Your New Wave Epiphany

[geoffolehane]

Thinking back is there any one song...or any one artist that caused you to become a New Wave fan.We can all list off favorite performers, songs, images, etc. But what ONE artist/song suddenly made you decide there was no turning back?

In the 70's, I listened to a lot of Bowie, Kinks, Eno, and space rock. In the late 70's when STIFF flooded the market with LP's from Rachel Sweet, Elvis Costello, and Ian Dury and the Blockheads, I thought that was interesting stuff.

Then the techno-disco came out like M and Lipps, Inc. and I was so happy that traditional disco was dead.

But the song that blew me away and made me realize that there was no turning back was "Fade to Gray" by Visage. When I heard that, I was hooked on the New Wave sound. First time I heard it was on CJFM out of Montreal. I searched all over until I finally found it. After that, nearly all of my music listening pleasure has had some vague connection to Visage, "Fade to Gray."

[buffalochipz]

It would have to be hearing "Escalator Of Life" on WUWU 107.7 in Buffalo, NY. I was 12 and this was the sound I had unknowingly been craving.

[MartiniHoudini]

The original independant label version of "Romanticide" by Combo Audio. I remember hearing that back in 1982 on WLIR and I was hooked after that.

[egg-roger]

Back then I listened to an 'album rock' FM station; Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, etc. Once in a while they would throw in something from left field, Vapors, Elvis Costello, Duran Duran, which I really liked. When another FM station finally switc

[Kevinhay]

For me, a friend played Tears for Fears, The Hurting. The same day I was introduced to Psuedo Echo and The Specials. It was all history from there.

[bpdp3]

Clash - London Calling .....opened the doors for this 13 year old...

[Dave]

Good question!

Really hard to nail down a single epiphany, but the seeds were sown with Blondie's Heart of Glass in '78. However, the real of epiphany for me was '79, the year of *cars*:

Gary Numan - Cars (Pleasure Principle)
Cars - Let's Go (Cand

[Glen]

Gary Numan's "Cars" is what hooked me.

[Frau_Blucher]

The Cars first album was the epiphany, but I don't think I knew it at the time. This was in LA towards the end of 8th grade. At the time, the coolest music thing I was into were the those rainbow colored KLOS band stickers - a real status symbol. Soonafte

[Bitter Almonds]

Peter Schilling's "Major Tom (I'm Coming Home)"[:)] The songs that got me deep into the crazy and rare stuff were probably "I Want You" by Cabaret Voltaire and "Coitus Interruptus" by Fad Gadget[}:)]

[KYYX4ever]

That is an awesome question! For me it was "Love My Way" by the Psychedelic Furs. I had been hearing some New Wave now and then, but THIS was the song that made me sit up and say "Wow! What was that? I want more of that!" A close second would also be "I R

[Frank_Chickens]

Mine happened in 1994. Channel 4 Teletext (a text information service that is transmitted through the airwaves) were doing an article about the early 80's that piqued my interest.

In combination to this, the magazine The Record Collector had a large fe

[marie3]

I was a rock and roll girl until hearing OMD Electricity in the very early 80's at my friends house. She had the album and I remember sitting in her room and listening to that and Enola Gay. New wave had just come to New York via WLIR on Long Island. It

[xtc-1957]

In 1980 I heard "Love at First Sight" by XTC on WAMU-FM in Wash D.C....that did it for me. I still get chills when I hear it.

[bruiser]

first exposure: devo's "are we not men?" album in 1978- i was 9.

trouble is brewing: blondie "parallel lines", cars "candy-o", police "outlandos" gary numan "cars", devo "duty now"

1980: bowie "scary monsters", devo "freedom of choice", police "zeny