New wave music

New wave music encompassed a wide variety of styles that shared a quirky, lighthearted, and humorous tone{{cite encyclopedia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308234710/https://www.britannica.com/art/new-wave-music |title=new wave |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/new-wave-music |archive-date=8 March 2022}} that were popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. New wave includes several pop-oriented styles from this time period. Common characteristics of new wave music include a humorous or quirky pop approach, the use of electronic sounds, and a distinctive visual style in music videos and fashion. According to Simon Reynolds, new wave music had a twitchy, agitated feel. New wave musicians often played choppy rhythm guitars with fast tempos; keyboards, and stop-start song structures and melodies are common. Reynolds noted new-wave vocalists sound high-pitched, geeky, and suburban.Reynolds, Simon Rip It Up and Start Again PostPunk 1978–1984 p.160

As new wave originated in Britain, many of the first new wave artists were British. These bands became popular in America, in part, because of channels like MTV, which would play British new wave music videos because most American hit records did not have music videos to play. British videos, according to head of S-Curve Records and music producer Steve Greenberg, "were easy to come by since they'd been a staple of UK pop music TV programs like Top of the Pops since the mid-70s."{{cite web |last1=Greenberg |first1=Steve |title=From Comiskey Park To 'Thriller' (How The Pop Music Audience Was Torn Apart, And Then Put Back Together) |url=https://s-curverecords.com/?stevesblog=from-comiskey-park-to-thriller |website=S-Curve Records |publisher=S-Curve Records. |access-date=18 March 2022 |quote=Why did MTV choose to play videos of songs that weren’t on the radio, rather than concentrating on the biggest pop hits? Quite simply, music videos for most of the American hit records of the day did not exist. Desperate to fill a round-the-clock schedule with videos, MTV’s initial playlists were chock full of clips by British new wave acts unfamiliar to American radio audiences. British videos were easy to come by since they’d been a staple of UK pop music TV programs like "Top of the Pops" since the mid-70s.}} This rise in technology made the visual style of new wave musicians important for their success.

A nervous, nerdy persona was a common characteristic of new wave fans, and acts such as Talking Heads, Devo, and Elvis Costello.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-MVrM3zKrHQC&pg=PA75|page=75|title=Are We Not New Wave?: Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s|author=Theo Cateforis|publisher=University of Michigan Press|date= 7 June 2011|isbn=978-0472034703}} This took the forms of robotic dancing, jittery high-pitched vocals, and clothing fashions that hid the body such as suits and big glasses.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-MVrM3zKrHQC&pg=PA84|page=84|title=Are We Not New Wave?: Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s|author=Theo Cateforis|publisher=University of Michigan Press|date= 7 June 2011|isbn=978-0472034703}} This seemed radical to audiences accustomed to post-counterculture genres such as disco dancing and macho "cock rock" that emphasized a "hang loose" philosophy, open sexuality, and sexual bravado.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|pp=71–94}}

File:Blondie1977.jpg, 1977. L–R: Gary Valentine, Clem Burke, Deborah Harry, Chris Stein and Jimmy Destri.]]

New wave may be seen as an attempt to reconcile "the energy and rebellious attitude of punk" with traditional forms of pop songwriting, as seen in the rockabilly riffs and classic craftsmanship of Elvis Costello and the 1960s mod influences of the Jam. Paul Weller, who called new wave "the pop music of the Seventies",{{cite book|last1=Reed|first1=John|title=Paul Weller: My Ever Changing Moods|date=1996|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=9780857120496|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGwARtGyc4kC&pg=PT113|quote=In half a year, the Jam sound had evolved considerably - and for that alone, the LP was an achievement. Weller once spoke of the album as their attempt to "cross over" into new wave - "the pop music of the Seventies," as he called it. They were patently keen to progress beyond the punk mould of In the City, as evidenced by the melodic rush of Paul's slower, more contemplative songs and the cover photo by legendary Sixties photographer Gered Mankowitz.}} explained to Chas de Whalley in 1977:

{{blockquote|text=It's just pop music and that's why I like it. It's all about hooks and guitar riffs. That's what the new wave is all about. It's not heavy and negative like all that Iggy and New York stuff. The new wave is today's pop music for today's kids, it's as simple as that. And you can count the bands that do it well and are going to last on one hand. The Pistols, The Damned, The Clash, The Ramones – and The Jam.{{cite web|website=Record Collector|title=When you're young|last=de Whalley|first=Chas|date=17 October 2007|url=https://recordcollectormag.com/articles/when-youre-young}}}}

