Rooster_Ties Posted October 4, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2003 A 70's artist that literally reacted to "New Wave" music (in 1983)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neveronfriday Posted December 4, 2003 Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 For instance, I suddenly have the urge to pick up Yes's "90125" from 1983 [...] I don't really know why, although I suspect it is because of the guitar work, but that album has always been one of my favorite ones ... it just grows on you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Posted December 4, 2003 Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 (edited) For me, the only good stuff in the 80s was the punk/new wave stuff that came out in the first half of the decade. If you go back now and listen to anything with the "keyboard/synth" thing going, it sounds incredibly dated to me. Obvious examples don't rush to me, but perhaps consider the ongoing vitality of the Clash versus Duran Duran. Sorry Rooster, but I think "It's Hard" is a nearly unlistenable POS (save for a song or two). Sure, I had it then and then bought it again a few years ago on CD. Yuuuck! Cool thread ... it is pretty amazing (but perhaps not surprising) that for some of us, there is great similarity in our rock tastes. Proves the old saying I suppose - "there are two types of music - good and bad". Eric PS - Dr. J, you really, really, REALLY know your shit!!! The Jam - I thought I was the only American who owns that box! Bonnie Hayes - picked up her latest, having never known who she was back then - it is a good CD Low Life rules I saw X in KC this summer - it was a blast (do you have the Original Sinners CD?) Mummer? - refer my Jam comment above (have you been getting all the Partridge bootlegs gems/crap ?) Peter Gabriel 3 ??? awesome BTW ... do you know my all-time favorite kick-ass obscure rockabilly band - THE SPANIC BOYS (father son duo from Milwaukee). I saw them on SNL years ago - they were a last-minute replacement for Sinead O'Conner when she got uppity about something (sharing the bill with the Diceman, if I recall). This album is an all-time top 10 for me ... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=music Edited December 4, 2003 by Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregK Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 BTW ... do you know my all-time favorite kick-ass obscure rockabilly band - THE SPANIC BOYS (father son duo from Milwaukee). I saw them on SNL years ago - they were a last-minute replacement for Sinead O'Conner when she got uppity about something (sharing the bill with the Diceman, if I recall). This album is an all-time top 10 for me ... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=music yes "Shinehead" (remember the Sinatra Group??) and Nora Dunn and Jan Hooks were upset about Diceman being on the show so they all sat that one out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregK Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 Bruce Springsteen avoided all references to New Wave, and Born in the USA and Tunnel of Love are both very good. And The River is 1980, I believe. Don't forget his absolute, stunning masterpiece Nebraska from 1982. Damn this record needs to be remastered, soon!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregK Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 Man, "Landing On Water" is (oddly enough) one of my favorite Neil Young albums. I know, I'm weird (I've been accused of this for many reasons), but there's something about Young's synth-heavy albums that really works for me. I know, I'm in the minority on this, but even "Trans" is a winner in my book. (OK, not every track on "Trans", equally so. But half of "Trans" is really cool -- again, at least in my book it is.) PS: What I really like, even more than "Landing On Water" or "Trans" are some live recordings I have of Neil, from about 1986 - featuring some of that material performed live, with Neil singing through the 'vocoder', even on a few of his earlier tunes too, if I remember right. The live recordings are a little more successful, IMHO, than the studio versions (particularly the "Trans" material), but it's all good to me. I don't say that Neil in the 80's is his very best work, but I certainly like it - in my own weird way. A lot of people seem to either not know about, or simply disregard Hawks and Doves, from 1980. It's a short (30 minutes) little record, fascinating folky tunes on the first side and redneck country on the other side (vinyl, at least). It was just released on CD for the first time last August and well worth a listen. It doesn't really compare to anything else in his catalog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris olivarez Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 Chicago who actually came out in the late 60's went from ok to absolutely godawful in the 