New Wave music

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New Wave is an inexact term for a rock genre that originated in 1976. The term started as applying to punk rock music. It evolved to cover punk-based acts that mixed in other elements. During the 1980s in the United States New Wave became a catch-all term that applied to new acts in general and synthpop acts in particular. New Wave was basically the reinvention of rock 'n' roll of the 1960s but it also incorporated various influences as well as aspects of mod subculture, electronic music, disco^[1], and funk.^{[citation needed]} The 1990s and 2000s have seen revivals, and a number of acts that have been influenced by a variety of New Wave styles.

[edit] Overview

The term New Wave itself is a source of much confusion. It was introduced in 1976 in Great Britain by Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren as an alternative label for what was also being called "punk." The term referenced the avant-garde French New Wave film movement of the 1960s. The label was soon picked up by British punk fanzines such as Sniffin' Glue and then the professional music press.^[2] For a period of time in 1976 and 1977 the two terms were interchangeable.^[3] By the end of 1977, "New Wave" had replaced "Punk" as the definition for new underground music in the United Kingdom.^[2]

In the United States, Sire Records needed a term by which it could market its newly signed bands, who had frequently played the club CBGB. Because radio consultants in the U.S. had advised their clients that punk rock was a fad (and because many stations that had embraced disco had been hurt by the backlash), they settled on the term "New Wave". Like those film makers, its new artists, such as The Ramones and Talking Heads, were anti-corporate and experimental. At first most American writers exclusively used the term "New Wave" to describe British Punk acts. 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 starting with British acts, and later appropriating it to acts associated with the CBGB scene.^[2]

Soon, listeners began to differentiate some of these musicians from "true punks". The music journalist Charles Shaar Murray, in writing about the Boomtown Rats, has indicated that the term New Wave became an industry catch-all for musicians affiliated with Punk, but in some way different from it:^[4]

The Rats didn’t conform precisely to the notional orthodoxies of punk, but then neither did many other bands at the forefront of what those who were scared of the uncompromising term 'punk' later bowdlerized to New Wave. You weren’t allowed to have long hair! The Ramones did. Guitar solos verboten! The defence calls Television. Facial hair a capital offence! Two members of The Stranglers are in mortal danger. Age police on the prowl for wrinklies on the run! Cells await Ian Dury, Knox from The Vibrators and most of The Stranglers. Pedal steel guitars and country music too inextricably linked with Laurel Canyon coke-hippies and snooze-inducing Mellow Mafia singer/songwriterismo. Elvis Costello, you’re busted.

Music that followed the anarchic garage band ethos of the Sex Pistols was distinguished as "punk", while music that tended toward experimentation, lyrical complexity, or more polished production, was categorized as "New Wave". This came to include musicians who had come to prominence in the British pub rock scene of the mid-1970s, such as Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, Eddie and the Hot Rods and Dr Feelgood;^[5] acts associated with the New York club CBGBs, such as Television, Patti Smith, Mink DeVille^[6] and Blondie; and singer-songwriters who were noted for their barbed lyrical wit, such as Elvis Costello, Tom Robinson and Joe Jackson. Furthermore, many artists who would have originally been classified as punk were also termed New Wave. A 1977 Phonogram Records compilation album of the same name (New Wave) features US artists including the Dead Boys, Ramones, Talking Heads and The Runaways.^[6][7]

Later still, "New Wave" came to imply a less noisy, often synthesizer-based, pop sound. The term post-punk was coined to describe the darker, less pop-influenced groups, such as Gang of Four, Joy Division, Devo, and Siouxsie & the Banshees.^[8][9] Although distinct, punk, New Wave, and post-punk all shared common ground: an energetic reaction to the supposedly overproduced, uninspired popular music of the 1970s.^[10]

The term fell out of favour in The United Kingdom during the early 1980s because its usage had become too general.^[6]

