SAE Ljubljana

The NEW WAVE

Music Movement (1976-1985)

TATJANA TASIC STUDENT NO. 10425

BAP 1113

29 November 2013

Word Count: 3226

 

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that I wrote this written assignment / essay / thesis on my own and

without the use of any other than the cited sources and tools and all explanations that I

copied directly or in their sense are marked as such, as well as that the dissertation

has

not yet been handed in neither in this nor in equal form at any other official

commission.

……………………………………………….

Date, Place, Signature

 

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ABSTRACT: This analytical essay looks into the birth of New wave Movement; how it came

to be, what made it a movement, what influenced the people that made it and

what has influence has the movement had on people, reversely. It was a

decade of the most diverse musical combinations, incorporating both electronic

and punk-rock elements. New wave music movement captures the creative

spirit of people desperate for a change in world of music.

 

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TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION 1 DEFINITION OF NEW WAVE 1 BIRTH OF NEW WAVE MOVEMENT 2

• BRITAIN IN MID 1970’S 2

• MARRIAGE OF PUNK AND SYNTHESIZERS 2

• NEW ROMANTICS 5

• AMERICA’S SECOND BRITISH INVASION 7

• IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC TELEVISION 8 MUSIC OF THE NEW WAVE 9 LOOK OF THE NEW WAVE 9 DISAPPEARANCE OF NEW WAVE 12

INFLUENCE OF NEW WAVE MUSIC TODAY 12 CONCLUSION 13 REFERENCE 14 BIBLIOGRAPHY 14

 

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INTRODUCTION New Wave is a very ambiguous music genre in a sense that it covers a wide

variety of musical styles, which fall under the same name. It stemmed in the late

1970’s as an effect of political and social situation in Britain, which brought

about the arrival of punk scene and futuristic synthesized music. It quickly

caught on to America’s audience, and eventually worldwide. The new wave

movement encompasses the certain sound, the fashion, the media, the state of

mind, the way of life and view at the world through music and its followers. It is

the first time in history of popular music that musical genres freed themselves

from the shackles of genre conformity and began experimenting with mixing

and hybridising musical styles, not extraneous to simultaneous hybridisation of

different life styles. It has changed the direction of music forever, opening many

new doors for creative expression.

DEFINITION OF NEW WAVE The term New Wave has been used historically in the creative industry to define

a turning point in certain artistic style. Being film, visual arts, or music, it is an

expression of fresh take on something already standardized. For example, the

Nouvelle Vague in France, in the 1950’s was a pivotal change in French

cinematography, initiated by young filmmakers, who were frustrated at the

stagnant form in which the films were made.

In same respect New Wave in music took a meaning of change, a fresh

perspective and experimentation of already known forms of music. Instead of

meaning something completely different, it rather represents a different take on

something already in the arts, which has become stale.

 

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BIRTH OF NEW WAVE MOVEMENT BRITAIN IN THE MID 1970’s It was a gloomy time for Britain. The country still experienced the aftermath of

the World War II, an oil crisis due to the Arab oil embargo, the banking crisis

pushed prices of property like never before, and a the rise of the National Front

was slowly creeping up.

As the decade was coming to its end, and Margaret Thatcher (as a leader of

Conservative Party) to power, old Victorian buildings were being pulled apart

and new “modern” skyscrapers were beginning to appear.

MARRIAGE OF PUNK AND SYNTHS

There were two musical worlds being discovered and cultivated during these

dire and transformative times. One group of people decided to deal with

oppression of growing capitalism through expressing their anger at the

government and “the establishment”.

The other group found interest and fascination with concepts of futurism;

through avant-garde movies such as The Clockwork Orange by Stanley

Kubrick, TV show Doctor Who. The reason why it became relevant in this

period is because of the music behind it. Delia Derbyshire was the mastermind

behind Doctor Who’s theme, in the mid 1960’s. Walter Carlos composed

orchestrated synthesizer sounds for Kubrick’s movie. Adding the arrival of

German electronic band Kraftwerk in 1975 (with their purely synthesizer-based

productions and live performances) to this era inspired a lot of people to explore

musical directions and possibilities with these new synthesizer machines.