Although new wave shares punk's do-it-yourself artistic philosophy, the musicians were more influenced by the light strains of 1960s pop while opposed to mainstream "corporate" rock, which they considered creatively stagnant, and the generally abrasive and political bents of punk rock. In the early 1980s, particularly in the United States, notable new wave acts embraced a crossover of pop and rock music with African and African-American styles. Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow, both acts with ties to former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, used Burundi-style drumming.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|pp=185–201}} Talking Heads' album Remain in Light was marketed and positively reviewed as a breakthrough melding of new wave and African styles, although drummer Chris Frantz said he found out about this supposed African influence after the fact.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|pp=203–211}} As the decade continued, new wave elements would be adopted by African-American musicians such as Grace Jones, Janet Jackson, and Prince,{{Cite web |last=Berlatsky |first=Noah |title=New Wave is Defined By Whiteness |url=https://www.splicetoday.com/music/new-wave-is-defined-by-whiteness |access-date=3 May 2023 |website=Splice Today |date=11 May 2021 |language=en}} who in particular used new wave influences to lay the groundwork for the Minneapolis sound.{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Michael |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/310962465 |title=Popular music in America : the beat goes on |date=2009 |publisher=Schirmer Cengage Learning |isbn=978-0-495-50530-3 |edition=3rd |location=Boston |oclc=310962465}}

The Velvet Underground have also been heralded for their influence on new wave, post-punk and alternative rock.{{Cite web |date=2 March 2020 |title=Punk'd: The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico |url=https://acrn.com/2020/03/02/punkd-the-velvet-underground-the-velvet-underground-nico/ |access-date=23 April 2023 |website=Acrn.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Chris |title=BBC – Music – Review of The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico (Deluxe Edition) |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/fq4h/ |access-date=23 April 2023 |website=Bbc.co.uk |language=en-GB}} Roxy Music were also influential to the genre as well as the works of David Bowie, Iggy Pop{{Cite web |last=Peacock |first=Tim |date=21 April 2023 |title=Best Iggy Pop Songs: 20 Tracks With An Insatiable Lust For Life |url=https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/best-iggy-pop-songs/ |access-date=3 May 2023 |website=uDiscover Music |language=en-US}} and Brian Eno.{{Cite web |last=James |first=Mark |date=28 February 2023 |title=What is New Wave Music? 9 Examples & History |url=https://www.musicindustryhowto.com/what-is-new-wave-music/ |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=Music Industry How To |language=en-US}}

The term "new wave" is regarded as so loose and wide-ranging as to be "virtually meaningless", according to the New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-MVrM3zKrHQC&pg=PA11|page=11|title=Are We Not New Wave?: Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s|author=Theo Cateforis|publisher=University of Michigan Press|date= 7 June 2011|isbn=978-0472034703}} It originated as a catch-all for the music that emerged after punk rock, including punk itself, in Britain. Scholar Theo Cateforis said that the term was used to commercialize punk groups in the media:

{{blockquote|text=Punk rock or new wave bands overwhelmingly expressed their dissatisfaction with the prevailing rock trends of the day. They viewed bombastic progressive rock groups like Emerson Lake and Palmer and Pink Floyd with disdain, and instead channeled their energies into a more stripped back sound… The media, however, portrayed punk groups like the Sex Pistols and their fans as violent and unruly, and eventually punk acquired a stigma—especially in the United States—that made the music virtually unmarketable. At the same time, a number of bands, such as the Cars, the Police and Elvis Costello and the Attractions, soon emerged who combined the energy and rebellious attitude of punk with a more accessible and sophisticated radio-friendly sound. These groups were lumped together and marketed exclusively under the label of new wave.{{cite web |last1=Cateforis |first1=Theo |title=Q&A with Theo Cateforis, author of Are We Not New Wave? |url=https://blog.press.umich.edu/2011/05/interview-theo-cateforis-author/ |website=University of Michigan Press Blog |date=4 May 2011 |publisher=Michigan Publishing |access-date=19 March 2022 |ref=none |archive-date=26 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526211701/http://blog.press.umich.edu/2011/05/interview-theo-cateforis-author/ |url-status=dead }}}}

File:Talking Heads band1.jpg performing in Toronto in 1978]]