80's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazz Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 Okay, I hate to sound like a newb here, but can someone explain the whole New Wave term to me? Does it mean 80's pop with synthetic instrumentation? Or..what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted December 5, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 (edited) Well, Jazz, I'm glad you asked that. Let me see... During the late '70s and early '80s, New Wave was a catch-all term for the music that directly followed punk rock; often, the term encompassed punk itself, as well. In retrospect, it's became clear that the music that followed punk could be divided, more or less, into two categories — post-punk and new wave. Where post-punk was arty, difficult, and challenging, new wave was pop music, pure and simple. It retained the fresh vigor and irreverence of punk music, as well as a fascination with electronics, style, and art. Therefore, there was a lot of stylistic diversity to new wave. It meant the nervy power pop of bands like XTC and Nick Lowe, but it also meant synth rockers like Gary Numan or rock revivalists like Graham Parker and Rockpile. There were edgy new wave songwriters like Elvis Costello, pop bands like Squeeze, tough rock & rollers like the Pretenders, pop-reggae like the Police, mainstream rockers like the Cars, and ska revivalists like the Specials and Madness. As important as these major artists were, there were also countless one-hit wonders that emerged during early new wave. These one-hit groups were as diverse as the major artists, but they all shared a love of pop hooks, modernist, synthesized production, and a fascination for being slightly left of center. By the early '80s, new wave described nearly every new pop/rock artist, especially those that used synthesizers like the Human League and Duran Duran. New wave received a boost in the early '80s by MTV, who broadcast endless hours of new wave videos in order to keep themselves on the air. Therefore, new wave got a second life in 1982, when it probably would have died out. Instead, 1982 and 1983 were boom years for polished, MTV-radio new wave outfits like Culture Club, Adam Ant, Spandau Ballet, Haircut 100, and A Flock of Seagulls. New wave finally died out in 1984, when established artists began to make professional videos and a new crop of guitar-oriented bands like the Smiths and R.E.M. emerged to capture the attention of college-radio and underground rock fans. Nevertheless, new wave proved more influential than many of its critics would have suspected, as the mid-'90s were dominated by bands — from Blur to Weezer — that were raised on the music. Does that pretty much cover it?? Edit (almost one year later to the day, oddly enough): FYI, I stole this entire definition of New Wave from the AMG, word for word. My repeated "Thanks!!" links (below) don't work any more (ever since the AMG redesign) -- but they used to link to the source AMG page where I stole it from. Edited December 3, 2004 by Rooster_Ties Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazz Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 Yeah actually, great explanation! I have some questions though. It sounds as though "New Wave" only refers to the music cranked out up until 1984 (as in, are there any examples of music that could be considered New Wave after 1984)? Also, are synthesizers a concrete cornerstone of New Wave, or just a common occurence. Thanks R.T.!! You have personally saved me from conversations like this (I've had many): friend: So do you like New Wave? me: What's that? friend: Check this song out. me: Oh, 80's music? friend: No not 80's music, it's New Wave. me: What? friend: I just played it for you! me: You just played 80's pop. Yeah, I like 80's pop. friend (getting mad): NO. N-e-w W-a-v-e me: Well what makes it different from other 80's pop bands?? friend: NEVER MIND. P.S. - If you are a fan of electronic 80's pop/rock, I would highly recommend The Postal Service - Give Up. They are a recent band and supposedly play electronica, if electronica actually used basic harmonic progression and used melody instead of vamping two notes over one mode.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted December 5, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 Yeah actually, great explanation!! Thanks!!! - glad you liked it!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Johnson Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 tough rock & rollers like the Pretenders Oh COME on. "Tough rock and rollers?" I mean, the Pretenders were good for what they were, but I think even Whitesnake fits that label better than the Pretenders... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted December 5, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 tough rock & rollers like the Pretenders Oh COME on. "Tough rock and rollers?" I mean, the Pretenders were good for what they were, but I think even Whitesnake fits that label better than the Pretenders... Thanks!!! - glad you liked it!