What is New Wave? 

Ok I get it - I mispronounced The Buggles. Unfortunately I can’t go back to 2022 and correct that. I’ll do better next time. Update: this did not stop the comments 😂 oh well, guess I deserve it.

I think New Wave was just for people who wanted something a bit classier than Punk and Metal but weirder and artier than disco and conventional pop.

All I listened to was New Wave in my teens/80s. Still love it.

I'm an old GenXer who witnessed and lived through all of this; I was in high school when the Police released Roxanne, DEVO (who were a very big underground act, and not a one hit wonder) and Elvis Costello played Saturday Night Live and MTV launched -- oh, and also when My Sharona, by The Knack would literally be playing out of every car/boom box speaker! And I'd say the end of New Wave as a kind of genre and widely used term was 1983, when the Police broke up. Also, around the same time, bands that were too musical to be thought of as Punk, but not fashionable and MTV-friendly, or synth-driven to be New Wave began to emerge. Like The Smiths, Replacements, REM, Jesus And Mary Chain, Pixies, etc. But these bands did also draw a lot of inspiration from The Velvet Underground and Bowie. Back then, it was collectively known as College Rock.

I could've swore that Devo had some other pretty popular songs besides Whip It. Like Beautiful World, Jerking Back and Forth, Peekaboo, Freedom of Choice, Satisfaction and Mongoloid. I remember hearing them anyway.

In Britain, New Wave basically meant punk-adjacent artsy/poppy rock circa 1977-1981 or so. Defining artists would’ve been Elvis Costello, the Jam, Police, Ian Dury, Boomtown Rats, Squeeze, early XTC, etc. It was very much a late 70s thing, not 80s, and far more guitars than synthesisers. It certainly never referred to the 80s pop groups we now see getting labeled as ‘New Wave’ like Duran Duran. The whole New Romantics/ 80s electropop scene were essentially what killed off New Wave.

Where is Adam and the Ants?

Elvis Costello, boomtown rats,the cars, blondie come to mind when I think of new wave

One important aspect of new wave I think was overlooked is the prevalence of saxophone, which was every bit as fundamental to the new wave asthetic as synthesizers, especially during the early phase.

Also, while "My Sharona" was HUGE, The Knack are NOT considered a one-hit-wonder considering "Good Girls Don't" was a just-shy-of-the Top 10 smash as well.

Once again, no one mentions Ultravox's album Systems of Romance. The album that inspired Gary Numan. I think Systems of Romance, the first Devo and Cars albums (all of which came out in 1978) is when you can say the genre actually began.

New Wave was my youth - it was wonderful

Very short video. Need to do another one and should include The Cure, The Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, The Psychedelic Furs, OMD, The Church, REM, Love & Rockets, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Waterboys, The Bolshoi, New Order, The Feelies, Felt, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, The Jazz Butcher, The Woodentops, Julian Cope, Robyn Hitchcock &The Egyptians, The The, The Monochrome Set, The Lucy Show, The Godfathers, Translator, Gene Loves Jezebel, Clan of Xymox, Stephen Duffy, Strawberry Switchblade, The Might Lemon Drops, The Soup Dragons, The Sugarcubes, etc...

Nice one. Althoug I already knew almost all that info, I enjoy the aproach. Educative!

The Cars self titled debute album often is cited as one of the first New Wave bands, although I think DEVO beats it. Having lived through that era I don't see how you can have New Wave without a synthesizer or some kind of electronic organ. You keep showing pictures of the The Police for instance, but I never thought of them as New Wave compared to groups like Missing Persons, Talking Heads, B 52s etc. Come to think of it if you are weird I guess you can get by without using a synthesizer.

Some New Wave artists resisted being classified as New Wave. And some didn’t realize they were New Wave. But retrospectively it’s better to have them in that category so potential listeners know what style of music they’re listening to. It helps them to find similar bands if like the music.

Thank you for a small reminder of some of the music of our youth, a wonderful trip down memory lane 🙏

There’s so much to New Wave. Synth-Pop, Sophisti-Pop, Blue Eyed Soul, New Romantic, Rockabilly, Ska, etc. It’s all a sub genre of Alternative.

