New Wave
ABC News - New Wave
Related Lessons
lesson:
Introducing New Wave
What did Punk Rock provide that opened the door for New Wave acts? And what are some among the defining attributes of New Wave?
Related People
people:
Blondie
Formed in 1974, Blondie is a pioneering American New Wave group fronted by lead singer Debbie Harry. The group was part of the fruitful New York underground scene of the 1970s, which included such bands as Television and Talking Heads, and revolved around the club CBGB. Blondie's first two major-label releases charted in Australia and the United Kingdom, but it was their third record, "Parallel Lines," that charted the band in the United States and became New Wave's big Pop breakthrough. Rolling Stone called the album "a perfect synthesis of raw punk edge, Sixties-pop smarts and downtown-New York glamour." During the late 70s and...
people:
The Clash
The Clash were part of the original wave of Punk bands that emerged in Britain during the mid 1970s; their first performance was opening for the Sex Pistols in 1976. But they soon moved past the stylistic limitations of Punk, demonstrating a depth of talent and musical ambition that peaked on 1979’s London Calling, a double LP that’s been hailed as a masterpiece. Formed in London, the band – singer Joe Strummer, guitarist Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simenon and drummer Terry Chimes (soon replaced by Topper Headon) – released its first single, the stomping “White Riot” in March 1977. A month...
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Sex Pistols
While they may not have invented the genre, the Sex Pistols emerged in the late 1970s as the very face of Punk Rock. Forming in the midst of a harsh economic recession in Britain – and a musical landscape dominated by Prog, Disco and staged arena Rock — the Pistols were brash, crude, and gleefully provocative, spitting into the face of the British cultural establishment with a howled message of political anarchy and anti-authoritarianism. They were around for only two years and recorded only a single record, but their influence was vast in both the U.S. and the U.K....
people:
Devo
One of the most iconoclastic acts to emerge from the American New Wave movement in the late 70s, Devo’s long and productive lifespan belies the assumptions of those who dismissed the group as a novelty act during its original heyday. Along the way, the Ohio-bred Art-Punk sci-fi surrealists managed to break into America's mainstream pop consciousness. Although they've shifted styles numerous times, from jagged Punk to bouncy Synth Pop to ironic Easy Listening and back again, Devo has remained true to its conceptual origins, while maintaining the playful sense of subversion with which it started. Devo's central concept of "devolution"...
people:
Patti Smith
(b. 1946) Pioneering Punk poet Patti Smith is one the most influential female artists in Rock history, known not only for being an uncompromising iconoclast at a time when few women in Rock fit that description, but also for maintaining a literate, intellectually curious sensibility that was relatively unusual in the Punk milieu in which she first gained public attention. While growing up in New Jersey, the teenaged Smith found inspiration and solace in the writing of Arthur Rimbaud and the Beats, and in the music of Bob Dylan, James Brown and the Rolling Stones. After moving to New York City...
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Ramones
The Ramones are generally acknowledged as the band that launched the Punk movement. Stripping guitar-driven Rock down to its most basic elements, the four misfits from Forest Hills, Queens, offered an anti-star stance and an anybody-can-do-this message that helped change Rock from an arena-bound spectator sport into a participatory activity, opening the door for countless Punk, New Wave, Hardcore and Indie-Rock combos to follow. Armed with three chords and four leather jackets, the Ramones – guitarist Johnny, bassist Dee Dee, drummer Tommy and frontman Joey, all of whom adopted the last name Ramone — played short, loud, manic-tempoed tunes, hammered...
people:
Talking Heads
Probably the most self-consciously arty of the 1976 school of bands to rise from New York's Punk scene, Talking Heads managed to achieve considerable commercial success with music that grew more ambitious and challenging through the band's dozen-year recording career, ranging from tightly wound minimalism to expansive Funk to polyrhythmic Worldbeat to catchy Pop-Rock. Much of Talking Heads' distinctive sensibility was forged at the Rhode Island School of Design in the early 70s, where singer/guitarist David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth met as students. The trio subsequently landed in New York in time to become a part...