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I was a big enthusiast of what was being called "New Wave" music, starting in about 1980, but when I go back now and look at what that (to my mind) included, I see a hodge-podge that cannot comprise a musicalgenre. There was hard rock and rockabilly and techno-flavored stuff and other just plain whacky goof bands. Compare Gang of Four to the B52s to X for example. Was it enough that the bands have some new sounding beat or incorporate some unusual influence, and appear to be breaking from the standard rock mold - as was exemplified by the "Hair Bands" of the late 70s? Was the sameness that qualified a band as "New Wave" mostly just what they were not?
Follow Ups:
I always thought of "New Wave" as "rock for geeks"... The music has a "techie" flavor. Band members wearing costumes looking kind of "electronic" or "space age." The music had a fast, rigid 4/4 meter and "geek" lyrics. (Good dance music, if nothing else.) Somewhat of a "rebelious" attitude. The instrumentals always included synths and/or sequencers.B-52's, Devo, Go-Go's, Kraftwerk, etc. ...
Fine to be played in lifts (elevators in the US of NA)Regards
BF
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That would make my elevator rides a lot more enjoyable. I wish they played new wave in the tube (dysfunctional subway in the UK).(-:
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Rebellion against the hair bands and 32 minute guitar solos.
a 32 minute guitar solo into 45 seconds?
There's a moment in 'The Decline of Western Civilization,' Penelope Spheeris' movie about punk rock in L.A. in the late '70s, when one character is asked about new wave, and he says (in a snotty French accent) something like "New wave doesn't exist. It was a title that was made up by the record companies. New wave is just something you say if people ask you what music you're into, and you want to say you're not into the boring old rock and roll but you don't want to say punk, because then they kick you out of the party and you don't get any more cocaine."I'd have to say that pretty much summed up my feelings at the time. Punk rock was a real movement--at least back in the '70s. It wasn't sponsored by the music industry; in fact it was very actively opposed. New wave, on the other hand, was a marketing label. As far as I know, it was first used by Seymour Stein, who owned Sire records and had the foresight to sign the Ramones, the Dead Boys and a few others back in the day. Stein wanted to market the Talking Heads, but didn't want to call them "punk" (which they were in fact called in the early days), so he came up with "new wave."
In my worldview back then (which was that of a teenaged punk), the new wave bands were the airbrushed, dumbed-down version of punk, an attempt to make it palatable to the masses. I was sitting around listening to records by X and the Germs and wondering why they couldn't get on the radio, and stewing over the fact that slick crap like the Cars and the Go-Gos was popular with people who thought they were being really hip and original.
Ah, youth... I'm a lot older now, obviously, and now I can appreciate some of that stuff without thinking that it somehow detracts from my favorites of the era. I still think most of it was very over-produced, but depending on how widely you define the genre (does Gang of Four count as new wave? Buzzcocks? Joy Division?) there's a fair amount of decent music there.
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Post punk guitar hero Bob Mould (of Husker Du and Sugar) once described his music as "good tunes played furiously." New wave evolved from punk and was a continuation of the backlash against the arena rock that dominated the 70s. If you liked the Eagles, you didn't like New Wave. And if you liked New Wave, you hated the Eagles!The roots of new wave can be found in the Velvet Underground, Iggy and the Stooges, and the MC5, but also in the Kinks and the Beach Boys. But New Wave bands did not fit into a single mold. Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, New Order, Blondie, The Smiths, The Replacements -- all of these bands and many others -- had their own unique sound. Each was as different from the others as the Beatles differed from the Stones.
Still, they had much in common. They were distinctly non-commercial at first (though some bands, like Blondie, craved and achieved commercial success). They appealed to outsiders who, like the performers themselves, were uncomfortable with the mainstream. The DIY attitude that informed so many new wave bands also permeated the dance floors at new wave clubs, where spastics such as yours truly could invent his own dances without embarassment. Mainly, new wave bands played good tunes, often furiously.
I highly recommend "Please Kill Me", an oral history of punk and new wave by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain. It is a fun and wild read!
The more I think about it, the first "New Wave" I was exposed to was almost all dance music - energetic fun stuff. Even Gang of Four shouting about Anthrax and whatnot was creative and fun in its outrageousness. "That's one disease I don't want to catch"
At my wedding party in '82, we had a dance-type New Wave band play - lots of pop hooks with 3 guitars, surf music influenced vocals but with more driving beat. I think they were called the Cowboys but I can't remember for sure anymore. I and most others were going crazy hopping around, doing the farce pogo and funky whatever, but several of my more hard rocking, self-serious buddies came up to me and admonished that "guys don't dance". I'd never looked at it quite so clearly before. I would pay good money to destroy any video that might exist of me drunk dancing pogogeek in 1982!!
Great memories!I remember attending a Gang of Four concert at a tiny club in Palo Alto back in 1982. There couldn't have been more than 300 people there. Each member of the band took turns singing, even the drummer who couldn't hit more than two notes.
