New Wave Music

[Deleted]

starskin said:

For a bit more fun: Hottest New Wave artist?

For me the list looks like this (in no particular order)

Alan Wilder
Dave Gahan
Simon LeBon
Souxie Souix
Simon from the Cure
Debbie Harry
David Byrne

I'm sure there are more, but they're slipping my mind at the moment.

I had a huge girl crush on Debbie when I was 15. I just read she turned 61? That means around the time Heart of Glass came out in '79, she was 34? Imagine that. These days, record companies would have rejected her outright for being "too old." Girlfriend is STILL hot at 61, though.

I'd also submit Bob Geldof was teh sex back then as was little Limahl from Kajagoogoo—and Bryan Ferry...yum.

For your viewing pleasure, you might want to check out The Nomi Song, a great document of downtown NYC at the height of the New Wave era and The Legend of Leigh Bowery to get an idea was going on in England at the time.

[dwanollah]

iceblink said:

I recently realized that Adam Ant back in the day was hot in miniature form. Such a pretty little man.

A friend of mine had a fling with him a while back. Said he's delightful, charming, very sweet (wel, when he's not in his manic state). They still exchange Christmas cards sometimes.

Hottest New Wave artist? After My Boyfriend, Tom Bailey from Thompson Twins was (and still is) adorable!

[iceblink]

Debbie Harry was 34 when "Heart of Glass" came out?? REALLY?
This seriously has boosted my spirits.
Hot New Wave chick: Terri Nunn from Berlin. And she was still hot on Bands Reunited a couple of years ago, too!

[starskin]

biondetta, you listend to WPRK (The Best in Basement Radio)? Holy crap! I got my Bachelor's from Rollins and I spent tons of time down in the basement with my friend, who was program director for a few years. Never found time to have a show though, sadly. I don't think they have any archives to speak of, at least not of magazines or books, since all the magazines end up going to the people that work at the station. However, it's really small, so maybe a bigger radio station would have more resources.
I'm still recoving from the shock of meeting another PRK person!


Oh, and you can still listen to the station at wprk.org. /shameless plug

[biondetta]

Awesome! I don't know that they had any sort of plugline like "Best in Basement Radio" back in the days when I was listening, but they were the first college radio station I had heard of and I thought they were the most wonderful thing. My discovery of the station and college radio in general, came when I was flipping around the dial and heard Grace Jones' version of Demolition Man and couldn't believe someone was actually playing it on the radio. Then I heard more great stuff and basically I stopped listening to anything other than college radio, which in Orlando in the early '80s, meant Rollins. It was an opportunity to hear bands that I'd only read about or occassionally saw on MTV. I think I still have tapes with songs that I taped off that station.

[mrspickles]

My first p ost ever. Woo-hoo! The topic was just too near and dear to my heart to continue lurking any longer.

New Wave, to me, was a broad term originally applied to the "new wave of popular music-" that is the late 70's, early 80's pop music that, due to the sudden accessibility of tech, electronic, synth equipment, allowed those with little music training to create "pop music." {Someone upthread dared to bring up the lack of formal music training, so I feel less of a heretic. I also had the greatest flashback to Ross on Friends, when he was exploring "The Sound."} The joy, for me, comes from the fact that the early 80's were, I still believe, the most full on creative years in pop music.

As with any art form, New Wave incorporated elements from the musical styles before it. I think this is why it is so hard to define New Wave or it's components.

I am totally loving the song lists that have been posted so far- Ya'll are my long lost family, I'm sure.

Hopefully, I did this correctly, so that I don't have to type this again, but I am really fascinated by this discussion!!!!!

[slanderous]

Ohh, fun thread! I have a very historically specific sense of "new wave" as cleaned-up punk with keyboards, as another poster also noted above. I think of Plastic Bertrand or Devo (who, while also classified as punk, didn't necessarily call themselves as such*), for instance. I also make a distinction between new wave and no wave, which was not-at-all cleaned-up punk with keyboards and more noise (versus melody), like the Primitive Calculators. And sometimes there's crossover between new wave and power pop, with a bit of punk still thrown in for chaos, like the Revillos or Nikki and the Corvettes.

Since the '80s, you can still hear a lot of these musical styles in different parts of the punk scene, which is how I learned to make these distinctions.

* I remember seeing Mark Mothersbaugh talk about how Devo played a show in NYC, and the Dead Boys wanted to kick their asses for claiming to be punks, and Devo were all, "But we're not saying we are!"

[Casino Bride]

dwanollah said:

I've now decided that the best Japan song is "Adolescent Sex." *turns volume up louder*

Ah-ha! I was just about to ask if Japan were considered New Wave! Because I've had a mad crush on David Sylvian for about 22 years.

[starskin]

Man, I really wanted to post something on here last night, but the arthritis in my right hand was acting up and I'd already done way too much typing. Anyway.

I'd forgotten about the split between New Wave and No Wave. One of my main contentions with labeling is that original New Wave bands are now being called "Old Wave". OLD WAVE. I can't tell you how I hate that term. I'm of the opinion (mostly) that bands that do music in a similar style can be put under the same term, even if they're not from the same time. It's not entirely that clear cut, but it's a general idea. But if people insist on making a distinction between original bands and later bands, please please don't use the term "Old Wave". Call the new bands something else. Really. I can't stand the term. Grrr.

Whew. Ok, that was ranty. And now, for something even longer!

Last night I thought of something that I wanted to get your opinions on. This is more about the fashion and aesthetics end than the musical end, but maybe you'll have some insight. Punk and New Wave came from severe economic depression, unemployment, and huge political unrest (you know, the whole Thatcher-era basically), and used fashion as a way to make statements and for shock value. Punk was over the top with its purposeful ugliness and 'anti-fashion'---safety pin piercings, leather, etc----and New Wave was over the top with it's sort of fun, disposable fashion look. What's interesting is that it can be seen as two sides of one coin; two ways of expressing social views using the same medium. And the theme carries over into the music. A lot of times Punk music is overtly dark, harsh and 'anti-musical'. New Wave goes in the oposite direction again, with dancable pop music. And yet, the lyrics in both genres are often dark and thoughtful. I'm not phrasing this well. I guess what I'm trying to say is that both genres could be seen as having very cynical undertones, but while Punk embraces it and puts it to the fore in every way, New Wave does it subtly, and is far more escapist in a lot of ways.

Did that make any sense to anyone but myself? I just got off a long shift at work (at which I made virtually nothing---grrr) so my brain's a little adled.

[carrier76]

What is No Wave?