As early as 1973, critics including Nick Kent and Dave Marsh were using the term "new wave" to classify New York–based groups such as the Velvet Underground and New York Dolls.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=20}} In the US, many of the first new wave groups were the not-so-punk acts associated with CBGB (e.g. Talking Heads, Mink DeVille and Blondie), as well as the proto-punk scene in Ohio, which included Devo, the Electric Eels, Rocket from the Tombs, and Pere Ubu.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/14/clevelands-early-punk-pioneers-ohio|title=Cleveland's early punk pioneers: from cultural vacuum to creative explosion|last=Savage|first=Jon|date=14 November 2013|work=The Guardian|access-date=6 October 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/ohio-78.php|title=Robert Christgau: A Real New Wave Rolls Out of Ohio|website=Robertchristgau.com|access-date=6 October 2019}} Some important bands, such as Suicide and the Modern Lovers debuted even earlier.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i76oAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 |title=The Ramones' Ramones|last=Rombes|first=Nicholas|date=18 February 2005|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|isbn=9781441103703|language=en}} CBGB owner Hilly Kristal, referring to the first show by Television at his club in March 1974, said; "I think of that as the beginning of new wave".Clinton Heylin, Babylon's Burning (Conongate, 2007), p. 17. Many musicians who would have originally been classified as punk were also termed new wave. A 1977 Phonogram Records compilation album of the same name (New Wave) includes American bands Dead Boys, Ramones, Talking Heads, and the Runaways.{{cite book |author1=Peter Childs |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofco0000unse_l1e7 |title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture |author2=Mike Storry |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-415-14726-2 |page=365 |url-access=registration}}Savage, Jon. (1991) England's Dreaming, Faber & Faber

Between 1976 and 1977, the terms "new wave" and "punk" were used somewhat interchangeably.{{Cite book|title= Up Yours! A Guide to UK Punk, New Wave & Early Post Punk |last= Joynson|first= Vernon|year= 2001|publisher=Borderline Publications|location= Wolverhampton|isbn= 1-899855-13-0|page= 12|quote= }}

Music historian Vernon Joynson said new wave emerged in the UK in late 1976, when many bands began disassociating themselves from punk. That year, the term gained currency when it appeared in UK punk fanzines such as Sniffin' Glue, and music weeklies such as Melody Maker and New Musical Express.Gendron, Bernard (2002). Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press), pp. 269–270. In November 1976, Caroline Coon used Malcolm McLaren's term "new wave" to designate music by bands that were not exactly punk but were related to the punk-music scene.Clinton Heylin, Babylon's Burning (Conongate, 2007), pp. 140, 172. The mid-1970s British pub rock scene was the source of many of the most-commercially-successful new wave acts, such as Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, Eddie and the Hot Rods, and Dr. Feelgood.Adams, Bobby. "Nick Lowe: A Candid Interview", Bomp magazine, January 1979, reproduced at [http://powerpop.blogspot.com/2005/12/pppda-nick-lowe-interview-from-1979.html]. Retrieved 21 January 2007.

In the US, Sire Records chairman Seymour Stein, believing the term "punk" would mean poor sales for Sire's acts who had frequently played the New York club CBGB, launched a "Don't Call It Punk" campaign designed to replace the term with "new wave".{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=25}} Because radio consultants in the US had advised their clients punk rock was a fad, they settled on the new term. Like the filmmakers of the French New Wave movement, after whom the genre was named, new wave bands such as Ramones and Talking Heads were anti-corporate and experimental. At first, most American writers used the term "new wave" exclusively in reference to British punk acts.The Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd edition New 3 September 2014 Starting in December 1976, The New York Rocker, which was suspicious of the term "punk", became the first American journal to enthusiastically use the term, at first for British acts and later for acts associated with the CBGB scene. The music's stripped-back style and upbeat tempos, which Stein and others viewed as a much-needed return to the energetic rush of rock and roll and 1960s rock that had dwindled in the 1970s with progressive rock and stadium spectacles, attracted them to new wave.Cateforis, Theo. "New Wave." The Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press. 2014.{{page needed|date=May 2022}}

The term "post-punk" was coined to describe groups who were initially considered part of new wave but were more ambitious, serious, challenging, darker, and less pop-oriented.{{according to whom|date=January 2021}} Some of these groups later adopted synthesizers.{{cite book|author=Greil Marcus|title=Ranters and Crowd Pleasers|page=109|publisher=Anchor Books|year= 1994}} While punk rock wielded a major influence on the popular music scene in the UK, in the US it remained a fixture of the underground.

