of commercial airplay that punk rock performers could never achieve. While most New Wave bands became linked because of their willingness to experiment, to write songs with intriguing lyrics, and to pay more attention to production values, the sound of each band was distinctive. New Wave bands borrowed from funk, disco, reggae, and ska. While the all-girl band the Go-Go’s rose to the top of the Billboard charts by producing an infectious pop sound, the Police became extremely popular by employing a variation on reggae, the Specials and Madness took inspiration from ska music, Nick Lowe and XTC played edgy power pop, and the Pretenders and Graham Parker produced a gritty rock sound.
A Look as Well as a Sound
With the advent of music videos and of cable television channel MTV in 1981, several New Wave bands capitalized on the new format to promote their music. They added a “look” to their videos that garnered widespread media attention. During the early 1980’s, a subgenre of New Wave known as “New Romantic” became prominent. Such English bands as Duran Duran, Boy George and Culture Club, ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, A Flock of Seagulls, the Thompson Twins, Spandau Ballet, Haircut 100, Adam Ant, and Bow Wow Wow produced striking videos, in which colorful and outrageous costuming played a major role in establishing the identity of the group. While the irreverence found in punk rock still was evident, New Wave bands were also interested in style, in creating something more akin to an art form. An electronic sound also was employed in many New Wave songs. The synthesizer and drum machine were just as essential as the guitar to an ever-increasing number of New Wave bands. Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me with Science” and Gary Numan’s “Cars” are prime examples of the importance of electronic instrumentation to the movement. By the mid-1980’s, though, the popularity of New Wave bands had waned.
Impact
New Wave music achieved mainstream popularity for only a short period of time; as a result, the genre became heavily associated with the 1980’s, and it remained a staple of later, nostalgic representations of the decade. Several New Wave artists—such as Elvis Costello and Talking Heads leader David Byrne—did continue to be successful for decades afterward, but they tended to evolve musically rather than maintaining their original sound. Others enjoyed periods of resurgence when the New Wave sound itself became popular again. These included the Pet Shop Boys, the Cure, Depeche Mode, and New Order. Many of the later bands that were called “alternative” (a marketing label similar to “New Wave” in origin) took inspiration from the New Wave of the past. New Wave was also an influence on the synthpop artists of the first decade of the twenty-first century, such as La Roux, Passion Pit, and Shiny Toy Guns, and the chillwave artists of the 2010s, such as Toro y Moi and Twin Shadow.
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