I don’t mean to be pedantic (but I’m going to be anyways), but it’s not the “Bugles” it’s the “Buggles”. Kind of important since Trevor Horn of the Buggles essentiallly defined the 80s sound as a prolific producer behind what you would call quintessential 80s “New Wave” hits.

Cool Channel. Cool topic. Lots of style with the animation etc.

People do describe Blondie as a new wave band.

Post-Punk is not aggressive, it is the predecessor to New Wave. You can't ignore the Manchester music scene in this discussion. Saying Devo got "significant" airplay on MTV is such a ridiculous understatement and misses so much context; When MTV first started in LA they only had a handful of videos to play, and Devo had provided like 3 or 4 of them. They invented the idea of the music video as we know it. There are lots of little inaccuracies in this whole essay that are frustrating for anyone who's really deep into this genre.

It was orginally Malcolm McLaren that coined the phrase "new wave" for his own Sex Pistols as he wanted to distinguish between American Punk and the British alternative music scene. However, the UK music heads and press alike insisted on categorizing the Sex Pistols as "punk" as they wanted to exploit the new craze sweeping across Britain. It wasn't until Gary Kurfirst used McLaren's new categorization for his own band, Talking Heads, did it become acceptable.

Doug Fieger's older brother, Geoffrey, is a prominent lawyer in Michigan. He pronounces the name with a long I sound (Fy-gur) so I go with that, even though my inclination upon reading it is to pronounce it with a long E sound (Fee-gur) based on German pronunciation.

so weird that you brought up Jim Kerr‘s wife, talking him into the song, but didn’t mention who his wife is… Legendary lead singer Chrissy Hynde of the Pretenders

Parallel Lines by Blondie was released in 1978, not 1979.

The Knack were power pop (almost the quintessential throwaway example of power pop)

the musical characteristic of new wave is the syncopated sound inherited from reggae. The rhythm is supported by the kick drum and bass, and each track relies on the silences left by the other tracks.The Cure takes this to incredible levels, achieving very complex arrangements

Great video and explanation! Music was really changing fast at the time and going in many directions - Thanks to punk for bringing rock back to simplicity! But, 'new wave' was a term used to describe all of the early evolvements of punk. Also, punk bands like the Sex Pistols were scaring people in America, which is why it exploded in England and not in America. American rock disc jockeys wouldn't play punk, or better yet, they weren't allowed to. Anyway, I think new wave also was a term used to re-coin some of the punk bands for marketing sakes.

The term was taken on by marketeers and record companies esp. in the U.S. who were afraid of punk rock (despite bands like the Sex Pistols having hits in the UK) who wanted to make money but weren’t really interested in it.

Sparks and Roxy Music are the early origins of new wave. Discussion closed!

Billy Idol actually did a demo of Don’t You Forget About Me. It’s on RU-vid

You conflate the New Romantic movement with New Wave.

To me the epitome of New Wave is New Order, in particular Blue Monday.

Very nice video! I own a HUGE amount of New Wave CD’s and 45’s

I heard once that the term 'New Wave' was invented by someone at Blondies record label to mainstream lighter Punk acts like Blondie which came out of the CBGB club Punk scene.

Mostly white and middle class, you mean its a variation of art-pop/art-rock. Stick with me, theory time. Well, if you look at where most of the early bands formed and what degrees they studied (Art, Art History, Literature etc). Some early bands identified as "New Wave", Ultravox (John Foxx era), Split Endz (From New Zealand, kind of morphed into Crowded House), even Simple Minds started as Art Rockers that discovered Punk/Synths. If you want the eras Pop-Punk, The Buzzccocks album, Singles - Going Steady is worth you wrapping your ears around.

New wave was more of a nicer way to say punk because punk was more of a derogatory name for bands like television and Blondie.So that's where that came from as well

How do you talk about New Wave and not mention, INXS, U2 or Falco.

It's Buggles, with a short "u". Not like the instrument.

The Cars could be the first New wave band.

