New Wave Outpost Forum

telekon3 wrote:Just out of curiosity Barmy, are you some miserable S.O.B. being held captive in a dungeon somewhere?
Usually I found New Wave music to be the music of upbeat intelligent positive individuals.
That would explain the undertone of most of your comments.

Oh boy Edward, I think I can second that.

Thanks.

Maybe the fact that I don't obsess over CD "flaws" makes me happier. Or not. You decide.

Is actual vinyl superior? Duh. I'm happy without it.

Barmy wrote:Thanks.

Maybe the fact that I don't obsess over CD "flaws" makes me happier. Or not. You decide.

Is actual vinyl superior? Duh. I'm happy without it.

Everyone has different expectations when it comes to music, its quality, and its sound. CD "flaws" may not really bother you. Please understand that they do bother others, including myself, and there is nothing wrong with expecting quality product and obsessing over quality product. People have varying expectations when it comes to many things in life. That's what makes us unique.

telekon3 wrote:Usually I found New Wave music to be the music of upbeat intelligent positive individuals.

Upbeat? Well, let me take a bit of an exception to it if I may - as New Wave music seems to me maybe the most DOWNbeat of all modern popular music ever, be it melodic content, lyrics or general vibe. It's either escapist message (i.e. "don't wanna be here no more") or disappointed sarcastic commentary (i.e. "there must be more to hate than this"). Even seemingly upbeat stuff usually has some disconcerting/discomforting undertone to it. So intelligent is obviously yes, but upbeat and positive - hell no!

OK, had my rant, thank you for reading Please do go on about "Autumnal Park" - I enjoy this album so much that it often eclipses work of my favourite bands as a preffered choice of listening. Such a quintessential New Wave/Synth Pop/New Romantic album, not a weak song and THE sound of the 1980s if I had to name one example! A work of genuis and no wonder Pseudo Echo didn't even came close to matching it.

Pissing Stranger wrote:

"Upbeat? Well, let me take a bit of an exception to it if I may - as New Wave music seems to me maybe the most DOWNbeat of all modern popular music ever, be it melodic content, lyrics or general vibe. It's either escapist message (i.e. "don't wanna be here no more") or disappointed sarcastic commentary (i.e. "there must be more to hate than this"). Even seemingly upbeat stuff usually has some disconcerting/discomforting undertone to it. So intelligent is obviously yes, but upbeat and positive, Hell No!"



After further evaluating some of New Wave's biggest hits and looking at some of the titles, you might very well be right. Maybe these songs are a little "DOWNbeat"

What I Hate About You – Romantics
We Got The Bomb - Go-Go's
Wake Me Up Before You Go Postal – Wham!
Suicide Dance – Men Without Hats
Don't You Want to Kill Me - Human League
Manson - Tony Basil
Love Plus Death - Haircut 100
She Blinded Me With Acid - Thomas Dolby
Promised You A Massacre - Simple Minds
Just Got Leprosy – JoBoxers
Down Syndrome - Men At Work
Torture Shack – B-52s
In The Name Of Genocide - Thompson Twins
Look Of Distain – ABC
Our Holocaust – Madness
Karma Killed Leon - Culture Club
Acid Rain - Echo and the Bunnymen
Sweet Demise – Eurythmics
Living On The Streets - Blancmange
Dark Places - Sparks and Jane Wiedlin
Shitty Shitty - Haysi Fantayzee
The Politics of Dismemberment - Reflex
Big In Jail – Alphaville
Girls Just Want to Have Nothing To Do With You - Cyndi Lauper
Piss On Me – A-Ha
She Sells Herself - The Cult
Tarzana Boy – Baltimora
99 Cyanide Balloons – Nena
Peek-A-Boom - Siouxsie and the Banshees

This "list" (setting aside questions like how can acts like Wham! or Culture Club be seen as New Wave, not to mention Baltimora!) just proves one certain thing - people rarely listen to lyrics. What was New Wave's forte - marrying happy-sounding tunes to dark lyrics - turned out to the genre's disadvantage, when even those seemingly interested in this music see it as a simple party stuff to have fun to. No wonder people like Andy McCluskey had their bouts with depression - seeing their heartfelt efforts, especially lyrical, go over most people's heads. What general public seemingly wants to from music is some joyful stuff to wave their hands in the air to and nothing more. Sad but looks like that's how things are...

Don't forget these classics
Whip You - Devo
Planet Death - Duran Duran
Are Friends Electrocuted? - Tubeway Army

If you read my initial statement you might see that I never said New Wave music was "upbeat"

telekon3 wrote:
"Usually I found New Wave music to be the music of upbeat intelligent positive individuals."

A list of all early Visage would suffice.

telekon3 wrote:If you read my initial statement you might see that I never said New Wave music was "upbeat"

telekon3 wrote:
"Usually I found New Wave music to be the music of upbeat intelligent positive individuals."

Well, then you simply put it wrong - or not clear enough at the very least. And even then it's too much of a generalisation to be a wholly valid statement.

The process of Rationalization is the currency of the world!


"Since an emotion is experienced as an immediate primary, but is, in fact, a complex, derivative sum, it permits one to practice one of the ugliest of psychological phenomena: rationalization. Rationalization is a cover-up, a process of providing one’s emotions with a false identity, of giving them spurious explanations and justifications—in order to hide one’s motives, not just from others, but primarily from oneself. The price of rationalizing is the hampering, the distortion and, ultimately, the destruction of one’s cognitive faculty. Rationalization is a process not of perceiving reality, but of attempting to make reality fit one’s emotions."