New Wave Outpost Forum

by **Sean** » Tue May 11, 2004 11:05 am

Just curious, do people consider the following bands New Wave?

The Cars (I've always considered them pioneers of New Wave but can never really say that they are New Wave with confidence. What makes them more confusing is that Hard Rock fans like them too.)

Blondie (You hear "Atomic" and there's no doubt they are New Wave but are they really? "Heart of Glass" is kind of disco-ish, "Tide Is High" is kind of reggae-ish, and "Rapture" is Rap (good Rap).

Sean

by **bpdp3** » Tue May 11, 2004 11:58 am

I want to expand on this thread if you don't mind, because I think you've brought up an idea I've had in my head for awhile...

Has this web-site (a nice place to have actual intelligent conversations with fellow new-wave whackos) CHANGED your view of w

by **ekahob** » Tue May 11, 2004 12:17 pm

I always considered both The Cars and Blondie New Wave. Blondie had released two excellent records before they became popular. In fact they were released before the term New Wave was even slapped on all music that the media couldn't define within its li

by **scramjet** » Wed May 12, 2004 2:11 am

I would definitely call Blondie and the Cars New Wave. It's it's interesting you should mention "Atomic" as an example of a clearly new wave Blondie song. It's usually thought of as an attempt followup to the success of the discoish "Heart of Glass". T

by **Ollie Stench** » Wed May 12, 2004 3:37 am

"If you have to ask you'll never know"

We were just talking about The Cars here at work an hour ago. I always considered them a bar rock band that got caught up with the tag New Wave. Tom Petty was another, but he was able to shake the classification

by **unguarded moment** » Wed May 12, 2004 5:05 am

I think the Cars' second album "Candy-O" sounds very new wave-y, much more so than their first. Maybe they were just imitating what was going on at the time, when New Wave was more prominent than in 1978, when their first album came out. Back to the ori

by **SwampThing** » Wed May 12, 2004 8:02 am

[quote]
Spacy synths? - check
Quirky lyrics? - check
Catchy pop sensibility? - check
Skinny ties? - check
<hr height="1" noshade id="qu

by **Dave** » Wed May 12, 2004 9:54 am

Yup, Scramjet nailed it. You can argue about Blondie (I think they're NW), but for me, the Cars absolutely *define* new wave. The fact that their music was played on Top 40 radio doesn't disqualify them.

by **KYYX4ever** » Wed May 12, 2004 1:32 pm

You all have good points, pro and con--I agree with Dave in saying that just because a group got some radio play doesn't automatically disqualify them. In addition, New Wave was also about attitude--the look, the clothes, the pose, the RayBans, etc. The

by **ExRat** » Tue May 18, 2004 4:04 am

There are also a number of other bands I recall either being persuaded were new nave or persuaded that they weren't able to carry the new wave moniker. Always debatable whether they 'were' or 'weren't' according to who you asked. A few of these were:

T

by **unguarded moment** » Tue May 18, 2004 4:16 am

Pretenders - undecided
Police - definitely yes. Why is there any doubt on this one?
Greg Kihn - no
Quarterflash - no
Beatles - no (but they're great nonetheless)[:D]

by **Sean** » Tue May 18, 2004 4:56 am

This also brings up bands like:

Til Tuesday
Scandal
U2

What do you guys think? I think the "skinny ties" thing is kind of a throw off. I think everyone wore "skinny ties" in the 80's.

Sean

by **sins tailor** » Thu May 20, 2004 12:23 pm

the thing that really made the cars "new wave"
was the kyboard work of greg hawkes and of course the weird vocals of ocasek.............

i miss benjamen orr..............he was a great singer.........

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