Another New Wave or Not New Wave survey

[SwampThing]

Back in the day, these artists were played on my local new wave radio stations. So in my mind, there is little doubt.

But for some of those who may have discovered New Wave after it was essentially over, I think there is a some doubt on whether these artists deserve the New Wave tag.

If you have soemthing to say, say it!!!

Elvis Costello?

Joe Jackson?

Graham Parker?

Nick Lowe?

Marshall Crenshaw?

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[fanciz]

Hey Swampie, U are so funny! So according to you, any artist played on your station was automatically a new wave artist eheheheheh The fact is that New Wave is a world-wide phenomenon and considering that the bulk of new wave bands came from the UK, Australia, Germany etc, it is of no interest for new wavers to know that some bands were played on American stations or not. Those stations have never been a reference since most new wave bands didn't make it to the US in the first place. Going back to your question, I don't think that those artists deserve the New Wave tag. There used to be a debate as to whether Elvis Costello was punk or New Wave but personally I always thought that he was more punk than anything else. To be fair, I would say that some local new wave stations played Pump It Up and Veronica and a few songs of Joe Jackson like Steppin'Out and Breaking Us In Two, but they appeared in the playlists as guest artists rather than new wave artists.

http://de.music.yahoo.com/launchcast/st ... 1249492395

[SwampThing]

[quote][i]Originally posted by fanciz[/i]
<br>Hey Swampie, U are so funny! So according to you, any artist played on your station was automatically a new wave artist eheheheheh [/quote] No, not necessarily. When these bands came through town to play live, they were promoted as such, as well as at local record stores. Also, wikipedia and allmusic give them credit as New Wave. Thanks for your opinion. I'm interested in hearing what others think.

I'd agree that the UK had the best crop of New Wave. Australia and Germany, eh, the states probably equaled their output.


[quote] most new wave bands didn't make it to the US in the first place[/quote] well if you spent most your time in import record shops back in the day, you were fully exposed to everything (good) europe had to offer.

[SwampThing]

[quote]To be fair, I would say that some local new wave stations played Pump It Up and Veronica[/quote] Really, that's all they played? I guess he was bigger in America, I pretty much heard everything off his greatest hits at one time or another. Your right about Joe jackson though, only remember a few songs from him.

I'm really interested in other opinions because I fully realize that mine might just be in the minority.

[eight6]

[quote][i]Originally posted by fanciz[/i]
<br>Hey Swampie, U are so funny! So according to you, any artist played on your station was automatically a new wave artist eheheheheh The fact is that New Wave is a world-wide phenomenon and considering that the bulk of new wave bands came from the UK, Australia, Germany etc, it is of no interest for new wavers to know that some bands were played on American stations or not. Those stations have never been a reference since most new wave bands didn't make it to the US in the first place. Going back to your question, I don't think that those artists deserve the New Wave tag. There used to be a debate as to whether Elvis Costello was punk or New Wave but personally I always thought that he was more punk than anything else. To be fair, I would say that some local new wave stations played Pump It Up and Veronica and a few songs of Joe Jackson like Steppin'Out and Breaking Us In Two, but they appeared in the playlists as guest artists rather than new wave artists.

http://de.music.yahoo.com/launchcast/st ... 1249492395
[/quote]

LOL!!! Swampthing could only hope to be as funny as you are! What a perfectly crafted turd you've posted. [i]"The fact is that New Wave is a world-wide phenomenon and considering that the bulk of new wave bands came from the UK, Australia, Germany etc, it is of no interest for new wavers to know that some bands were played on American stations or not."[/i]...if you're not French by birth, you deserve citizenship: the arrogance of this statement is worthy of a Frenchman.

Again, LOL!!!

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v647/dbince/eight.gif"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v647/dbince/number6.gif">

I was smellin' alright, and lookin' alright.

[suttonrecords]

And Elvis Costello was played when I was gone already. I didn't hear his stuff until I returned to the U.S. in 1987. Costello simply didn't sound New Wave played alongside the likes of Clan of Xymox, Echo & the Bunnymen, and Care. However, I do love "Alison," and I don't question Costello's pioneering role with both punk and New Wave. His music just seems relatively "normal" compared to the deeper U.K. sounds that we grew up on.

[quote][i]Originally posted by SwampThing[/i]
<br>[quote]To be fair, I would say that some local new wave stations played Pump It Up and Veronica[/quote] Really, that's all they played? I guess he was bigger in America, I pretty much heard everything off his greatest hits at one time or another. Your right about Joe jackson though, only remember a few songs from him.

I'm really interested in other opinions because I fully realize that mine might just be in the minority.


[/quote]

Michael Sutton
CEO/Sutton Records
http://www.suttonrecords.com

[British]

[quote]Originally posted by SwampThing
[br]
Elvis Costello?

Joe Jackson?

Graham Parker?

Nick Lowe?

Marshall Crenshaw?

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[/quote]

I think this list is a fine example of what is *not* new wave. It also doesn't fit "postpunk" either. But then again, postpunk seems to be a vague label moreso indicitave of a time period.

[SwampThing]

[quote]And Elvis Costello was played when I was gone already. I didn't hear his stuff until I returned to the U.S. in 1987. [/quote] When did you leave the states? They played him on the radio here for as long as I can remember.

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[SwampThing]

[quote]But then again, postpunk seems to be a vague label moreso indicitave of a time period.[/quote] LOL!

Any of the following attributes could get you the New Wave/Post Punk label back in the day. Deserving or not.

