Favorite New Wave Artist

[mn dave]

You should have them specified, in the beginning, your extremely narrow definition of what you consider New Wave.

Nah, I just wanted folks to pick one of the four.

[Philo]

Nah, I just wanted folks to pick one of the four.

A very misleading topic title then.

[Karl Henning]

Some good bands there but not contenders with the four I listed. Well, maybe the Police.

Aye, I think The Police as strong as any of the four;  but they were so specifically reggae-and-on, I don't really think of them as new wave beyond Outlandos d'Amour.

Oh, and The Cars!  Though nothing was ever as strong as the debut LP.

[mn dave]

A very misleading topic title then.

FAVORITE NEW WAVE ARTIST OF THE FOUR LISTED AND I DID NOT SUPPLY AN "OTHER" OPTION SO IT'S JUST THESE FOUR, OKAY???

[DavidW]

Philo, like the shoutout for Frankie Goes to Hollywood!  Relax, don't do it, when you want to go to it...

Also yes Depeche Mode and Tears for Fears are awesome.

The Cars are my favorite not on MN Dave's list.

[mn dave]

Philo, like the shoutout for Frankie Goes to Hollywood!  Relax, don't do it, when you want to go to it...

Also yes Depeche Mode and Tears for Fears are awesome.

The Cars are my favorite not on MN Dave's list.

The Cars, The B-52's and the Police almost made the list, but why mess around?

[Karl Henning]

A very misleading topic title then.

Not at all;  it's a little eccentric to take "new wave" as broader than the late-70s reaction to disco and prog.

[Marc]

FAVORITE NEW WAVE ARTIST OF THE FOUR LISTED AND I DID NOT SUPPLY AN "OTHER" OPTION SO IT'S JUST THESE FOUR, OKAY???

AH, I SEE.
WELL, IT'S JOY DIVISION THEN.

[Karl Henning]

The Cars, The B-52's and the Police almost made the list, but why mess around?

Hey, I've got an idea . . . .

[Philo]

Philo, like the shoutout for Frankie Goes to Hollywood!  Relax, don't do it, when you want to go to it...

Some of the highest production values of any band I've ever heard, on both of their studio releases.

[mn dave]

AH, I SEE.
WELL, IT'S JOY DIVISION THEN.

POST PUNK!

[Marc]

Not at all;  it's a little eccentric to take "new wave" as broader than the late-70s reaction to disco and prog.

Maybe it depends where you're from.

I recall that in most European magazines it was something like Punk (f.i. Sex Pistols, Clash, Ramones, Dead Kennedys) and New Wave (f.i. Joy Division, U2, Talking Heads, B-52s).
In Europe and the UK we sometimes called 'our' New Wave bands 'Post-Punk'. The difference between (first) Punk and (then) Post-Punk was: Fuck Off changed in We're Fucked. Sex Pistols was aggression, Joy Divison was crisis. Maybe the Punk and New Wave movements in Europe were more politically motivated.

[Karl Henning]

Maybe it depends where you're from.

I recall that in most European magazines it was something like Punk (f.i. Sex Pistols, Clash, Ramones, Dead Kennedys) and New Wave (f.i. Joy Division, U2, Talking Heads, B-52s).
In Europe and the UK we sometimes called 'our' New Wave bands 'Post-Punk'. The difference between (first) Punk and (then) Post-Punk was: Fuck Off changed in We're Fucked. Sex Pistols was aggression, Joy Divison was crisis. Maybe the Punk and New Wave movements in Europe were more politically motivated.

A good point.

[Marc]

Of course, in this poll, I voted for Blondie, for one obvious reason.

[mn dave]

Of course, in this poll, I voted for Blondie, for one obvious reason.

[Karl Henning]

Sure it's not . . . two reasons? . . .

