New Wave Outpost Forum

I'm too old-fashioned or too old maybe but today's stuff as "Alternative," I can't consider New Wave. For me, the 80s (when New Wave was New Wave), the WLIR/KROQ stuff like B-Movie, Madness, DFX2, Split Enz, Spandau, X, XTC, etc, I'd consider New Wave but today's (90s & 00s) stuff, I don't put it in the New Wave stash. Am I wrong or is there New Wave stuff from the 90s and 00s; if so, who?

Yes there was/is new wave bands in the nineties and now. However, the term "New Wave" isn't used for them. That term is mostly used for the 80's.

There are so many bands out that envelop the New Wave sound. A lot of bands they are coining "Electroclash" are very New Wave. Bands like The Killers and the Faint are very New Wave sounding. There are so many bands out, each with their own slightly different sound and style that there really isn't room for specific categories. So, people just lable everything "Alternative" to say that it is an alternative to the mainstream of music on the radio.

The link to the above forum has a lot of bands in those threads that are very New Wave-ish. I think that is a perfect place to start to find out more about "who?" ;o)

[quote]Originally posted by trekds947
[br]I'm too old-fashioned or too old maybe but today's stuff as "Alternative," I can't consider New Wave. For me, the 80s (when New Wave was New Wave), the WLIR/KROQ stuff like B-Movie, Madness, DFX2, Split Enz, Spandau, X, XTC, etc, I'd consider New Wave but today's (90s & 00s) stuff, I don't put it in the New Wave stash. Am I wrong or is there New Wave stuff from the 90s and 00s; if so, who?
[/quote]

Tone of NW-inspired muisc in the 90's and the 00's. Plenty of stuff that could pass for the bands you referenced. One of the fun elements of doing my radio show is when someone calls in after I've played a 90's or current cut and they ask when in the 80's that cut came out. It's just tougher to find music like that these days. A bunch of us here have radio shows or online stations and we play that stuff.

New wave was also a fashion as much as a musical genre. For better or worse it is often related to happy, colorful personalities and off the wall agendas. Alternative is more gloomy and depressing. The music is more about hopelessness and the fashion is Horrible.

That is the difference in my opinion.

We've been through this topic so many times, but it's always fun to hear how different people approach it.

To me, new wave has a definite temporal constraint; it had a beginning and end, both of which are open to interpretation (but the end was sometime in the 80's, to me anyway).

The new stuff I have no problem calling 'new wave-inspired' or 'new wavish' but I just can't call it new wave; that's my personal hang-up.

Could artists like Fischerspooner and Ladytron be considered some of thday's New Wave?