What Is New Wave? A Genre Profile

Like Punk, New Wave emerged with full force in 1977. Although the style's popularity had waned considerably by the mid-1980s, New Wave has influenced many bands and genres since. In the beginning, the term was applied mostly to Rock bands playing stripped-down Pop music. These groups melded the simple structures of 1960s British Invasion and Motown music with Art Rock influence of Roxy Music and David Bowie. By the early 1980s, synthesizers had become a key component of the New Wave sound. Talking Heads, Blondie, The Police, and Elvis Costello were the genre's pioneers.

The origins of New Wave can be traced to CBGB, a club in the Bowery area of Manhattan. Here, seminal New Wave acts like Blondie and Talking Heads built their reputations. Blondie released their self-titled debut in 1976. The next year, Talking Heads followed with 77. Sire Records label head Seymour Stein dubbed this music style New Wave. The tag was quickly adopted and applied to new groups who wrote pop music, but who approached it as an art form. Elvis Costello also emerged in 1977 with his first full-length. 1978 saw the debuts of two important New Wave bands, British trio The Police and Boston's The Cars.

By 1979, New Wave had established itself as a viable mainstream pop genre. Blondie's third album, Parallel Lines, was a Top 10 hit. The Police's Regatta De Blanc went number one in the UK, and The Cars hit the Billboard Top Five with their sophomore album, Candy-O. While most New Wave bands to this point relied on standard rock instrumentation, a new crop of acts emerged with a much greater emphasis on synthesizers and drum machines. Now termed Synth Pop, this style was originally a sub-genre of New Wave. Early innovator Gary Numan had a number one UK hit with "Cars."

In the early 80s, additional genres closely associated with New Wave became popular. From the ashes of punk came post-punk, a dark-toned aspect of New Wave brought about by Joy Division and Public Image, Ltd. Forming another subgenre were the New Romantics. Led by Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran, these groups melded guitars and synthesizers and placed a great importance on fashion and imagery. These concerns would prove important to New Wave when, in 1981, the network MTV was born. Originally dedicated to airing music videos, MTV increased the popularity of New Wave by favoring that genre in its programming.

Between '80-'83, a vast number of New Wave bands had sprouted and the style's sounds saturated the market; not only on MTV but on radio as well. The Police's final album, 1983's Synchronicity, reached #1 in both the US and the UK. All of Duran Duran's first three LPs hit the Top 10. Talking Heads' Speaking In Tongues was their fourth straight album to reach the Top 40. Also in 1983, Elvis Costello charted his first US Top 40 single with "Everyday I Write The Book" and his seventh Top 40 LP. Blondie disbanded in 1982, but the group left behind a string of successful and enduring releases.

1984 was the last hurrah for the original generation of New Wave. The Police disbanded, Elvis Costello issued the lackluster Goodbye Cruel World, and Duran Duran released an unimpressive live album, Arena, before going on hiatus. There were bright spots in New Wave that year, however. The Cars released the highly successful Heartbeat City, which spawned five Billboard Top 40 songs, and Frankie Goes To Hollywood's epic New Wave debut, Welcome To The Pleasuredome, hit number one in the UK, as did three of its singles. The genre as a whole, though, had lost its popularity.

The spirit of New Wave lived on, however. In Synth Pop bands like Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode and synth-heavy College Rock bands like The Cure and New Order. Also, by the early 1990s, consumers had grown nostalgic for New Wave, as evidenced by the 15 discs in the Just Can't Get Enough series of compilations. In the mid-2000s, New Wave shone as a clear influence in the sound of many new alternative bands, including Franz Ferdinand, The Bravery, and The Killers. Through these groups, the sounds pioneered by New Wave have become relevant in alternative rock once again -- thirty years after the genre was born.

Talking Heads
Blondie
Elvis Costello
The Police
The Cars

Depeche Mode
The Cure
Pet Shop Boys
New Order

The Killers
Franz Ferdinand
Elvis Costello
Interpol
The Faint