By the end of 1977, "new wave" had replaced "punk" as the term for new underground music in the UK. In early 1978, XTC released the single "This Is Pop" as a direct response to tags such as "new wave". Songwriter Andy Partridge later stated of bands such as themselves who were given those labels; "Let's be honest about this. This is pop, what we're playing ... don't try to give it any fancy new names, or any words that you've made up, because it's blatantly just pop music. We were a new pop group. That's all."{{cite web|last1=Bernhardt|first1=Todd|last2=Partridge|first2=Andy|author-link2=Andy Partridge|title=Andy discusses "This Is Pop"|url=http://chalkhills.org/articles/XTCFans20071111.html|website=Chalkhills|date=11 November 2007}} According to Stuart Borthwick and Ron Moy, authors of Popular Music Genres: an Introduction, the "height of popularity for new wave" coincided with the election of Margaret Thatcher in spring 1979.

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In mid-1977, Time{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919062-2,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090124151910/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919062-2,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 January 2009 |title=Anthems of the Blank Generation | magazine=Time |date=11 July 1977 |access-date=15 May 2011}} and Newsweek wrote favorable lead stories on the punk/new wave movement.{{cite web |url-status=dead |url=https://www.allmusic.com/descriptor-check/d4491 |website=AllMusic |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527144714/https://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/punk-new-wave-ma0000011872 |archive-date=27 May 2022 |title=Punk/New Wave }} Acts associated with the movement received little or no radio airplay, or music industry support. Small scenes developed in major cities. Continuing into the next year, public support remained limited to select elements of the artistic, bohemian, and intellectual population as arena rock and disco dominated the charts. In early 1979, Eve Zibart of The Washington Post noted the contrast between "the American audience's lack of interest in New Wave music" compared to critics, with a "stunning two-thirds of the Top 30 acts" in the 1978 Pazz & Jop poll falling into the "New Wave-to-rock 'n' roll revivalist spectrum".{{cite news|newspaper=The Washington Post|last=Zibart|first=Eve|date=30 January 1979|title=Clash-Consciousness: The Latest Breaking of Britain's New Wave|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/01/31/clash-consciousness-the-latest-breaking-of-britains-new-wave/ab744a16-b80a-4aa0-aef2-a81657c07233/|access-date=14 February 2024}} A month later, the same columnist called Elvis Costello the "Best Shot of the New Wave" in America, speculating that "If New Wave is to take hold here, it will be through the efforts of those furthest from the punk center" due to "inevitable" American middle class resistance to the "jarring rawness of New Wave and its working-class angst."{{cite news|newspaper=The Washington Post|last=Zibart|first=Eve|date=8 February 1979|title=Elvis Costello: Best Shot of the New Wave|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/02/09/elvis-costello-best-shot-of-the-new-wave/78b41e9a-4042-4667-9a5b-bccac1446c03/|access-date=14 February 2024}}

Starting in late 1978 and continuing into 1979, acts associated with punk and acts that mixed punk with other genres began to make chart appearances and receive airplay on rock stations and rock discos.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=37}} Blondie, Talking Heads, the Police, and the Cars charted during this period.{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/new-wave-music |title=New Wave Music |encyclopedia=St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture |first=Steve |last=Graves |via=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=30 March 2019}} "My Sharona", a single from the Knack, was Billboard magazine's number-one single of 1979; its success, combined with new wave albums being much cheaper to produce during the music industry's worst slump in decades,{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=37}} prompted record companies to sign new wave groups. At the end of 1979, Dave Marsh wrote in Time that the Knack's success confirmed rather than began the new wave movement's commercial rise, which had been signaled in 1978 by hits for the Cars and Talking Heads.{{cite magazine|magazine=Rolling Stone|title=The Flip Sides of 1979|last=Marsh|first=Dave|author-link=Dave Marsh|date=27 December 1979|access-date=14 February 2024|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-flip-sides-of-1979-113608/}} In 1980, there were brief forays into new wave-style music by non-new wave artists Billy Joel (Glass Houses), Donna Summer (The Wanderer), and Linda Ronstadt (Mad Love).

