First let me thank for all the songs of the week, some i knew, many i did not, but i liked most of them.
While searching the net for 80s songs and New Wave artists i see a lot of american and canadian bands that would not really have counted as new wave back then (especially the Hooters post in this forum made me wonder again, no insult).
This reminds me of the strange decors of american teenagers rooms in that periods movies like Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink (nice one though!), always decorated with large posters of often british bands that should be pushed into the mass market.
In Europe at least in the early 80s NW was the tag for alternative (then = underground) bands on indie labels playing "difficult" music, later it got watered down, maybe because first and second generation bands got record deals with big companies, mostly losing something by the way, either the fans or the quality, often both. The original fans went away when the music became more widely available. It had a lot to do with "i was a punk before you were a punk".
Unfortunately (at least in Germany) there was no college radio and the really interesting music was only played very rarely on the radio. In Germany only SOUNDS (until 82) and SPEX were music magazines dealing with new music. The "original" NW was over by 84/85, German NDW even died a year or two earlier when there was a massive overload on crap bands pushed by the industry while the originators went on to become more obscure or started working in PR or IT.
This post somehow wanders away...
What do you count as the top american (or other) New Wave bands? And please post your age, because i would like to know what the old guys like me prefer from the time and what young people of today know or like about NEW WAVE.
I'm 38, from Germany and was hooked on the New Wave in 79 by accidentally listening to THE one radio show for that music : John Peel's Music on BFBS (british forces radio), then my weekly fix, as well as fixture.
Best wishes to everyone
Jörg
I have a pretty large record collection from that time but unfortunately not the time to digitalise them.
Life is hard, ...and then you die.