When did New Wave DIE?

[st arry]

[quote][i]Originally posted by General Boy[/i]
<br>The sounds were going more mainstream, the technology was become more digital and less warm and personal. Additionally, by '83, many of new wave's most prominent artists had already started genre hopping. By '83-'84, new wave as we knew it had splintered off into different directions and subgenres. It just felt and sounded different.

In my opinion, when artists like Bruce Springsteen started to do dance music and use synths prominently, in an effort to fit in, that was pretty much the end.[/quote]

But pop music is all about genre hopping mixing styles, not about the genre ghettos of other types of music. And when everyone is adapting to the sound it's at its peak. The technology did change in 85 there is a noticeable change in sound to me, maybe a new kind of synth? But really it's more about new emerging genres like house, boy bands like Bros, manufactured candy pop like Kylie Minogue. None of that is about technology it's just about a different kind of music at a lower creative level.

[st arry]

I agree with those who say that the 80s musical style continued through the second half of the decade. BTW I prefer 70s as 71 - 80 and 80s as 81 t0 90, stylistically I think it works better. But the 80s does divide in two and it annoys me when you look at books that suggest it's just one continuous level of importance. There were some later 80s style songs that were worthy of the early classic period, but they weren't that many (at least looking specifically at Britain or America). For every decent song like Shattered Dreams, Surrender or Mary's Prayer there were lots of lesser stuff like Bros or Kylie Minogue. I suspect the number of records released in Britain may have declined alot as well? Dance music in Britain was no longer about the disco influenced New Wave but was more about the new unmelodic and machinelike house music. So while New Wave didn't end immediately there was a decline.

[SwampThing]

[quote]...For every decent song like Shattered Dreams..[/quote] I have just one thing to say: "WTF"?

This quote belongs in the "Guilty Pleasures" thread.

[st arry]

[quote][i]Originally posted by SwampThing[/i]
<br>[quote]...For every decent song like Shattered Dreams..[/quote] I have just one thing to say: "WTF"?
[/quote]

I bet you like it really. [:D] Very catchy motif runs through it, good confident vocal, punchy chorus, nice harmonic change at 'I thought it was you', and nice falsetto lift at the end of the chorus. Probably the only decent single they did, but well constructed song in an effective production. Didn't actually know it at the time - as I said I'd gone off pop music, but it's not bad. Worth hearing now and again.

[djcraig]

New Wave died when "Hair Metal" killed it. Thank God Nirvana put those aqua net covered, spandex wearing freaks out of their misery!

[SuNomi]

1984 marked the year when a whole group of influential punk/new wave bands broke up or lost founding members which affected negatively on their careers (the Police, the Clash, Gang of Four, Split Enz, Squeeze, Bauhaus, The Jam, The Specials, The English Beat,
Wall of Voodoo, Blondie). Add to that, by 1985 (with MTV and John Hughes clearly leading the way) what were once great bands were churning out records of astonishingly bland commercial tripe: The Psychedelic Furs "Heartbreak Beat", Oingo Boingo's "Wierd Science",
everything Simple Mind's did after Sparkle in the Rain. I think 1985
was the true death rattle of the creative potential that was New Wave. Don't get me wrong, there were some flashes of promise out there. Bands who fell under the radar and were lumped under the more edgy sounding "Alternative" label. But the movement as a whole was over

Thankfully, the ones who managed to stay the course during those superficial years went on to enjoy long and respectable careers (U2, Pretenders, Elvis Costello & the Cure) practically saving the genre from being a mere footnote in music history.

Had MTV not been the cultural leviathan it was, it would've been interesting to see how some of these bands would've progressed.

[LovePlusOne]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Randall Roq[/i]
<br>...KROQ itself was relying way too much on format and the ratings soared. And I who had listened to nothing else for the last 5 years suddenly found myself stuck with DJ's I couldn't stand (Blade, Egil etc)...


[/quote]

Haha that's funny, Randall. I've heard several who used to listen to KROQ back then all swear to a person that ole Dick Shepherd (a.k.a Richard Blade) brought that station down. Oh well, I guess all taste is subjective. I didn't mind the guy personally. Afterall, he created the show that to this day remains the one link to KROQ's past, the FLashback Lunch.