Early in 1980, influential radio consultant Lee Abrams wrote a memo saying with a few exceptions, "we're not going to be seeing many of the new wave circuit acts happening very big [in the US]. As a movement, we don't expect it to have much influence."{{cite news |last1=Abrams |first1=Lee |last2=Goldstein |first2=Patrick |title=Is New-Wave Rock on the Way Out? |url=https://ladailymirror.com/2010/02/16/radio-consultant-sees-dim-future-for-new-wave-rock/ |access-date=18 March 2022 |date=16 February 1980 |format=Image |quote="With the exception of the Boomtown Rats, the Police and a few other bands, we're not going to be seeing many of the New Wave circuit acts happening very big over here (in America). As a movement, we don't expect it to have much influence."}} A year earlier, Bart Mills of The Washington Post asked "Is England's New Wave All Washed Up?", writing that "The New Wave joined the Establishment, buying a few hits at the price of its anarchism. Not a single punk band broke through big in America, and in Britain John Travolta sold more albums than the entire New Wave."{{cite news|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Is the New Wave All Washed Up?|date=13 January 1979|access-date=14 February 2024|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/01/14/is-the-new-wave-all-washed-up/999ed5b9-a680-4c50-80f2-3105e365db8d/}} Lee Ferguson, a consultant to KWST, said in an interview Los Angeles radio stations were banning disc jockeys from using the term and noted; "Most of the people who call music new wave are the ones looking for a way not to play it".{{cite news|url=https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2010/02/radio-consultant-sees-dim-future-for-new-wave-rock.html |first=Patrick |last=Goldstein |title=Is New-Wave Rock on the Way Out? |work=Los Angeles Times |date=16 February 2010 |access-date=15 May 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111230060423/https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2010/02/radio-consultant-sees-dim-future-for-new-wave-rock.html |archive-date=30 December 2011 }} Second albums by new wave musicians who had successful debut albums, along with newly signed musicians, failed to sell and stations pulled most new wave programming, such as Devo's socially critical but widely misunderstood song "Whip It".[http://www.allmusic.com/song/whip-it-mt0007666679 AllMusic Whip It Review] "But even though most of the listening public took "Whip It" as just a catchy bit of weirdness with nonsensical lyrics about a vaguely sexy topic, the song's actual purpose – like much of Devo's work – was social satire. Putting the somewhat abstract lyrics together, "Whip It" emerges as a sardonic portrait of a general, problematic aspect of the American psyche: the predilection for using force and violence to solve problems, vent frustration, and prove oneself to others"

In 1981, the start of MTV began new wave's most successful era in the US.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} British musicians, unlike many of their American counterparts, had learned how to use the music video early on.Rip It Up and Start Again Postpunk 1978–1984 by Simon Reynolds Pages 340, 342–343 Several British acts on independent labels were able to outmarket and outsell American musicians on major labels, a phenomenon journalists labeled the "Second British Invasion" of "new music", which included many artists of the New Romantic movement.{{cite news|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WE&s_site=kansas&p_multi=WE&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADB2EE79F08981&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |title=1986 Knight Ridder news article |publisher=Nl.newsbank.com |date=3 October 1986 |access-date=15 May 2011}} In 1981, Rolling Stone contrasted the movement with the previous new wave era, writing that "the natty Anglo-dandies of Japan", having been "reviled in the New Wave era", seemed "made to order for the age of the clothes-conscious New Romantic bands."{{cite news|newspaper=The Tuscaloosa News|title=Rolling Stone Random Notes|last=Loder|first=Kurt|author-link=Kurt Loder|date=17 July 1981|access-date=14 February 2024|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ricdAAAAIBAJ&pg=3175,3968351&dq=japan+sylvian&hl=en|via=Google News Archive}} MTV continued its heavy rotation of videos by "post-New Wave pop" acts "with a British orientation" until 1987, when it changed to a heavy metal and rock-dominated format.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/15/arts/the-pop-life-681988.html?scp=80&sq=%22new+wave%22+music&st=nyt |title=The Pop Life |work=The New York Times |date=15 June 1988 |access-date=15 May 2011 |first=Stephen |last=Holden}}

