OK, newbie here, so please be gentle....

Anyhow, tonight I have been going thru a lot of my 80's music, most that I consider to be of the new wave kind.

I have come across Music by Dexy's Midnight runners, Style council, Big Country, Madness, the stranglers, The Vapours, fischer z....

Anyhow, I have stumbled accross this fantastic forum. Low a behold, in the new wave/romantics section, I find similar stuff as above, but more. As a matter of fact, if I read thru this section, I could just about say every band/artist (apart from our heavy metal friends, bless there hearts) can be classified as New wave/romantic.

Soooooo, where is the line drawn....

Is there a definition of new wave.

So far, from what I can remember and what I have seen new wave covers everything from punk to ska to soul to electronic and so on.....

Help me....I'm so confused :irked:

There was a great thread discussing this very thing some time ago... it may help to answer the question... or further confuse :lol: Either way it's one of the best threads I think this new wave section's had:

http://www.80sxchange.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13669

Good thread there, I'll add my peice here. ;)

Recollections from the time (i was 11 in 1980 and can remember some of the music that was comming through at the time )

In the 70's, comercial music was split into Easy Listening, Soul/Funk/Disco, Rock and Roll/Rock/Prog Rock and Pop

New wave was used to catagorise the whole 'new wave' of post punk artists that did not fit in with this established hireachy often because the music they played was a fusion of several of those parts with UK Punk/US Garage(60's US garage that is).

Strangely, for what is considered a UK phenomenum, New Wave originated from the USA with Blondie, The Cars, Talking Heads and the like breaking through in the UK post Punks initial impact.

New Romantisim was just one of those 'new waves' taking a love of the look of old Glamour & Glam Rock, Mixing Glam rock with the danceability of Disco and the electronic experimentation of Kraftwerk. Very UK based, mainly 'Blitz Kids' of London who wanted dancable electronic music and to look 'fabulous dah-ling' ;) If they looked to Europe at all beyond some aluring vocals, it was to the film sets of Metropolis or the wardrobe of Caberet!

The Futurists on the other hand didn't like the Glam rock, disco or the 30's/50's glamour revised influences. Depece Mode prefered to be considered Futurists as they din't like the 'poncey nature' of New Romantisim at the time. Most futurists could be described as more European in outlook wearing their Kraftwerk influences proudly (From Gary Numans 'Man Machine' Make-up onwards).

Yes, good post above!
I was a New Romantic/Futurist, i liked all the bands mentioned. Depeche, Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, Visage, Ultravox, etc.
In the early days Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet were also considered part of the scene, but were thought after the first couple of singles to have sold out to the 'pop' scene of the time.
For me New Wave was post punk, when the youth got tired of the safety pins and ripped trousers and wanted to dress up, I have 'embarrassing' pics of me with more foundation on than my then girlfriend!
In the Uk it was a UK/Europe thing, we never thought the US really 'got it' properly, nearly 100% of the music i bought then was UK/Europe. Nowadays the trend has reversed and while UK acts are content to rip of painfull Rolling Stones riffs, the US, and Europe in particular are making the more challenging music. :thumb:

Ok, thanks for that guys,