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Is there a difference between Punk and New Wave

Aug 8, 2009 at 11:55 PM Post #17 of 49
Hold on. Where do you fit bands like Elvis Costello & The Attractions/ Talking Heads/Television/ Modern Lovers et cetera? They were no three chord & out merchants. Back in the day (& I played in a so-called new wave, er, punk band), they emerged out of punk but were not punk: new wave, baby. Not a safety pin or tartan strap in sight...well, OK I did have a black leather jacket...and a flying helmet on one gig.

Depeche Mode etc? Emerged as New Romantics surely? They & their ilk were the synth & keyboards guys, not the Heads, Costello or indeed if I may, the band I played in (which was a politico/dance/reggae/punk outfit, little known outside London)


Edit\ x2 Qonmus - beat me to it! And x2 zotjen, too
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Aug 9, 2009 at 12:18 AM Post #18 of 49
I was surprised to find out reading wiki that Malcolm Mclaren was actually the one who first coined the term "new wave," apparently referring to the French new wave in cinema (Godard, Truffaut, etc.), which makes sense as the cinematic new wave was a kind of anti-establishment, DIY, low budget, etc. sensibility. So originally it seems it was meant to apply to punk itself, at least as Mclaren was trying to market it.

I guess as more bands emerged that we now think of as "new wave" the term just started to be used more in association with those kinds of acts than to punk" bands like sex pistols, ramones, clash, etc. And then eventually it carried over to the later synth-pop kind of new wave of the 80s.
 
Aug 9, 2009 at 7:23 PM Post #21 of 49
I don't know if I would consider Depeche Mode New Romantic since their sound was a little more synth based than other New Romantics such as Spandau Ballet and early Duran Duran.
 
Aug 9, 2009 at 9:24 PM Post #22 of 49
Quote:

Originally Posted by zotjen /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I don't know if I would consider Depeche Mode New Romantic since their sound was a little more synth based than other New Romantics such as Spandau Ballet and early Duran Duran.


Yes, I think you're right. Not sure what DM would have been classed as. Bleak Berlin later on maybe
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Must admit, the offerings of SB, DD, DM etc was not a music genre I ever enjoyed or particularly liked (apart from, in electronica, exceptions like Kraftwerk or Bowie's work on Low, Heroes...), so I tended to lump them all together in one amorphous mass, signposted 'Avoid'...
 
Aug 9, 2009 at 9:53 PM Post #23 of 49
Punk took the rock 'n roll back to it's basics, along with pub rock (Elvis Costello, Squeeze, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Graham Parker).
I associate New Wave with horrible slick eighties music that I hate so much.
 
Aug 10, 2009 at 12:51 AM Post #25 of 49
Quote:

Originally Posted by steviebee /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Yes, I think you're right. Not sure what DM would have been classed as. Bleak Berlin later on maybe
smily_headphones1.gif
Must admit, the offerings of SB, DD, DM etc was not a music genre I ever enjoyed or particularly liked (apart from, in electronica, exceptions like Kraftwerk or Bowie's work on Low, Heroes...), so I tended to lump them all together in one amorphous mass, signposted 'Avoid'...


I say Depeche Mode started the synth pop genre following Kraftwerks roots of electronic music. They paved the way for lots of less popular synthpop bands that I also love like Red Flag, Celebrate the Nun, De/Vision, Camouflage, Cetu Javu, Cause and Effect and many more.
 
Aug 10, 2009 at 1:15 AM Post #26 of 49
I think of New Wave as post-disco pop. It was the emergence of new bands that (finally!) forced disco out. Blondie, Talking Heads, Devo, The Cars. That's what I think of as New Wave.

Punk is a simplified, raw, back-to-basics rock and roll.
 
Aug 10, 2009 at 1:31 AM Post #27 of 49
Thats right but its more complicated than that. Weve got some pop music with a punk twist that is part of the new wave genre too (post-punk) like echo and the bunnymen or the smiths (jangle pop) for example
 
Aug 10, 2009 at 2:27 AM Post #28 of 49
Quote:

Originally Posted by zotjen /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Most early New Wave definitely did not use a lot of synths. Take for example The B-52s. Then there were artists who sort of blurred the line between New Wave and Punk, such as Blondie.


I found the the term New Wave a little confusing over the years-er decades. I guess "pretty patty B." as they used to call her(Pat Benatar) is New wave. But is Human League New Wave or just electronic? Is the Offspring Punk?
 
Aug 10, 2009 at 3:10 AM Post #29 of 49
Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Thats right but its more complicated than that. Weve got some pop music with a punk twist that is part of the new wave genre too (post-punk) like echo and the bunnymen or the smiths (jangle pop) for example


It's always more complicated than that. Genres never neatly demarcate.
 
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