Luckily, they become cheaper and more accessible towards the end of 1970’s.

Bands such as The Human League and Cabaret Voltaire were one of the first

groups to gain local fame. Along came Orchestrated Manoeuvres in the Dark

(OMD) with powerful political messages in their music (“Enola Gay” was written

as an anti-war song for bombing of Hiroshima). Gary Newman made a

significant turning of heads as he released “Are Friends Electric” in 1979.

Fuelled with driving synth sounds and his robotic voice and moves (which could

 

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be seen on live shows such as Top Of The Pops) people were fascinated and

intrigued. It was something new. Futuristic.

While the discovery of new space-age sounds encompassed one part of the

British youth, the former individuals rebelling against authority were starting a

musical movement of their own. Punk.

The drive behind it was to share the message to other youngsters not to listen

to authority, not to be manipulated by the “establishment”, not to conform and

that anarchy is the only was forward to fight class system, capitalism and the

Monarchy. The band that created history in this rebellious movement is Sex

Pistols. Although there were a lot of others (Sham 69, The Clash, Buzzcocks,

Siouxsie and The Banshees, etc.) the Pistols were the most provocative, and

appeared on the newspaper headlines regularly, due to indecent public

behaviour. (1)

Fig. 1 (http://editdesk.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/memorable-headline-filth-fury/ )

Example of Sex Pistols’ lyrics:

“God save the queen The fascist regime

They made you a moron Potential H-bomb

God save the queen

She ain't no human being There is no future

In England's dreaming”

 

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This posed a large threat to political leaders, having young generations turning

against every message that the nation is trying to get across to them. The Sex

Pistols only lasted a couple of years (1975-1977), and in that time became one

of the biggest bands. They gained huge commercial success in Britain, Europe

and America with their one studio album “Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The

Sex Pistols”.

This success followed a stir around the hypocrisy of their success; whilst

fighting popular image and establishment, they rose to be one of the biggest

bands in popular music. However, was this inevitable or not, is something I will

discuss further on.

In a very extraordinary way, these two types of lifestyle, or music preferences

(synth-pop and punk) somehow found each other to create a new wave of

music direction and culture. It was not by accident. They both needed each

other, with a little touch of other musical influences as well (disco, mod, 50’s,

experimental) to fulfil what either of them were missing.

The synth sounds and its robotic mannerism behind it began to gain criticism for

having lack of musicianship and skill. It was not to be taken serious nor

recognised as “music”. Across the spectrum to the other end, punk scene was

dying off. The music became repetitive and too simple. It was mostly made up

of 3 chords on a guitar, a relentless drummer and a vocalist shouting, rather

than singing the lyrics. There was even a sarcastic reference to simplicity of

punk bands made in a music magazine Sideburns in 1976 about forming a

band with only three chords (2): Fig.2 http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/may/24/data-journalism-punk#zoomed-

picture

 

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The audience was also getting quite tired of all the yelling and complaining of

punks. The one thing that both sides shared, was not having the desire to go

Pop and write commercial music that was predictable and with not much

meaningful content.

So, they borrowed inspiration from each other. The punks wanted to have

something substantial to say and add musical depth to their noise, whilst the

synth lovers learnt from the punks that it is fine to play an instrument in its

simpler form, rather than having to gain years of skill to be accepted. The

Progressive Rock keyboard virtuosos of bands such as Emerson, Lake and

Palmer and Yes in the early 1970’s were a good reason why to be

apprehensive to play an instrument without great knowledge.

With both sides having desire for creativity, depth, experimentation and

environmental song writing (topics dealing with the world around them, whether

it is social, behavioural, emotional, philosophical) the spectrum of musical

directions exploded. Rather than being a creation of a particular genre, this

whole movement became known as The New Wave Movement.

