Let's Play: New Wave or Not New Wave?!!!!

[plagiarism]

[quote][i]Originally posted by WolverineSyr[/i]
<br>
Did I offer up Cheap Trick yet? No? Well...Cheap Trick - new wave or not new wave?
[/quote]

Ah, power pop, the red-headed step child of new wave. I'm perfectly willing to grant new wave membership to bands such as the Knack, Romantics, Marshall Crenshaw, etc. But for some reason, I draw the line at Cheap Trick. Maybe it's because they never looked the part. Robin and Tom looked like regular ol' rockers. Rick looked like an annoying kid brother, while Bun E looked like the band's chaperone.

That's probably not a fair reason to exclude them, but image tended to count for something in New Wave.

[beautifulmutant101]

I think Cheap Trick were top-shelf powerpop. Yeah, Robin and Tom had long hair and stuff, but as a whole, the band presented a quirky-as-hell image that didn't exactly go over well with the Molly Hatchet crowd. Also, "Hot Love" and "He's A Whore" sound punker to me than some of the actual punk bands of that period.

[WolverineSyr]

I always throw some Cheap Trick into my mix cds. Regardless of what they looked like or didn't look like, their music is awesome & straddles that line between power-pop and plain old rock for me.

Honestly, although I think this is a fun topic, I really don't care what other people define as new wave or not. We all have our own definition & that's cool. That's the beauty of the genre - it's not something you can pin down. If you like new wave, and you like a particular song or artist, and you think it might be...well...then it is!

[Electric friend]

There were many rock bands who jumped on the New Wave wagon for an album or at least a song. The Rolling Stones and the Grateful dead dabbled in disco, but quickly returned to their rock roots by the next album. So to me it's hard to label an act New Wave or not sometimes. I mean we would probably agree that Gary Numan and B-52's are New Wave, but what about Midnight Oil or Rank and File? I say if it's between 1977-1984 and NOT classic rock or easy listening, it might be New Wave.

[newwavepopman]

Great subject matter here.Here is one.New Wave or not New Wave Electric Light Orchestra(ELO)? I would most definately say that their beginnings were not New Wave.But come by 1979 with their "Discovery" album that they started moving more and more further into the New Wave direction.Let's face it on Discovery you hear synthesizers being used,unlike on all of their previous other albums. Heck,to me their song "Don't Bring Me Down: sounds fully 100% New Wave and that is on the Discovery album.

But like what alot has been posted before on here,a couple of songs here and there by a band doesn't make them a New Wave band.But ELO basically by this point disbanded their guitars and became more of an all synthesizer band.And not only were their hits becoming more New Wave sounding,but their albums started to fully sound that way too.

So from 1979 right up to their Balance Of Power album,I would give them that edge and say that they were New Wave.Even after Jeff Lynne left ELO and went for a solo career,I would have to say that at first that he even continued to go that route.Case in point is his songs from the Electric Dreams movie soundtrack.They are heavily synthesized and sound 100% New Wave.

[hutter]

Shawn "Doo Ron Ron" Cassidy gets my vote, just for his "Wasp" album.

You can't deny it.

[:D]

"He who is a friend to everyone is a friend to no one." - Queen Kristina
________________________________________________
http://nealsnow.multiply.com/

[WolverineSyr]

[quote][i]Originally posted by newwavepopman[/i]
<br>Great subject matter here.Here is one.New Wave or not New Wave Electric Light Orchestra(ELO)? I would most definately say that their beginnings were not New Wave.But come by 1979 with their "Discovery" album that they started moving more and more further into the New Wave direction.Let's face it on Discovery you hear synthesizers being used,unlike on all of their previous other albums. Heck,to me their song "Don't Bring Me Down: sounds fully 100% New Wave and that is on the Discovery album.

[/quote]

There are arguements about ELO leaning more towards disco too. To me, the Discovery album is much closer to disco, although it wouldn't easily fit into the genre. I remember Don't Bring Me Down and a couple other songs being played in the dance clubs at the time.

[Quite Life]

I like most would put The Police as New Wave granted sting is a fart, but granted The Police were NW and were a commercial face of NW at the close of the 70's.

[empyrean]

Police - not NEW WAVE

Blondie - New Wave

Finish. [:D]

[MARV]

Have we discussed Suzanne Vega yet?

<a href="http://marvymarv.multiply.com/">[i]You on the guestlist?[/i]</a>

[epongeverte]

Ok, now remembering the New Wave period (1978-@1985) quite clearly, I also remember that the movement involved more than music (i.e., fashion, attitude, painting, novels, etc.). It began as the New Romantic Wave--involving groups like Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Depeche Mode, etc.; and then later added on to the movement anything that had that sort of sound that was not easily identifiable as anything else (Power Pop: The Go-Go's; Quasi-Punk: Blondie, Talking Heads, Billy Idol; Old Goth: Siouxie & the Banshees, The Cure; Neo-Reggae: UB40, Fishbone; and a whole host of others: Elvis Costello, Devo, Culture Club, Marshall Crenshaw, etc. There were even interlopers into the scene: Madonna, Prince, and [God forbid] Michael Jackson---the whole Billy Jean period.

The whole point of New Wave was a reaction to the ugliness of Punk and a desire to find a movement that would be creative and combine elements of "period piece" fashion with a futurist attitude. [Remember the pirate look of Adam Ant; the "multi-culti" look of Boy George; the Robin Hood look of Men Without Hats and many many others; and the futuristic look of Grace Jones? Well that was, my fiends, New Wave].

[epongeverte]

Oh...haha...that was friends, not fiends. WEll...maybe. And we must not forget David Bowie and Bryan Ferry the great-granddaddies of the movement.

[chariotdrvr14]

Back then I tended to think of everything as being part of the punk movement or alternative music scene until the emergence of hardcore culture or separation of scenes. Until 81' you'd go to clubs pay a nominal door price and see several bands of differing styles; like a ska band sharing a venue with an electronic art band, an Oi! band, a reggae band and a rockabilly band. Before they all split into their own varied scenes there was little hostility between them. And the moniker 'new wave' was less distinctive... Of course about the time that that occured then those specifically new wave started getting exclusive play in the dance clubs... with a few alternative tracks that got play in the same places ...like 'Public Image' by Pil, or 'Hanging Around' by the Stranglers.
Oddly enough, when they first emerged...I considered 'Blondie' and the Boomtown Rats as included in the punk scene. But their first gigs were at CBGB's so they were accepted as part of that wave of punk or alternate bands... as were many bands like Talking Heads or Alternative Television.
Perhaps the difference was to whom it appealed to ...street punks who identified with the 'no future' slogan or punk/new wavers with yuppie ambitions.

[the_moth]

I agree with Eyesfan, it's a matter of the UK or US viewpoint also, because the first was more synth-driven and the other more like rock.

Also we can't just say I don't like Billy Idol, so he's not New Wave.
What we can say in my humble opinion is that every artist/band that had their first New Wave-sounding album after 1983 doesn't count as genuine New Wave, because this is the time New Wave went mainstream, became pop and left nothing behind. So this would rule out the Pet Shop Boys and Madonna - thank god!
Concerning Kim Carnes I think we have to come to this guideline: Only one song that can be considered New Wave isn't enough. There has to be a whole album that is now or was then considered New Wave - this would make Chris de Burgh New Wave, but not Kim Carnes

And if this is not right, we have to come up with another adequate formula that will tell us, free of personal favoritism, what artist is New Wave or not. Maybe.

[shovelbum]

I'm curious about this one: Missing Persons. NW or not? I say YES.



My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.