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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 reggaeReggae is an African Caribbean style of music developed on the island of Jamaica and is closely linked to the religion Rastafarianism, though not universally popular among its members. The origins of reggae can be found in traditional African Caribbean mu, skaThis page is about ska the musical style. SKA is also a three letter acronym for Square Kilometre Array. Ska is a form of Jamaican music which began in the late 1950s. Combining elements of traditional mento and calypso with an American rhythm and blues s, or experimental. Thus, The (English) Beat, R.E.M.is a rock band formed in Athens, Georgia in 1980 by Michael Stipe (vocals), Bill Berry (drums), Peter Buck (guitar) and Mike Mills (bass). Throughout the 1980s, while signed to the independent label I. they achieved a growing cult status due mainly to Sti, and The PoliceThe Police was a three-piece British pop band which was strongly influenced by reggae, and came to prominence in the wake of the punk rock phenomenon. The group was formed in 1977 by Stewart Copeland ( drummer) who initially recruited Sting ( bassist and 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 ClashThe Clash was a British punk rock group that extended beyond the norms of that form of music, incorporating reggae, roots rock, and eventually many other music styles. They were one of the most influential bands of the late 20th century, both in their ris. Later still, New Wave came to imply a less noisy, poppier sound, and to include acts manufactured by record labels, while the term post punkAlthough punk continues to exist, post punk generally refers to the particularly fertile and creative period following the initial UK punk rock 'explosion', roughly spanning 1978- 1982. If the first wave of punk bands such as The Sex Pistols, The Clash, T 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 SeagullsA Flock of Seagulls was a British New Wave band that found success in the U. in the early 1980s. Mike Score, with his friend Frank Maudsley and Mike's brother Ali Score formed the band in Liverpool, England in 1980 with Paul Reynolds (see 1980 in music). 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.