Bands such as The Clash and Siouxsie and The Banshees survived the punk

death, because they started making more conceptual songs with a story, and a

melody (for example: “Rock The Casbah” – by The Clash, or “Israel” – by

Siouxsie and The Banshees).

THE NEW ROMANTICS

Towards the end of 1979, a club called The Blitz in Covent Garden, London,

became the hangout place for bored post-punk youth. Different young bands

started performing and meeting there. Groups such as Spandau Ballet, Duran

Duran, Visage, Ultravox and Culture Club, became regulars and part of a group

movement called the New Romantics. The name came from a style, which the

members (both male and female) adopted by wearing the most eccentric,

flamboyant outfits, make-up and hairdo’s (5,6,7). Many of the members

resembled a look of the age of romanticism. The best way to describe New

Romantics is as supporters of a new wave movement. In a similar way for

 

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example a football club would have a following. They identified themselves in

that music scene through eccentric style and fashion. Fig.5 http://miista.com/fashion-backward-new-romanticism/

The Blitz Kids Fig.6 http://thebeautifultimes.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/make-up-andogynity-and-the-new-romance/

Steve Strange (Visage), Adam Ant, Boy George (Culture Club) – all performed at the Blitz Fig.7 http://littlevioletribbon.blogspot.com/2012/11/new-romantic-influences-music.html

Duran Duran have become the symbol of the New Romantics

 

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The music played was performed by bands on instruments as in rock band

(guitar, bass, drum, etc.) however with inclusion of synthesisers, strong beats

and usually impressive vocal ability delivered by a singer. What was also a very

important factor was stage presence and actual performance, enhanced

through fashion and make-up but also by dance moves. This is what made the

bands such as Culture Club, Spandau Ballet, Japan and Duran Duran really

stand out.

AMERICA’S SECOND BRITISH INVASION

So far the story of New Wave has been based in Britain. However, New Wave

was a movement that spread over Oceans to other continents. It really caught

on in Japan, Ex-Yugoslavia and Australia. When the message spread to the

United States, the American’s called it the Second British Invasion (the first

being Beatlemania and Rolling Stones).

America did not deal much with straight forward punk. There was no such

oppression happening in America at that time, and the young generations had a

fairly stable life. Americans were very aware of the punk scene in Britain

through TV and press, and were not too captivated by it. It makes sense. Punk

was a reaction to the environment.

There were many rock bands in the U.S. that may have resembled punk in

terms of song tempo and image, but not as intense and monotonous.

Nevertheless, it appeared that Americans were also getting tired of the punk-

rock scene, and were ready to experiment. America embraced the New Wave

attitude and meaning and started forming very successful bands such as The

Talking Heads, The Cars, Blondie, Missing Persons. All of these bands have

previously been in experimental bands or punk-rock bands. The record labels

started labelling them New Wave, as anything associated with punk or punk-

rock was criticised as negative and would not sell.

New Wave bands from UK gained a massive following; biggest one since

Beatles and the Stones took America by storm in the 1960’s.

 

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IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC TELEVISION

In 1981 something wonderful happened. Sound and picture merged together to

form a visual experience of popular music. When the first video was released by

Buggles (New Wave band consisting of Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes) it

carried a message in the title “Video Killed The Radio Star”. The reality could

not be further from the truth in the decade of 1980’s. Up until now, the audience

could see the artists if they appeared in Top Of The Pops (UK) or any show

where they could perform live in the studio. MTV was a channel where music

videos were played! A band that made most out of this, increased popularity of

the channel and in same way catapulted their music into stardom were Duran

Duran. They saw an opportunity in being creative outside the music studio. With

their great looks and fantastic sense for fashion promoting New Romanticism,

they started making concept videos. Capitol Records from Britain promoted

them as New Romantic band, but this did not mean much to the American

market. However, after releasing music videos such as “Girls On Film”, with

explicit sexual content (the video had to be edited my MTV to be aired!) and

sensual “Hungry Like the Wolf”, their career skyrocketed. Duran Duran

remained involved with any MTV collaboration during their huge success in first

have of 1980’s. As the original Music Television VJ (video jockey) puts it, the

collaboration between Duran Duran and MTV was a "a confluence of fate and

meeting each other at the right time”, and that even though “everyone says

‘MTV made Duran Duran’, Duran Duran made MTV, too”. (K. Duran, 2013

http://www.examiner.com/article/duran-duran-s-iconic-moments-from-mtv-s-32-

years ). K. Duran, writer for the ‘www.examiner.com’ also adds “ "Girls On Film,"