By the way, this whole thing about when New Wave died seems a bit elusive. Maybe it's the fact that it had such more influence on the general "pop" sound than it's progenitors punk and postpunk (then again, don't a lot of people consider that stuff New Wave as well?! I'm cofused). I would say a big shift came in the mid 80s when groups like R.E.M. and The Smiths, completely bereft of keyboards, were more prominently played in the college and so-called alternative market.

But that's just one person's opinion

[djcraig]

It was August 2, 1986. The date Poison released "Look What the Cat Dragged In".

When Hair Metal songs like "Talk Dirty To Me" started getting mass airplay, the death of New Wave was imminent.

[Randall Roq]

[quote][i]Originally posted by st arry[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by SwampThing[/i]
<br>[quote]...For every decent song like Shattered Dreams..[/quote] I have just one thing to say: "WTF"?
[/quote]

I bet you like it really. [:D] Very catchy motif runs through it, good confident vocal, punchy chorus, nice harmonic change at 'I thought it was you', and nice falsetto lift at the end of the chorus. Probably the only decent single they did, but well constructed song in an effective production. Didn't actually know it at the time - as I said I'd gone off pop music, but it's not bad. Worth hearing now and again.
[/quote]

I just noticed this post.

Sometimes I don't know if you are serious or not! You said before a video like Sledgehammer is overrated and then on this post you're praising a piece of crap like Shattered Dreams?!? Dude what is up with you?!

I listen to a lot of garbage but even I could never defend this tripe nor would I want to.

"Very catchy motif..." you can't be serious?! It was one of the worst pieces of dreck to float down the river since the Worst Dreck Down The River Competition. How the holy hell can you defend a piece of shit like that. Johnny Hates Jazz, Breakfast Club and the like were as far as I'm concerned the final nail in the New Wave coffin.

If you're trying to get a rise out of me, it worked.

Is it easy typing with a straitjacket on?

[fanciz]

Hum, it's getting hot here! Well let's say that New Wave includes a large variety of genres, from the gentle sound of The Wild Swans and Colourfield to the more energetic beat of the Sisters Of Mercy and X'Mal Deutschland. However all those bands have something in common, a sound which is fresh, different and basically non commercial and which is as recognizable for a newwaver as the trunk in an elephant's head. Some bands are considered pure new wave like Joy Division and some are on the fringe, flirting with Pop music. For this reason, it's not unusual for a new waver to adopt only one album of even only one song of a given group. In the case of Johnny Hates Jazz, I don't like particularly the band but I have adopted Shattered Dreams which I also find decent eheheh [;)]

[ghosty]

Again, I'll just say 1985. That seems about the time that a lot of established New Wave acts drifted into cheeseball pop sludge (not that all of it was bad). I guess the trend (circa 1983-84) saw a lot of NW acts dominate the mainstream and for whatever reason they decided to imitate a Top 40 sound from that point on since they probably saw themselves as pop stars rather than underground heroes. I mean, they're both pop songs, but there's a HUGE difference between Human League's "Don't You Want Me" and 1987's "Human". The latter song could've easily come from Paula Abdul if you make the comparison.

Luckily around that time a lot of great indie-rock was starting up and bands like R.E.M., Sonic Youth and Husker Du were really starting to take hold with the next generation of music aficiandos. Thus begat "90's Alternative" (which I've no problem with).

In Defense Of Nirvana: It's funny that many hear see Nirvana as the epitome of all that was wrong with the 90's when I think of them mainly as a punk band that hit it big and flamed out quickly leaving lots of "little Nirvanas" to stink up the joint. I was a college DJ in 1991 and Nirvana were always thought of as a punk band (like Mudhoney and The Melvins) until "...Teen Spirit" became a hit and some corporate slobs who were late for the party invented the catch-all moniker "Grunge". I recall Nirvana in 1993 absolutely loathing that label and instead raving about old punk, Devo and Gang Of Four all the time. Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Nirvana all get tagged with the Grunge thing and I don't think Nirvana sounds like either of them at all.