- Sound
- Look
- How the artist self identified (They usually hate doing this)
- How the record label promoted artist
- How the radio stations promoted artist
- How the record stores promoted artist
- Time & Place (Year, what clubs you played, what bands you played with, local music scene assocated with)
- Fanbase (Is your audience primarly fans of new Wave music)

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[eight6]

[quote][i]Originally posted by SwampThing[/i]
<br>[quote]But then again, postpunk seems to be a vague label moreso indicitave of a time period.[/quote] LOL!

Any of the following attributes could get you the New Wave/Post Punk label back in the day. Deserving or not.

- Sound
- Look
- How the artist self identified (They usually hate doing this)
- How the record label promoted artist
- How the radio stations promoted artist
- How the record stores promoted artist
- Time & Place (Year, what clubs you played, what bands you played with, local music scene assocated with)
- Fanbase (Is your audience primarly fans of new Wave music)

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[/quote]

Which is why fanciz and his continual attempts to impress us with his musical categorization skills is full of shit.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v647/dbince/eight.gif"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v647/dbince/number6.gif">

I was smellin' alright, and lookin' alright.

[fanciz]

[quote][i]Originally posted by SwampThing[/i]
Any of the following attributes could get you the New Wave/Post Punk label back in the day. Deserving or not.

- Sound
- Look
- How the artist self identified (They usually hate doing this)
- How the record label promoted artist
- How the radio stations promoted artist
- How the record stores promoted artist
- Time & Place (Year, what clubs you played, what bands you played with, local music scene assocated with)
- Fanbase (Is your audience primarly fans of new Wave music)

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[/quote]

You are probably right citing those contributing factors but the Sound should not come first since those guys didn't sound new wave. I guess they benefited from the trend to gain popularity, just to shed their new wave clothes as soon as NW started to fade out. Nick Lowe ended up singing country, Elvis Costello doing some Bacharach, I would rather tag them as survivors.

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[Randall Roq]

Clearly people responding here are confusing what New Wave was compared to what it became.

Back in the day (the late 70's) Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson would easily qualify as New Wave. But to many folks nowadays New Wave has come to mean synths, electronics and day glo. That didn't come into the scene till much later (Early 80's).

The turning point was Human League, they were the first big mainstream breakout. So you have to look at Pre-Human League and Post-Human League New Wave and these guys were part of the Pre years.

[fanciz]

I suppose that in the 70's many bands were called new wave just because they had a different sound but with the introduction of synth based bands and later guitar based bands, New Wave has redefined its boundaries excluding therefore the so called new wave bands of the early years.

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[beatschool]

I have a pretty narrow personal definition of what qualifies as New Wave, but I would definitely include late 70s/early 80s Crenshaw, Costello, Lowe, etc. simply because my group of friends listened to them. Any bands that I define as strictly New Wave faded to obscurity/went underground/folded when New Wave radio stations began disappearing and there wasn't really a wave to speak of anymore.

Who was the dingbat that kept claiming that Kylie Minogue was New Wave because she had been produced by Stock/Aitken/Waterman? That dude really had no clue about New Wave.

[ekahob]

Yes! Another argument what is new wave! I missed the last forty so I'll chime in here.

Better yet, let Claude Bessey tell it: [i]"I have excellent news for the world. There's no such thing as New Wave. It does not exist. It's a figment of lame kinds of imagination. There was never any such thing as New Wave. It was the polite thing to say when you were trying to explain you were not into the boring old rock 'n roll but you didn't dare to say punk because you were afraid to get kicked out of the party and they wouldn't give you coke any more. There's New Music, there's New Underground Sound, there's Noise, there's Punk, there's Power Pop, there's Ska, there's Rockabilly, but New Wave doesn't mean shit."[/i]

Claude Bessey, from the film The Decline of Western Civilization
Hear him here: http://lostbands.blogspot.com/2004/09/n ... -shit.html

Better yet, how's this?

[i]"Sire president Seymour Stein found the answer and broadcast it in a salvo of WB press releases and trade-paper ads, all of them featuring Bugs Bunny in a leather jacket and headlined, "Don't call it punk. Call it New Wave."

Condescending? Maybe, and definitely diluting. But at the time, the punk-inspired artists (and even some bands that considered themselves punk) embraced the label. But there was an understood difference--the punks were bracing and angry; the new-wavers were quirky and mroe accessible. Even when lines were drawn, however, the boundaries weren't always simple: writer John Dougan makes an example of the American side of the industry:

In the Bowery scene, bands like the Ramones and Richard Hell and the Voidoids were "punk," but Blondie and Talking Heads were "new wave." Similarly, in the burgeoning underground scenes across America, new wave could describe bands as far afield as the Cars, the Motels, the Go Go's, Pere Ubu, Jonathan Richman, the B-52s, R.E.M., Devo...


(In England things were even less clear: Elvis Costello and The Buzzcocks were liable to be both punk AND new wave, depending on who you asked and when!)

What tied the two together was D.I.Y. If those three letters meant being disaffected, after all, they also meant being independent and unabashedly yourself. Even being progressive was okay, if you were progressing from within the D.I.Y. aesthetic. "New Wave" may have been a safe marketing term, but the message it brought was still radical: the changing tide, the coming of a completely different approach."[/i]

http://musical-guru.blogspot.com/2005/0 ... ter-4.html

Let's face it the label New Wave has been blurred and diluted. If you think the bands listed are new wave, fine. If you don't, fine. Do you like the bands? Great! Enjoy them no matter what label anybody tries to put on them.