MissingPersons wrote:- Drive by The Cars
- I Want To Know What Love Is by Foreigner
- Broken Wings by Mr. Mister
- Africa by Toto
- Dancing In The Dark by Bruce Springsteen
They are pretty similar sound-wise, and all of them were huge hits in the 80s, and they can be found in multiple 80s compilations. But for example in Wikipedia, Africa and IWTKWLI are classified only as "Soft Rock", when Broken Wings is classified as "New Wave" and "Dance Rock" (Dance Rock, really?) too.
1) To me, the Cars are New Wave. The greatest American NW band of all time.
2) Foreigner? Not a bad band but not New Wave. I do like the song "I Want To Know What Love Is", though. It's my fave Foreigner track.
3) Mr. Mister are one of my least favorite bands of the 80s. No offense to any Mr. Mister fans out there. To me they sound like New Wave as imagined by some corporate record company executive. Personally I vote no on Mr. Mister being NW.
4) Love the song Africa, and it has NW aspects to it, but to me its not New Wave.
5) That Springsteen track is pop/rock, in no way is it NW. Also, I got terminally sick of "Dancing In The Dark" and almost all Springsteen, in the 80s. The only songs by him on my playlist are "Streets of Philadelphia", "Radio Nowhere", and my fave Springsteen track, "Murder Incorporated".