directed by Godley & Crème, was banned by MTV in 1981. The move only

fueled the success of the band's third single, as well as the racy clip's place in

music video lore…”Hungry Like the Wolf," along with "Rio," helped change the

face of music television in 1982-83”.

(K. Duran, 2013 http://www.examiner.com/article/duran-duran-s-iconic-

moments-from-mtv-s-32-years )

The music television and Duran Duran’s creative approach paved the way for

many other music artists to gain recognition and image connection worldwide.

 

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MUSIC OF THE NEW WAVE

As New Wave is such a catch-all term for music in this period, many different

music style combinations were a part of it. From the all-synthesiser groups such

as The Human League, Depeche Mode or Soft Cell, to instrumental bands with

history in rock or punk like The Cure, Joy Division, The Police, they all played

equal part in new wave era. The Police were the first band to merge genres

such as ska, reggae, punk and melodic rock into one. Roxy Music were very

influence by disco and funk.

Some bands such as Cabaret Voltaire or Depeche Mode adopted a more

darker and sinister sound to them, while band Japan kept their music very “arty”

and experimental, with tracks that sometimes lasted as long as 7 minutes.

U.S. bands such as the B52’s related to rockabilly music style (“Love Shack”,

“Private Idaho”), and Blondie, with past in punk-rock sound, played around with

influences of pop music from the early 1960’s (“One way or Another”) as did the

Knacks with the big hit “My Sharona”.

LOOK OF THE NEW WAVE David Bowie was one of the first artists to really delve into the visual aspect of

music industry, in early 1970’s. Bowie was determined to make it big and felt

something was missing behind his performance. Being involved shortly in

Japanese mime theatre, it inspired him to incorporate its influence into his work.

He shaved his eyebrows, started wearing colourful make up and dressing up in

striking outfits. Bowie even adopted a futuristic looking persona named Ziggy

Stardust, which would follow this concept (8).

 

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Fig.8 ( http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/ziggy-stardust/images/29010167/title/ziggy-photo )

Just like Bowie, most artists of the new wave period worked on their image to

back up their music. New wave movement, as seen in the New Romanticism,

explored the liberation of sexual expression. It was a gender-bending era. Men

dressed like women, and women dressed like men (9,10,11)

Fig.9 Culture Club ( http://rockonvinyl.blogspot.com/2013/01/culture-club-live-in-sydney-1984-bootleg.html )

 

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Fig.10 Japan (http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/25200000/Japan-japan-band-25249108-500-387.jpg )

Fig.11 Eurythmics http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/40108415/Eurythmics++473++476+PNG.png

 

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DISAPPEARANCE OF NEW WAVE As the 1980’s came to and end, so did the interest of New Wave era. Rock

bands criticised New Wave bands for lack of talent and using their image and

videos to sell music. As new wave music became popular music, it again

caused a stir as its punk predecessors. Once an explorative direction of music

becomes popular, it ceases to bear its meaning because it is not pushing

boundaries or being innovative any more.

The rise of grunge scene in the U.S. (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains) and

rebirth of mod rock in Britain (Oasis, Blur) both behaving like a more grown up

older brother of experimental new wave, saw the 80’s as a frivolous and even

ridiculous decade, in regards to image, style and music arrangements. As the

decade entered its second half, much of the new wave music began to sound

quite similar, and steering towards pop sound. Perhaps the capitalistic business

of record labels and introduction of A&R approach to music industry destroyed

the essence of New Wave movement. Whatever the reason, its original

diversity somehow began to mould into one unclear “genre”. Many would call it

80’s music, which does not say very much at all as that decade had many

genres (disco, funk, rock, glam rock, italo disco, glam metal, etc.)

