Musically what makes new wave new wave?

[mimzy]

I was thinking about it and I think it has to do with the "flow" of the music - new wave music tends to stop suddenly and start again. i also think the production tends to be shiny and glossy but also minimalistic and with relatively few tracks.

[Jim2]

In my opinion, It's a combination of many things. Some of these are; non-conformism, fashion, presentation, appeal, appearance, label, song structure, flow (as you mentioned minmzy)and most important attitude.

[plagiarism]

[quote]Originally posted by mimzy
[br]I was thinking about it and I think it has to do with the "flow" of the music - new wave music tends to stop suddenly and start again. i also think the production tends to be shiny and glossy but also minimalistic and with relatively few tracks.
[/quote]

New Wave has quite a few subdivisions, some of which have little in common with the others, other than the time period. I don't see how you can come to the conclusions you did.

[djcraig]

Great question. I agree with Plagiarism in that it is really a hard thing to define simply as the category is so broad. But I will add a few ideas.

Generally speaking, lots of it had both instrumental and vocal sounds of alienation, with lyrics to match. The Cure, Depeche, Smiths, Joy Division, The Cars, New Order and many, many others would fit this. Otherworldly sounds and dark vocal tones as if the subject matter were being approached by an outsider.

The advent of the synth made it easier to form a band and experiment/"play"- technical proficiency no longer as important as an irreverent attitude. Thus the of almost ubiquitous use of synths, many of which created a foreboding sound scape as the background to often strange subject matter. Think of the paranoia in Gary Numan's "Cars", the disillusionment of New Order's "Blue Monday" or the detached sound of The Cars' "Moving In Stereo".

My theory is, the first large generation of "latchkey" children- those who experienced an epidemic of divorce in the 70s, grew up with less than optimal parental supervision and began expressing their feelings of disconnection through the prism that Punk music first provided.

That would help explain another characteristic- that many NW songs were at a pretty fast beats per minute. You figure a fast dance beat is 130-135.

Examples of 135 BPM:

Smalltown Boy Bronski Beat 135
Pretty In Pink Psychedelic Furs 135
Material Girl Madonna 135

Where Disco songs generally top out at 135, New Wave often went faster. Certainly there have always been fast rock songs but it seemed in the 80s there were a preponderance of them from 135 BPM and up. Some to a punk inspired, blistering 180 bpm or higher. Just a few examples:

Rio Duran Duran 140
Dancing With Tears In My Eyes Ultravox 144
Nowhere Girl (Extended Mix) B Movie 145
Love Will Tear Us Apart Joy Division 147
My Sharona The Knack 147

(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang Heaven 17 151
We Got the Beat Go Gos 152
Beat Surrender The Jam 155
I Will Follow U2 155
I Melt With You Modern English 156
Vacation Go Gos 157

Lovesong The Cure 160
One Way Or Another Blondie 162
I Wanna Be Sedated Ramones 163
Don't Change INXS 164
Radio Free Europe R.E.M. 165
Private Idaho The B-52's 166
Rebel Yell Billy Idol 166
The Metro Berlin 169
Boys Don't Cry The Cure 169

Mirror In The Bathroom The English Beat 172
Little Girls Oingo Boingo 172
Our Lips Are Sealed Go Gos 175
What Do I Get? Buzzcocks 177
Dancing With Myself Billy Idol 177
Sheena Is A Punk Rocker Ramones 177
In The City The Jam 177
Turning Japanese The Vapors 179


Rock Lobster The B-52's 180
Accidents Never Happen Blondie 180

I Want You to Want Me Cheap Trick 211
Why Can't I Be You? The Cure 216
Anything Anything Dramarama 224


Faster, more aggressive music= all the better for pogoing, slam dancing and flipping your finger to mainstream society.




<a href="http://www.djcraig.net/los_angeles_dj">DJ Craig</a>