Andy Partridge [ XTC ] developed some kind of ptsd related stage fright and stopped touring , in 1982 i believe,, this definitely hurt their career as they got zero mainstream radio airplay in the U.S. .. the 1987 video of xtc performing ''dear god'' live at the Casby awards in Toronto was performed in a mostly empty theater with only 50 people , instead of the normal crowd of 2000.

Btw, here’s an interesting person you should make a video on: The Dutch rock singer/ artist, Herman Brood.

Hhhmmm. i was there and i don't remember it quite this way. But i guess that's a matter of perspective. Is this how New Wave looks from 2024?

Xtc failed to realize how indie they were and that's why they were called new wave

I don't want to nitpick, but the Buggles is pronounced like bug-gulls, not bugles.

Rock is pop - if you sing, it's pop.

To me Blondie was one of the first New Wave bands/albums..

I think it would probably be fair to describe Roxy Music, particularly post Brian Eno when they became more poppy and less proggy, as a 'Proto New Wave' band, especially with their hit 'Love is the Drug'. In the UK the movement was also very commonly known as the 'New Romantic' movement and was also particularly noted for its androgynous fashion style and influence from the European Romance period that emerged in nightclubs in the late 1970s.

New Wave = Talking Heads, Blondie, Crowded House, Cars

lol "BUG-els"

John Hughesack

How about Ultravox, dudes?!

do The Police count as new wave? if they do were they the first new wave band?

The Bugles? Wrong! It's The Buggles.

New approach to expression; either cerebrally or lifestyle wise. In other words, the extreme all the way to corporate pop depending how far you want to go. It can be purely inspired by the stranger side of art Rock like Bowie or Yoko Ono or even more hippy transom like Captain Beefheart. Then again it is a label that even newer Billy Joel or Phil Collins could get thrown into.

My Aim is True Elvis Costello

calling DEVO a one hit wonder is an insult to their lengthy repertoire

It's the "buggles" not bugles. (Rhymes with thug, not moog)

New Wave 70s & 80s, Es mi genero musical preferido, saludos desde Sudamérica.

well either people dont know or just trying to be nice.the reason punk died was because all the songs sounded somewhat the same.the reason is many of them didnt know more than about 3 cords.not knocking punk but it was bound not to last long.bands who actually knew how to play moved forward with more talented music.also disco just got to be a joke in its later years when newwave was just entering the scene.

The Buggles! Not The Bugles.

Punk was alternative to pop and rock. While new wave was a more tame and classy alternative

The Buggles is pronounced Bug gles. Not Bugles.

Metal? No. New wave, post punk grew out of punk rock.

What a surprise that the Americans wouldn't know how to say "kraftwerk" 😂

omg, you guys, Wham! was NEVER NEW WAVE. _Never._ And also BTW, it was the BUGGLES (like RUG) not the Bugles, 🙄 that sang Video Killed the Radio Star. You're obviously younger than...well, you're young. 😉 Some of us have actually lived through the whole 70s through disco, punk, 80, new wave, electronic, all the way up to 90s and grunge, and even further.

Devo what's not necessarily a one hit wonder. They had a couple of other songs, they could more over be considered a flash in the pan, along with some of the other groups. That being said I think they need to do a little more research on New Wave.

This video is pitifully information-poor… Seymour Stein, of Sire Records, was the one who dreamed up “New Wave” as part of a “Don’t Call It Punk” campaign designed to make bands emerging from NYC’s legendary CBGB that he’d signed to his label eadier to market in the US. Meanwhile, in the UK at the end of the Seventies a whole host of art-school kids had turned away from Punk and begun experimenting with different music (and different drugs, and clothing). As they started bands and got signed, they were happy to embrace “New Wave” as their portemanteau descriptor. Read up on the Blitz Club in Covent Garden and its various counterparts all over England if you’re interested in how that parallel culture to a US record label head’s marketing gimmick happened. Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp’s memoir is a great place to start. And yhe first “New Wave” act promoted as such by Sire was Talking Heads. As far as the young lady’s thoughts on Simple Minds, we oldsters who have followed the band from the beginning in the late Seventies tend to think of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” as a shitty song written by hacks which made an awesome band go to, well, shit. Just listen to their first four albums and compare. You’ll thank me.

What's pretentious about a band wanting to play their own songs?

What a boring video