Many New Wave bands have survived into the next decade and some have

continued to this day (Depeche Mode, Duran Duran). Others are making re-

appearances with great reception (Spandau Ballet, Simple Minds, Gary Numan,

Kajagoogoo…). Needless to say, New Wave has never really vanished, but

diminished in importance.

INFLUENCE OF NEW WAVE MUSIC TODAY

Although it has been hard to pick point something being New Nave in modern

terms (as it was the movement of that specific time respectively) there are

modern bands that capture the mood of the early 1980’s New Wave. Popular

ones such as Goldfrapp, The Yea Yeah Yeahs and La Roux could relate to the

synth driven bands such as Ultravox and The Human League. The more punk-

rock sounds of New Wave are recognised in bands such as Killers, The Strokes

and Franz Ferdinand. And just as at the time of New Wave movement (1976-

 

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1985) the former adopted the futuristic image to go with it, whilst the latter

remained more street-wise in style.

CONCLUSION The story of New Wave music movement is one of ebbs and flows. As

mentioned earlier with punk, music directions seem to last for a certain time

until they, by some natural direction, divert or metamoprhosise into something

else. The most influential music artists and moves came from necessity to

create something new and challenging. But what happens after it is achieved?

One must keep reinventing itself. As written in previous paragraph, some bands

have managed to do this. It does not mean they are new artists anymore. That

labels goes with that era.

There does not have to be anything bad about music genres and movements

changing shapes into something else new. Maybe it is an inevitable progress in

order to keep music reinventing itself.

Rock in the late 50’s was a revolutionary step in popular culture. In the 60’s

bands like Beach Boys and The Beatles delivered a boy band concept to the

stage and made heads spin. Shift from 60’s into the following decade was also

experimental; musicians pushing the boundaries of rock music, experimenting

with hallucinogenics and writing about political problems and social struggles

facing the Vietnam War. Then came the beginning of New Wave. And so on.

Music that has made significance in history has always been connected to and

reflective of the state of society and the world at the time. Once the message

has been said, the attitude shown, comes a flow. Its up to the next generation to

respond to this with something altogether new. As Paul Weller (frontman of the

New Wave band The Jam) puts it wisely in an interview with John Snyder back

in 1977: “That’s the artistic way of looking at things. There’s got to be someone

there to take your place. Otherwise things get stale, which is what happened in

the last 7 years.”

Paul adds that as opposed to being oppressed he will become the oppressor

and says “It’s good. That’s healthy. It means that in ten years time, or whatever,

some 8 year old kid is gonna pick up the guitar and say ‘I don’t like The Jam,

they’re establishment!’ and will go and do his own thing.”

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKndWE09jQk)

 

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Reference: • Duran, K. August 2013 “Duran Duran's iconic moments from MTV's 32 years”

[online] Available at: http://www.examiner.com/article/duran-duran-s-iconic-moments-from-mtv-s-32-years (accessed 18.12.2013)

• Paul Weller, 1977 “Into to Tomorrow with Tom Snyder” [online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKndWE09jQk (accessed 12.12.2013)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: • BBC Four, 2012 “Punk Britannia” [online]

Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf-yvJKG608 (accessed on: 13.12.2013)

• BBC Four, 2009 “Synth Britannia” [online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Wjc6QYuKI (accessed on: 13.12.2013)

• Cateforis, T. 2011 “Are We Not New Wave: Modern Pop at the turn of the 1980s” University of Michigan Press, Published in the United States of America

• Johnson, D. 2009 The Observer “Spandau Ballet, the Blitz kids and the birth of the New Romantics” [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/oct/04/spandau-ballet-new-romantics (accessed on: 18.12.2013)