In a December 1982 Gallup poll, 14% of teenagers rated new wave as their favorite type of music, making it the third-most-popular genre. New wave had its greatest popularity on the West Coast. Unlike other genres, race was not a factor in the popularity of new wave music, according to the poll.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QJcRAAAAIBAJ&pg=2928,4154291 |title=Rock Still Favorite Teen-Age music | newspaper=Gainesville Sun |date=13 April 1983 |access-date=15 May 2011}} Urban contemporary radio stations were the first to play dance-oriented new wave bands such as the B-52's, Culture Club, Duran Duran, and ABC.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AO4gAAAAIBAJ&pg=4293,518718 |title=Crossover: Pop Music thrives on black-white blend |publisher=Knight Ridder News Service |date=4 September 1986 |access-date=15 May 2011}}

New wave soundtracks were used in mainstream Brat Pack films such as Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and The Breakfast Club, as well as in the low-budget hit Valley Girl.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/sep/26/drama.comedy1 |title=But what does it all mean? How to decode the John Hughes high school movies |work=The Guardian |location=UK |access-date=15 May 2011 |date=26 September 2008}} John Hughes, the director of several of these films, was enthralled with British new wave music, and placed songs from acts such as the Psychedelic Furs, Simple Minds, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and Echo and the Bunnymen in his films, helping to keep new wave in the mainstream.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} Several of these songs remain standards of the era.{{cite web|last=Gora |first=Susannah |url=http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1633289/20100305/story.jhtml |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130129085617/http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1633289/20100305/story.jhtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 January 2013 |title=Why John Hughes Still Matters |work=MTV |date=7 March 2010 |access-date=15 May 2011}} Critics described the MTV acts of the period as shallow or vapid. Homophobic slurs were used to describe some of the new wave musicians.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=233}} Despite the criticism, the danceable quality of the music and the quirky fashion sense associated with new wave musicians appealed to audiences. Peter Ivers, who started his career in the late 1960s, went on to become the host for the television program New Wave Theatre that showcased rising acts in the underground new wave scene. He has been described by NTS Radio as "a virtuosic songwriter and musician whose antics bridged not just 60s counterculture and New Wave music but also film, theater, and music television."{{Cite web |last=Radio |first=N. T. S. |title=In Focus: Peter Ivers 10th March 2020 |url=https://www.nts.live/shows/in-focus/episodes/in-focus-peter-ivers-10th-march-2020 |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=NTS Radio |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=New Wave Theater : The Waitresses and The Plimsouls : 1982 Los Angeles |url=http://www.tvparty.com/homeroom1/4-07-82.html |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=Tvparty.com}}

In September 1988, Billboard launched its Modern Rock chart, the acts on which reflected a wide variety of stylistic influences. New wave's legacy remained in the large influx of acts from the UK, and acts that were popular in rock discos, as well as the chart's name, which reflects the way new wave was marketed as "modern".{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|pp=65–66}} According to Steve Graves, new wave's indie spirit was crucial to the development of college rock and grunge/alternative rock in the latter half of the 1980s and onward. Conversely, according to Robert Christgau, "in America, the original New Wave was a blip commercially, barely touching the nascent alt-rock counterculture of the '80s."Christgau, Robert (1996) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/music/recess-det.php "How to Beat the Law of Averages"], from Details, 1996.

{{See also|Post-punk revival}}

File:Franz-ferdinand-live-2006-tag.jpg

In the US, new wave continued into the mid-1980s but declined with the popularity of the New Romantic, new pop, and new music genres. Some new wave acts, particularly R.E.M., maintained new wave's indie label orientation through most of the 1980s, rejecting potentially more lucrative careers from signing to a major label. In the UK, new wave "survived through the post-punk years, but after the turn of the decade found itself overwhelmed by the more outrageous style of the New Romantics." In response, many British indie bands adopted "the kind of jangling guitar work that had typified New Wave music",{{cite web|website=ministryofrock.co.uk|title=Indie and the New Musical Express|last=Nickson|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Nickson|url=https://www.ministryofrock.co.uk/Indie.html|date=25 September 2012|access-date=13 February 2024}} with the arrival of the Smiths characterised by the music press as a "reaction against the opulence/corpulence of nouveau rich New Pop"{{cite book|first =Simon|last=Reynolds|author-link=Simon Reynolds| title =Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing About Hip Rock and Hip Hop| chapter=The Smiths: A Eulogy| date=26 September 1987|publisher=Catapult |isbn=978-1-59376-460-9 | chapter-url =https://books.google.com/books?id=H9wREAAAQBAJ&pg=PT61}} and "part of the move back to guitar-driven music after the keyboard washes of the New Romantics".{{cite web|website=ministryofrock.co.uk|title=The Smiths Were The Idols of Indie|last=Nickson|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Nickson|url=https://www.ministryofrock.co.uk/the-smiths-were-the-idols-of-indie.html|date=31 July 2010|access-date=13 February 2024}} In the aftermath of grunge, the British music press launched a campaign to promote the new wave of new wave that involved overtly punk and new-wave-influenced acts such as Elastica, but it was eclipsed by Britpop, which took influences from both 1960s rock and 1970s punk and new wave.{{cite web|website=ministryofrock.co.uk|title=The History of Britpop|last=Nickson|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Nickson|url=https://www.ministryofrock.co.uk/britpop.html|date=11 February 2015|access-date=13 February 2024}}