Labels are labels and I know that all of the bands today called "New New Wave" or, on this board anyway, "Next Wave" hate that classification...and with good reason, The Killers sound nothing like Bloc Party.

Makes me wonder: How could New Wave die when there's about 30 or so bands lumped in as NW acts that everyone here could name instantly but sound nothing alike? I think it's best to view these things as various "waves" of underground music (going all the way to back to Elvis and Little Richard if you like) which capture the imaginations of fans looking for something different, inevitably get popular, get labeled and marketed, the general public gets sick of them, the popularity subsides and then resurface with new blood and new faces.

Holy crap Batman! That's the history of Rock-n-Roll!

[jumpshift]

This is just my opinion. But I think new wave died in 1992. There were still bands in the early 90's continuing with the 80's sounds even for a while after nirvana came along. frontline assembly, revenge, fortran 5, elegant machinery, depeche mode's awesome violator album, wolfsheim, bands like erasure & pet shop boys were still making hits, and cause & effect. Remember their 1992 hits you think you know her, and another minute. Plus many more. In 1993 it pretty much all vanished I guess.

[xtc-1957]

[quote][i]Originally posted by newwavepopman[/i]
<br>I voted on the year 1991 because right after 1991 MTV stopped showing music videos by artists that were still recording New Wave music,and also because that was the year that most radio stations that had a 24 hour New Wave format such as WLIR-WDRE completely changed their format to what I call the worst piece of music in the history of rock and roll,that being Grunge and Alternative.Right before 1992 ended,I stopped hearing alot of synthpop and started hearing more and more of those noise Grunge and Alternative acts on the radio like Nirvana,and whoever else was starting to make an impact back at that time.

After then music was just never the same again.
[/quote]

For me....New Wave was from 1976 to 1982. Still some good stuff in '83 - '84, but primarily died in '82.

[FightTest]

I vote never, some people still listen to it, so it hasn't died completely. It's just not on mainstream radio and stuff anymore.

[newwavepopman]

Amen Fight Test.I agree with you 100% on that.I became a huge fan in 1978 and since that time I never let it die,and why should I? It's music that I love.And to me it doesn't sound the bit dated,as others would say.And others think just because a band or a New Wave artist becomes more mainstream and commerical,means that makes them no longer New Wave anymore.Some people just fail to realize that certain artists will do anything to have some hit records and get on the charts.Believe it or not,there is such a thing called commerical and mainstream New Wave.

Me personally,I prefer the more lesser known artists or bands that were still very popular,but just were never able to crossover very much to top 40 radio,but did so with one or two hits.New Wave never died in my eyes.It just went back into the underground for awhile and then came back.Alot are saying that New Wave died from 82 onward,or from 86-87 onward.Then why were groups such as OMD,Alphaville,and others continually making New Wave music beyond that point? And believe it or not,Alphaville continus making music and their style of New Wave never changed.The same can be said of OMD.Their brand of snythpop continued way beyond the years that most see fit that New Wave music died.

Kraftwerk is also a good prime example of a New Wave band who started out making music that was termed Experimental Music,and took their style even further,and by the time of their Radioactivity album,they were now a full fledged New Wave band.And to this day,alot of bands are influenced by their sound and style.To this day,Kraftwerk are still a New Wave band,but more of a 2005 New Wave band,with some of today's added Techno.

Well I guess that means that when the Talking Heads sold out and charted with their biggest hit "Burning Down The House" this means that they were no longer a New Wave band because they hit the charts? Oops I forgot,Adam Ant hit it big all over the place with Goody Two Shoes,which I guess also means that he sold out,and became more mainstream,and was no longer to be considered New Wave anymore?

And guess what? Both Blondie and The Cars were always in the mainstream and had huge top 40 hits,but everyone still calls them,and looks at them as a New Wave band.Get serious here.There was such a thing as mainstream New Wave,or quote un quote Top 40 New Wave.Both Blondie and The Cars only proves my point,that an artist can still have hits and crossover,and be very mainstream,but yet be still New Wave.Crossing over mainstream didn't kill the term New Wave,it just made it bigger and more known to the general public,that's all.