[edit] Reception in The United States

In the summer of 1977 both Time ^[11] and Newsweek magazines wrote favorable lead stories on the "Punk/new wave" movement. Rock critics had mixed opinions. Acts associated with the movement received little or no radio airplay or music industry support. Small scenes developed in major cities. Continuing into the next year public support remained limited to select elements of the artistic, bohemian and intellectual population ^[2] as arena rock and disco dominated the charts.^[12]

Around 1979, acts associated with punk and acts that mixed punk with other genres began to make chart appearances. Blondie, Talking Heads, The Knack and The Cars would chart that year. The release during this period of Gary Numan's album The Pleasure Principle would be the pop chart breakthrough for gender bending synthpop acts with a cool detached stage presence^[12]. New Wave music scenes developed in Ohio^[12] and Athens, Georgia^[13].

The arrival of MTV in the early 1980s would usher in New Wave's most successful era. British artists unlike many of their American counterparts had learned how to use video early on^[12][14]. Several British acts signed to independent labels were able to outmarket and outsell American artists that were signed with major labels. Journalists labeled this phenomenon a "Second British Invasion"^[14][15].

14% of teenagers answering a December 1982 Gallup Poll rated new wave music as their favorite genre, making new wave the third most popular genre. 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. ^[16]

The music had strayed far from New Wave's punk roots, often perceived as a less rebellious or more commercial version of punk. Starting in this period and continuing until around 1988, the term "New Wave" was used in America to describe nearly every new pop or pop rock artist that largely used synthesizers or who did not have long hair. New Wave is still used today to describe these acts^[17]. Fans and artists would rebel against this catchall definition by inventing dozens of genre names. Synthpop was a broad subgenre that saw groups such as The Human League, Depeche Mode, A-ha, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Alphaville^{[citation needed]} , and the Pet Shop Boys chart. The period saw a number of one hit wonders. "New Wave" soundtracks were used in Brat Pack films such as Valley Girl, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club^[12]. Critics would describe the MTV acts as shallow or vapid^[12][14], but the danceable quality of the music and quirky fashion sense associated with New Wave artists appealed to audiences^[12].

The use of synthesizers by New Wave acts influenced the development of the House music in Chicago and Techno in Detroit. New Wave’s indie spirit would be crucial to the development college rock and grunge/alternative rock in the latter half of the 1980s and beyond.^[12]

[edit] Post 1980s influence

During the 1990s, in the aftermath of grunge rock, the British Music press launched a campaign to promote New wave of new wave. This campaign involved overtly punk and new wave influenced acts such as Elastica and Smash. This movement would be eclipsed by Britpop.^[6] Other acts of note during the 1990s included No Doubt, Six Finger Satellite and Brainiac .^[18][19]

Around 2000 a number of acts emerged that mined from a diversity of New Wave and Post Punk influences. Among these were The Strokes, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, The Rapture, Liars and the the Sounds. New Wave continued to be influential throughout the 2000s with acts such as The Faint, Bloc Party, The Killers, The Ting Tings, Gwen Stefani and Santogold. ^{[20][18][21] [22] [23][24][25]} While some journalists and fans regarded this as a revival, others argued that the phenomenon was a continuation of the original movements.^[18][26]

[edit] New Wave styles

• 2 Tone
• Pub rock
• Synthpop
• Electropop
• Mod Revival
• Power pop
• La Movida Madrileña

[edit] Parallel movements

• Coldwave
• Dark Wave
• Neue Deutsche Welle
• No Wave
• Minimal wave

[edit] See also

• List of New Wave bands and artists

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• About.com Profile of the New Wave Genre
• Encyclopedia Britannica Definition
• St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture Article
• Essay about New Wave's definition and list of essential New Wave Records from allmusic
• Punk 2 New Wave Top 100 list and short reviews
• Rolling Stone Magazine's Rock and Roll Daily blog Favorite 1980s New Wave Lists Reporters, Readers
• A Real New Wave Rolls Out of Ohio Robert Christgau for The Village Voice April 17, 1978