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The New Wave is a movement in American and British popular music, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, growing out of the New York City musical scene centred around the club CBGB.
The term itself is a source of much confusion. Originally, Seymour Stein, the head of Sire Records needed a term by which he could market his newly signed CBGB's veteran bands. Because radio consultants in the US had advised their clients that punk rock was a fad (and because many stations that had embraced Disco had been hurt by backlash), he settled on the term "new wave." He felt that the music was the aural equivalent of the French new wave film movement of the 1950's. Like those film makers, his new artists (most notably Talking Heads) were anti-corporate, experimental, and a generation that had grown up as critical consumers of the art they now practiced. Thus, the term "new wave" was interchangeable with punk rock.
Very soon, listeners themselves began to see these musicians as different from their compatriots. Music that followed on from The Ramones (The Sex Pistols and all who followed them) was distinguished as "punk," while music that followed from the artistic and poetic experimentation of Television and Patti Smith and Blondie were called "new wave." Eventually, the term was applied indiscriminately to any punk band that did not embrace the loud-fast ethos, whether they were reggae, ska, or experimental. Thus, The (English) Beat, R.E.M., and The Police were equally "new wave," even though these bands would have as little in common with each other as they would with nominally "punk" bands, such as The Clash. Later still, New Wave came to imply a less noisy, poppier sound, and to include acts manufactured by record labels, while the term post punk was coined to describe the darker, less pop influenced groups. Although distinct, punk, new wave and post punk all shared common ground, as an energetic reaction to overproduced, uninspired popular music of the 1970s; and many groups fit easily into two or all three of the categories over their lifespan.
New wave is also commonly used to describe the style and fashion associated with new wave music (which may otherwise only be labeled "80s"). Examples include hairstyles of the band A Flock of Seagulls and Elvis Costello's bi-colored glasses poster.
As fashion, there were two major components of "New wave" dress. First, there was an eclectic revivalism. Paisley prints (from the 1960's), very thin neckties and pleats (from the 1940s), and simple colors were one part. The other part was a desire to embrace contemporary synthetic materials as a protest and celebration of "plastic." This involved the use of spandex, shocking colors, and mass-produced (or apparently mass-produced) and tawdry ornaments. Men's and women's fashions thus split from one another dramatically, and men wearing spandex and bright colors were ridiculed (and became emblematic of the mass marketing of "new wave" in department stores). As a fashion movement, then, New Wave was both a post-modern belief in creative pastiche and a continuation of Pop Art's satire and fascination with manufacturing.
New Wave bands and artists
ABC
Adam Ant
A Flock of Seagulls
Altered Images
Alphaville
Anne Clark
Aztec Camera
The B-52's
Bananarama
The Bangles
Berlin
Big Country
Blancmange
Blondie
Bow Wow Wow
Bronski Beat
The Buggles
Camper Van Beethoven
The Cars
Cheap Trick
Communards
Crüxshadows
Culture Club
The Cure
Cyndi Lauper
Dave Edmunds
David Arkenstone
The dB's
Dead or Alive
Depeche Mode
Dexy's Midnight Runners
Devo
Duran Duran
The English Beat
Elvis Costello
Erasure
Eurythmics
Falco
Fine Young Cannibals
The Fixx
The Flying Lizards
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Gang of Four
Gary Numan
General Public
The Go-Gos
Graham Parker
Haircut 100
Hall & Oates
Heaven 17
Human League
Human Sexual Response
Ian Dury
INXS
The Jam
Joe Jackson
Joy Division
Kajagoogoo
Kate Bush
King Bees
The Knack
Kraftwerk
Lene Lovich
Let's Active
Level 42
M
Madness
Marc Almond
Marshall Crenshaw
Martha and the Muffins
Men at Work
Men Without Hats
Mike Oldfield
Missing Persons
Modern English
The Modern Lovers
The Motels
Nick Lowe
Nik Kershaw
New Order
Oingo Boingo
The Only Ones
Orange Juice
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Pet Shop Boys
The Plimsouls
The Police
The Pretenders
The Psychedelic Furs
The Ramones
Real Life
R.E.M.
Rockpile
The Romantics
Romeo Void
Shriekback
Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Simple Minds
Soft Cell
Spandau Ballet
The Specials
Split Enz
The Spoons
Squeeze
Strange Advance
The Stranglers
The Stray Cats
Talking Heads
Talk Talk
Tears for Fears
Television
The The
Thomas Dolby
Thompson Twins
Til Tuesday
Tom Tom Club
Toni Basil
Transvision Vamp
Trio
Ultravox
The Vapors
Violent Femmes
The Waitresses
Wall of Voodoo
Wang Chung
White Town
XTC
Yazoo
Yello