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrome Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 I was trapped in East Lansing, Mich., for the early 80s and there wasn't exactly a happenin' music scene up there. I couldn't/can't stand most of the synth pop/skinny tie stuff ... so much of it sounded, I don't know, "soulless." I liked REM, X, the Blasters ... bands that played what I considered "real" music. I liked Elvis Costello a lot, but even his music (not the lyrics) sometimes sounded kind of empty to me. In fact, I was so desperate to hear people actually playing "real" instruments that I started exploring this weird stuff called "jazz." And the rest, as they say, is history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 ....wait a minute. I just realized something. We weren't "New Wavers"; we were "Mods". Shit, no wonder we liked Quadrephenia I've always said that the Who is probably one of the earliest examples of Punk... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 During the late '70s and early '80s, New Wave was a catch-all term for the music that directly followed punk rock... Elvis Costello (who you mentioned in your excellent analysis) has stated in numerous interviews that there was no such thing as New Wave. He says that the term "New Wave" first appeared as the title of an awful American compliation of anonymous pop music (vaguely attempting to cash in on the sudden hipness of punk). Costello (who was recording his first album for Stiff records at the time) claims that it was he who (as a joke) started writing promotional material for Stiff that used the slogan "Surfing on the New Wave," and the next thing he knew, people were talking about him as a "New Wave" rather than "Punk" artist. Certainly people like Costello, Nick Lowe, and Joe Jackson were far too musical to be lumped in with punk (the point of which was to promote bands that could barely play three chords, such as the Pistols). I'm not sure I really believe in "New Wave" as a genre, though, since it is far too diverse (as your essay shows. You left out Blondie, by the way). Many of the groups you site as "post-punk" and "New Wave" were, in fact, New Romantics (the Human League, Spandau Ballet, etc). For myself (and I'm a big Costello fan), I regard the early 80s as a fairly barren period for music. There's very little pop from the early and mid-80s that I still listen to (Costello is an exception, as is Prince's seminal "Sign O The Times"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted December 5, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 ...(as your essay shows. You left out Blondie, by the way). Thanks!!! - glad you liked it!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted December 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2004 (edited) I recently sampled a couple used Eric Claption CD's that I stumbled on, all of them from the 80's. And although they all brought back memories -- the material sure didn't hold up like I was hoping (not that I really thought it would really hold up all that well in the first place). Didn't buy any of them, and I'm not at all sorry I didn't. Edit: Yes, this thread is from one full year ago. (I dug it up looking for something else. Amazing what the search function will find sometimes, eh??) Edited December 3, 2004 by Rooster_Ties Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Al Posted December 3, 2004 Report Share Posted December 3, 2004 (edited) During the late '70s and early '80s, New Wave was a catch-all term for the music that directly followed punk rock... Elvis Costello (who you mentioned in your excellent analysis) has stated in numerous interviews that there was no such thing as New Wave. He says that the term "New Wave" first appeared as the title of an awful American compliation of anonymous pop music (vaguely attempting to cash in on the sudden hipness of punk). Costello (who was recording his first album for Stiff records at the time) claims that it was he who (as a joke) started writing promotional material for Stiff that used the slogan "Surfing on the New Wave," and the next thing he knew, people were talking about him as a "New Wave" rather than "Punk" artist. Certainly people like Costello, Nick Lowe, and Joe Jackson were far too musical to be lumped in with punk (the point of which was to promote bands that could barely play three chords, such as the Pistols). I'm not sure I really believe in "New Wave" as a genre, though, since it is far too diverse (as your essay shows. You left out Blondie, by the way). Many of the groups you site as "post-punk" and "New Wave" were, in fact, New Romantics (the Human League, Spandau Ballet, etc). For myself (and I'm a big Costello fan), I regard the early 80s as a fairly barren period for music. There's very