New Wave Music

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Steve Graves

If one were to produce a soundtrack album of the 1980s, most of the tracks would probably be labeled "new wave." Much of what passed for new wave fit well with the overall cultural and political milieu of the 1980s. New wave was the type of music most popular among fans of MTV during its early years and musicians specializing in new wave are best remembered for their angular haircuts, brightly colored costumes, and heavy reliance on synthesizers. Moreover, new wave is the music of 1980s brat pack genre films, like The Breakfast Club (1985), Valley Girl (1983), and Sixteen Candles (1984).

Defining which artist or which song fits into a genre is always a difficult proposition, but new wave presents a particular challenge because of the multiple definitions and the music industry's response to new wave. Bands with a variety of sounds and visual styles have been lumped together under the general umbrella offered by new wave. Consider, for example, that both the rockabilly band The Stray Cats and the futuristic technogeek band Devo are both considered new wave. Part of the problem stems from the fact that punk rock, which was the "first wave," was very easily hybridized with other forms of music (reggae, rockabilly, disco, eurodisco) to produce many "second" or "new wave" varieties and styles. Complicating matters was the tendency of record companies during the post-disco recession to label virtually every newly signed act on their roster without long hair "new wave," regardless of their sound. Finally, the faddishness of new wave prompted many acts and their fans to rebel against the catch-all genre distinction. Dozens of genre names were invented to better segregate new wave acts, most of them also quickly becoming blurred. Alternative, post-punk, progressive, synth pop, power pop, alternarock, and eurobeat count among the names substituted for "new wave" and its various sub-genres.

The term new wave was first applied to acts that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Though their music may have had little in common, artists from Britain, the United States, and continental Europe were all tagged as new wave. On the continent, German groups, particularly Kraftwerk, were slowly forging a new style of music that was heavily reliant upon synthesizers. The danceable forms of European synthesizer music, along with the Philadelphia-sounds of Gamble and Huff, laid the twin foundations for disco in the 1980s. In England, rock music musicians and fans, fed up with the excesses of bands like hard rock Led Zeppelin and art rock bands like Pink Floyd, turned to simpler forms of rock 'n' roll. These bands have occasionally been referred to as "pub rock" bands. Counting among the most popular of this group of new wavers were Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, and Dave Edmunds. Costello was signed by Columbia Records and became the first of the new wavers to make a significant chart impact in 1978.

In the United States, there was a similar backlash against the excesses of mainstream rock 'n' roll. In Manhattan, inspired by Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, suburbanite Jonathan Richman founded the Modern Lovers. From the suburbs of Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, similar music began to emerge from other youths who had grown tired of the overblown nature of arena-rock. Pere Ubu and later Devo established a second new wave hearth in the industrial Midwest.

Sonically, the music of each of these new wave movements shared little, except that it could be played by those without great skill or extensive musical training. It was rock 'n' roll played by enthusiastic amateurs and produced by tiny record companies, often owned by friends or by the band. As such, new wave music shared much of the "indie" ethos that propelled punk rock forward, but it was never committed to any particular political movement. New wave was not dangerous or anarchic; it was danceable, romantic, and fun.

When punk rock became popular in London in the mid-1970s it gave a new impetus to new wave music. Punk was too dangerous for most fans in Britain, and far too much for most Americans. But the visual style and spirit of punk was infectious and the democratization of punk rock generated thousands of new bands. Many of the bands established in the immediate aftermath of punk that did not share punk's belligerence were labeled new wave. New wave bands found some favor among record companies, who recognized the potential market for bare bones rock music but feared the public relations disaster that might accompany "the next Sex Pistols."

In England, the leading edge of post-punk, new wave was led by bands that borrowed the indie ethos, the musical simplicity, and some of the visual elements of punk rock with the sonic characteristics of other established genres of music. Perhaps the first of these hybrids to emerge was the reggae/punk of bands like The Clash and The Police. Other hybrids were forged that wedded punk to Beat revivalism, 1950s-style R&B, and rockabilly. The Pretenders, which featured Akron, Ohio-born singer Chrissie Hynde, was one of the more notable no-frills rock acts to be classified as new wave.