The term "new wave"

[davew]

Has always left me a little uneasy,like a big wet musical blanket thrown on bands i love and bands who i cant stand.Trapping punks and new romantics in the same bug jar with no chance of escape....ugh.

I think Claude Bessy summed it up pretty well in the movie The Decline of Western Civilization pt 1.

"I have excellent news for the world, there is no such thing as new wave. It was the polite thing to say when you were trying to explain that you were not into the boring old rock 'n roll but you didn't dare to say punk because you were afraid that you'd get kicked out of the fucking party and they wouldn't give you coke anymore .There is new underground sound, there's punk, there's pop, there's power pop, there's ska, there's rockabilly, there's garage, but new wave doesn't mean shit"

..............[xx(]

[middlesexnj]

Although New Wave was enormously influenced by punk, that is hardly an accurate term in describing the whole genre. You might even say that all punk is new wave. But all new wave is not necessarily punk.