little pop from the early and mid-80s that I still listen to (Costello is an exception, as is Prince's seminal "Sign O The Times"). But their music is timeless. (In addition to the three you mentioned, I’d also add XTC). Their music doesn’t seem to reflect any particular genre: you can’t listen to one of these guys and say “Oh they are SO late-70’s or early-80’s.” Heck, their music really does sound like it could’ve been made yesterday! I guess when I think of a band who drastically changed at the turn of the decade, I think of Kiss. Once the make-up came off, all that was left was a fifth-rate hair metal band. Hell, by the end of the decade, they were doing a Michael Bolton song (which of course became a freak hit): "Forever." (Thankfully, they got their act together for the ferocious Revenge, but by that time the damage was done). As for the Who, I completely agree. Stack ANY of their 60’s singles against anything in the halcyon daze of the punk era (including my favorites, The Clash, whose Give ‘em Enough Rope is as brilliant a Who ripoff as you’ll ever find!) and they all pale by comparison. Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere baby!!! Edited December 3, 2004 by Big Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gould Posted December 3, 2004 Report Share Posted December 3, 2004 After wading through this, the most worthless thread in Organissimo history, is there somewhere I can go to get the last five minutes of my life back? The only good thing to say about 80s pop and rock is that it was so bad, I started to investigate jazz and turned my back on pop music ever since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted December 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2004 The most worthless thread in Organissimo history. When do I get my award??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJ Posted December 4, 2004 Report Share Posted December 4, 2004 Peter Johnson Posted: Dec 4 2003, 11:57 PM QUOTE (Rooster_Ties @ Dec 4 2003, 11:38 PM) tough rock & rollers like the Pretenders Oh COME on. "Tough rock and rollers?" I mean, the Pretenders were good for what they were, but I think even Whitesnake fits that label better than the Pretenders... First Pretenders album, and a couple of the follow-up singles and isolated tunes on the disappointing PRETENDERS II, were about as tough and gritty as rock has ever been. Not in the faux manner of most rock artists, but in the honest, unglamorous mode. Sure, nothin' else Chrissy Hynde has done since has ever come close (although then again that doesn't seem to be what she's after anymore), but all cred is due. Classic stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neveronfriday Posted December 4, 2004 Report Share Posted December 4, 2004 OK, my fingers are itching. I have to side with Dan Gould here, at least somewhat. My CD [formerly LP] collection is a rather eclectic one (as, I would guess, is that of many people posting on this board) and it does contain a very healthy set of 80s and 90s music. Many names that were posted here are in that collection. Lots of them, plus a lot more. What I don't have any of is that stuff where you had to blow-dry your hair and wear eye-liner to be allowed to listen to it ... I guess you know what I mean (there was also a funny dance that came along with that kind of stuff which cracks me up whenever it turns up in some films of the time). And the shoes ... *yuck*! Joe Jackson (brilliant stuff), The Police, etc. etc. etc. ... plus some stuff I'm embarrased to mention here. I was into it (as I was into some good 70s stuff before that) and I bought lots of it. BUT. My collection reached a point at which that music just didn't mean anything to me anymore. It didn't say anything at all. Mind you, I still put it on once in a while in a fit of frenzy (this is where we could merge this one with the Rum thread), but it happens so rarely that I've often thought of slashing my collection by about 2000 CDs of that and other times (but, we collectors don't really do that, do we?). I've even bought some stuff remastered to replace some old CDs that do stand out from the bunch, but that has also died down ... mostly. It was the general disappointment with Pop as a whole (or Rock, or Wave, or whatever they called it when they were looking for new names for the same old pop game) and the increasing mindlessness that basically forced me to return to Jazz after having been away for quite a while (in terms of CDs and collecting, not in terms of seeing it live). It's a bit schizophrenic, I guess. I keep more than 2000 CDs in case I start liking the stuff again on a more permanent basis, but I'm quite sure I won't. Does this make sense at all? I guess I'll dig out Joe Jackson's "Sunday Papers" and check if it still speaks to me. I think right now it might. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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