[Philo]

From Grove's: New Wave by David Buckley

"A term encompassing a range of pop music styles from the mid-1970s onwards. 'New wave' and 'punk' were initially synonyms used interchangeably between 1975 and 1977. However, Malcolm McLaren (manager of the Sex Pistols) used 'new wave' to draw a comparison with the left-field anti-establishment practices of the French Situationist movement of the 1960s. From early 1978, new wave began taking on a more specific meaning as a generic description of certain styles of post-punk music. Groups as diverse as the Stranglers, the Boomtown Rats, Blondie and Talking Heads were promoted as 'new wave' acts in that they had developed beyond punk's guitar-based fetishisation of incompetence; thus, acts such as Elvis Costello and the Attractions carried some of punk's angry attitude alongside a more well-crafted, politically informed lyricism. The Stranglers, who had in fact preceded punk, used keyboard runs inspired by progressive rock and unusual time signatures, while Talking Heads used disco and ethnic musics. New wave reaffirmed more traditional methods of promotion and visual presentation: whereas the rhetoric of punk had been constructed around subverting the star system and usurping gender stereotypes, Bob Geldof (Boomtown Rats) and Deborah Harry (Blondie) became sex symbols. Musically varied, new wave acts spawned many artists who built long-lasting careers, with the Police emerging globally as the most commercially dominant.

The impact of punk and new wave was also felt in Europe, Canada and Australasia. The most significant reaction was seen in Germany's 'Neue Deutsche Welle', a phrase coined by Alfred Hilsberg, one of the editors of the German rock magazine Sounds, in October 1979. Among the leading groups were Der Plan, DAF and Palais Schaumburg. However, it was the more conventional pop of Nena with her UK number one hit 99 Red Balloons (1984) and the synthesizer pop of the quasi-novelty record Da Da Da by Trio (1982) which became crossover European hits.

Since the late 1970s, the term has become an imprecise signifier for renewal and generational angst. For example, in late 1993 'the new wave of the new wave' was used by the music press to describe British guitar groups such as Elastica, S*M*A*S*H and These Animal Men, who were seen by the music business as re-creating the energy of late-1970s punk."

[Marc]

Sure it's not . . . two reasons? . . .

Please don't cause another nightmare with this reference to the cigarette scene in Videodrome.

[Karl Henning]

Please don't cause another nightmare with this reference to the cigarette scene in Videodrome.

Request granted 

[Marc]

From Grove's: New Wave by David Buckley

"A term encompassing a range of pop music styles from the mid-1970s onwards. 'New wave' and 'punk' were initially synonyms used interchangeably between 1975 and 1977. However, Malcolm McLaren (manager of the Sex Pistols) used 'new wave' to draw a comparison with the left-field anti-establishment practices of the French Situationist movement of the 1960s. From early 1978, new wave began taking on a more specific meaning as a generic description of certain styles of post-punk music. Groups as diverse as the Stranglers, the Boomtown Rats, Blondie and Talking Heads were promoted as 'new wave' acts in that they had developed beyond punk's guitar-based fetishisation of incompetence; thus, acts such as Elvis Costello and the Attractions carried some of punk's angry attitude alongside a more well-crafted, politically informed lyricism. The Stranglers, who had in fact preceded punk, used keyboard runs inspired by progressive rock and unusual time signatures, while Talking Heads used disco and ethnic musics. New wave reaffirmed more traditional methods of promotion and visual presentation: whereas the rhetoric of punk had been constructed around subverting the star system and usurping gender stereotypes, Bob Geldof (Boomtown Rats) and Deborah Harry (Blondie) became sex symbols. Musically varied, new wave acts spawned many artists who built long-lasting careers, with the Police emerging globally as the most commercially dominant.

The impact of punk and new wave was also felt in Europe, Canada and Australasia. The most significant reaction was seen in Germany's 'Neue Deutsche Welle', a phrase coined by Alfred Hilsberg, one of the editors of the German rock magazine Sounds, in October 1979. Among the leading groups were Der Plan, DAF and Palais Schaumburg. However, it was the more conventional pop of Nena with her UK number one hit 99 Red Balloons (1984) and the synthesizer pop of the quasi-novelty record Da Da Da by Trio (1982) which became crossover European hits.

Yeah, that's more or less how I remember it.

A friend of mine at school had them all in his collection. He literally ate music.
Listening in his bedroom in the attic to Siouxsie and the Banshees, Splodgenessabounds, Einstürzende Neubauten, Kowalski, Jo Lemaire and whatever. Man, we was drowning in punk, wave, synthi, post-whatever and indie in those years.

My favourite punk song is probably Borstal Breakout of Sham 69.
And my favourite post-punk song Twenty Four Hours of Joy Division.