New wave was definitely a lot of fun -- a sharp contrast from today's post-grunge and alternative stuff that may have derived from new wave but takes itself much too seriously.
I have no apologies for my foolish behavior -- though I am glad there are no videos!
dpy, i think you are right that new wave isn't a genre in itself so much as a term for artists who went in new directions within a certain rock history context. that is, not mainstream = new wave. i think the same applies to "alternative rock" in the late '80s/early '90s.it's like speaking of "new wave frech cinema," "new german cinema," or "american independent film" - there's too much diversity to box everyone under one description, but they describe artists who often shared common backgrounds and influences, and had fresh approaches to their art.
i think allmusic.com's write-up on "new wave" does a good job putting a finger on it:
During the late '70s and early '80s, New Wave was a catch-all term for the music that directly followed punk rock; often, the term encompassed punk itself, as well. In retrospect, it's became clear that the music that followed punk could be divided, more or less, into two categories — post-punk and new wave. Where post-punk was arty, difficult, and challenging, new wave was pop music, pure and simple. It retained the fresh vigor and irreverence of punk music, as well as a fascination with electronics, style, and art. Therefore, there was a lot of stylistic diversity to new wave. It meant the nervy power pop of bands like XTC and Nick Lowe, but it also meant synth rockers like Gary Numan or rock revivalists like Graham Parker and Rockpile. There were edgy new wave songwriters like Elvis Costello, pop bands like Squeeze, tough rock & rollers like the Pretenders, pop-reggae like the Police, mainstream rockers like the Cars, and ska revivalists like the Specials and Madness. As important as these major artists were, there were also countless one-hit wonders that emerged during early new wave. These one-hit groups were as diverse as the major artists, but they all shared a love of pop hooks, modernist, synthesized production, and a fascination for being slightly left of center. By the early '80s, new wave described nearly every new pop/rock artist, especially those that used synthesizers like the Human League and Duran Duran. New wave received a boost in the early '80s by MTV, who broadcast endless hours of new wave videos in order to keep themselves on the air. Therefore, new wave got a second life in 1982, when it probably would have died out. Instead, 1982 and 1983 were boom years for polished, MTV-radio new wave outfits like Culture Club, Adam Ant, Spandau Ballet, Haircut 100, and A Flock of Seagulls. New wave finally died out in 1984, when established artists began to make professional videos and a new crop of guitar-oriented bands like the Smiths and R.E.M. emerged to capture the attention of college-radio and underground rock fans. Nevertheless, new wave proved more influential than many of its critics would have suspected, as the mid-'90s were dominated by bands — from Blur to Weezer — that were raised on the music.
I think punk arose as a "cleansing agent" for the overproduced, slick commercialized rock of the early to mid 70's. New Wave followed as an expansion of songwriting and lyric possibilities. BTW, let's not forget Joe Jackson! In my opinion, the Seattle grunge movement was yet another "cleansing agent, and very, very, similar to New Wave. Matter of fact, as a songwriter/musician, I can't tell the difference between the two.
So I don't take undue credit for it, the last part of my post was taken from (and credited to) allmusic.com.I was going to put the quote from allmusic in quotes to make it clear , but lately there seems to be a lot of fuss on this board about doing quotations ""correctly"."
I always said that "it took you up, took you nowhere, and returned you to the same plane that existed before you listened to it." In other words, pretty, but in an insubstantial way.I want music to rock my world! It doesn't need to be a huge punch in the face; music can be a caress that leaves you asking for more, but you are changed because you listened to it. Whether it is the first time or the hundredth, it changes your mood, how you see your life, or merely your position in the cahir because you were doing the "chair bounce boogie."
New age music does not do that...it relaxes you, I'll admit that...it's pretty, I'll admit that...but it's worth as a music, for me at least, is minimal. The sad thing is that a lot of beautiful music that IS creative and does move you, gets lumped in with the idea that New Age represents.
New Age! New wave...that's the one that comes in after the last wave when you're standing in the water on the beach. New Wave music's O.K., New Age puts me to sleep quickly!
...once describe what he was playing as "neo-new wave!"
Sort of like the Howard Johnson's near me that offers a "Large Jumbo Hamburger." (I asked the waitress if I might get a small jumbo hamburger, but she didn't get it...)
where Jack Nicholson asks for (I think) a ham sandwich on rye, the waitress tells him he can't have a ham sandwich...and they go through an entire routine and in the end, he ends up with the sandwich? Was "The Last Detail" the name of that movie? In the movie, he has to escort a kid that went AWOL back to Naval prison...I always wanted to get a copy of the movie for that scene alone!
....has the famous restaurant scene. I think you're getting it confused with another of Nicholson's films. He is a wayward classical pianist in FEP.
dh
Five Esy Pieces wasn't one of them! I guess I should just lock up and throw away the key...the mind's closed anyway!
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