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New Wave

ByMargot

 

New Wave On Music 101

This edition of Music 101 explores the New Wave genre of the late 1970’s through its MTV heyday.

New Wave is in many ways a reaction to AND against the punk rock craze of the 70s. It also, not too coincidentally, imbued the spirit of disco, and incorporated the early elements of what we would call electronica today. 

In reality, New Wave owes its early influence to forbears like The Velvet Underground, who famously spawned thousands of bands by merging away from the popular trends of the “Flower Power” era. Those bands were always attracted to the new, to a kind of avant-everything, more interested in the subterfuge than the fusion, as it were. 

In several ways, New Wave is the progenitor to indie rock at large, glossing over the walls it was ripping down with heavy synths and a healthy dose of wry lyricism for its keenly attentive listening audience. 

Today, its influence has been so game-changing that it wouldn’t be a stretch to parlay a certain message to New Wave’s descendants – power pop, post punk, synth pop, and The New Wave of New Wave.
 
For that, let’s take a quote from a very New Wave-y song out The Who’s catalog. For all the new New Wave we hear today, one might say: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”