During the 2000s, a number of acts that exploited a diversity of new wave and post-punk influences emerged. These acts were sometimes labeled "New New Wave".{{cite web|last=Paoletta |first=Michael |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/new-wave-back-hot-new-bands-wbna6031887 |title=New wave is back – in hot new bands |publisher=Today.com |date=17 September 2004 |access-date=15 May 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/stefani_gwen/artist.jhtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051124153746/http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/stefani_gwen/artist.jhtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 November 2005 |title=Gwen Stefani MTV biography |work=Mtv |access-date=15 May 2011}} According to British music journalist Chris Nickson, Scottish band Franz Ferdinand revived both Britpop and the music of the late 1970s "with their New Wave influenced sound".{{cite web|website=ministryofrock.co.uk|title=Britpop Revival|last=Nickson|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Nickson|url=https://www.ministryofrock.co.uk/BritpopRevival.html|date=29 June 2013|access-date=13 February 2024}} AllMusic notes the emergence of these acts "led journalists and music fans to talk about a post-punk/new wave revival" while arguing it was "really more analogous to a continuum, one that could be traced back as early as the mid-'80s".[{{AllMusic|class=style|id=new-wave-post-punk-revival-ma0000012020|pure_url=yes}} New Wave/Post Punk Revival] AllMusic

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Cateforis |first=Theo |date=2011 |title=Are We Not New Wave?: Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s |url=http://www.press.umich.edu/152565/are_we_not_new_wave |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-03470-3 |access-date=4 June 2014 }}
• Coon, Caroline. 1988: the New Wave Punk Rock Explosion. London: Orbach and Chambers, 1977. {{ISBN|0-8015-6129-9}}.

• Bukszpan, Daniel. The Encyclopedia of New Wave. Sterling Publishing, 2012. {{ISBN|978-1-4027-8472-9}}
• {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ODs8IEzC4Z0C |title=Walking on the Moon: The Untold Story of the Police and the Rise of New Wave |first=Chris |last=Campion |date=7 January 2010 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=9780470627839 }}
• Majewski, Lori: Bernstein, Jonathan Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s. Abrams Image, 15 April 2014. {{ISBN|978-1-4197-1097-1}}

• [http://newwavecomplex.com/ New Wave Complex] – the original page dedicated to new wave music since 1996
• [http://last.fm/tag/new+wave/albums New wave albums] statistics and tagging at Last.FM
• [http://last.fm/tag/new+wave/tracks New wave tracks] statistics and tagging at Last.FM
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01kcq0k BBC Two - Sounds of the 70s 2, New Wave - Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick] Sounds of the 70s, Series 2, Episode 10
• [https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9098396/new-wave Encyclopædia Britannica Definition]
• {{cite news |url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/ohio-78.php |title=A Real New Wave Rolls Out of Ohio |author-link=Robert Christgau |first=Robert |last=Christgau |work=Village Voice |date=17 April 1978 }}
• {{cite news |url= https://robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pj78.php |title= New Wave Hegemony and the Bebop Question|author-link=Robert Christgau |first=Robert |last=Christgau |work=Village Voice |date=22 January 1979 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090810155314/http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1617857/story.jhtml 1997 Interview with Brat Pack Film Director John Hughes] Published MTV 7 August 2009
• [http://www.krakowpost.com/article/1849 Rock Against the Bloc] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102155357/http://www.krakowpost.com/article/1849 |date=2 November 2013 }} A look back at the punk/new wave movement in Poland by the Krakow Post, 1 February 2010
• {{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oFY1AAAAIBAJ&pg=1480,26529883 |title=Drowning In My Nostalgia |newspaper=Philippine Inquirer |date=7 September 2002 |quote=A critic looks back at her teenage fan days in the Philippines and Los Angeles }}

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