New wave music
New wave, also known as Nu Wave, is a complex and well-recognized genre of rock n' roll best known for defining the late 1970s and early 1980s. Not only is it a rock music genre, but it is also a scientific phenomena associated with Nerds that results from the music itself and its impact.
New wave, being associated with the late 1970s into the 1980s of music, is a widely respected retro music genre. However, it just won't find its way onto mainstream pop music charts. This was at first, suspected to be because it's rock music, but given the existence of "pop-rock", as well as rock music on pop charts, Say It Isn't So! However, rock n' roll is dead, if only in the popular scene, and as such, new wave went down with it.. There have been a few modern rock groups, like Paramore, The Killers, and Franz Ferdinand that have brought back new wave music, it largely remains underground.
Early Development: Yacht Rock & Electric Piano Metal[edit | edit source]
"What?! Piano Metal?"
That's right. Many people associate New wave with '80s synthesizer music, punk rock, and if any metal music, then the crazy hair of bands like Bon Jovi and Van Halen, however, New wave's biggest roots begin with the unusual not-hard-rock-but-soft-pop-rock metal genre, and the rockish cousin of disco from the early 1970s, yacht rock. Yacht rock, although it is soft rock, and not at all hard, it is in fact, technically heavy metal, but rather than featuring an electric guitar being distorted to the point of sounding like violent screaming, it instead takes an electric piano—yes, an electric piano, and not a synthesizer—and distort it to the point to where it sounds like a mystical funk organ combined with an unending clarinet.
This soft metal genre was collaboratively invented by The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Toto, and Hall and Oates. The Doobie Brothers, the cousins of the Super Mario Bros., especially pioneered it when Michael McDonald took over, and took them in a soulish direction, when they went into the disco warp zone and fought Warner Koopa, Bowser's capitalistic brother. After defeating him, he coverted to the Doobies' hippie ways, and allowed them to incorporate synthesizers into their music. Yacht rock typically focused on soul, funk, and jazz, and exploiting metallic noise on pianos without sounding like banging on it, but the Doobies, along with Toto, were the first to use synthesizers. Despite this unique invention, metalheads couldn't take the idea of a soft rock metal genre seriously, so they fell out of popularity when disco died as well. Despite this, Toto and Hall and Oates managed to keep up the popularity, thanks to Toto's music partially being arena rock, and Hall and Oates adapting New wave itself.
How did Yacht rock influence New wave, you may ask? The same way disco did. Although many think disco died by the 1980s, it's ghost, post-disco, was popular well into the late '80s, mainly thanks to Michael Jackson, George Michael, and Prince.
Oddly enough, the Eagles, which Glenn Frey and Don Henley led, also contributed to yacht rock, albeit, having a country rather than soul take. However, Don Felder's 12 string guitar, and the jangliness of Power Pop, especially in its punk-based New wave, also had an impact.
The Earliest REAL Forms of New Wave[edit | edit source]
When people think of new wave bands, they think of A-ha, Duran Duran, and Depeche Mode. Blasphemy! The REAL New wave bands are Devo, Talking Heads, The Cars, The Police, Men at Work, and Blondie, not some generic synth crap! The REAL New wave bands were primarily punk-based. The Police and Men at Work, however, also had notable reggae elements in them. In addition, Talking Heads, while Avant-Garde based, also had some disco in them, showing that disco was not dead. In the U.K., ska, reggae's grandfather, was experiencing a revival, with bands like The Specials and Madness mixing it with Punk wave, and calling it "2-Tone". Alas, it never caught on in America until the 2000s, but Madness became a one-hit wonder known for "Our House" ("It Must Be Love"?, what's that?), causing Americans to believe ska is either punk with horns, or soul with new wave guitars. Nonetheless, their only American hit showed that disco was not truly dead.
In addition, other acts at the time mixed soul and soft rock with new wave and synthpop, such as the '80s years of Hall & Oates, as well as Culture Club, Spandeau Ballet.
The B-52s' Takeover[edit | edit source]
While other New Wave bands certainly became popular, none of them were quite as advanced as The B-52's, also called the Bees from Area 52, these fellows — Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson, Ricky Wilson, and Keith Strickland — were a group of sentient bomber planes-turned-human who went on many musical expeditions on spotting Rock lobster, visiting other planets, and they also were the owners of the Love Shack.
The B-52's formation and success were predicted along with the existence of other B52s by the Mesopotamians, who insisted that they would meet there, and would "Dance this mess around". They would later find this when they became students of ancient culture, and declared that there were "lots a ruins, in mesopotamia!"
Like Talking Heads and Devo, the Bees were Nerds, but they were the most flamboyantly dorky of them.
The "Wave" Phenomena[edit | edit source]
As popular as the genre itself is, the name of the genre has struck some as either egotistical, given the "new", which has led to many fans suggesting that the actual spelling of the genre is nu wave. This solves the issue of the supposed arrogance of new wave spirit, but it doesn't solve the issue of "wave". In response to the controversy, the California Research Association of Bay Scientists conducted a research study, and found an interesting aspect of the genre.
It was discovered that "new wave", or as the humble fans insist, "nu wave", was named for the fittingness of the songs when played at the beach while watching waves. This may have been obvious for the campy beach songs of The B-52's, but it wasn't so for the many synthesizer-driven new wave songs that some would say was relaxing like waves. Coincidentally, Sonic the Hedgehog who is well known for always beginning his adventures at the grassy, palmy, and somewhat mountainous beaches of Green Hill Zone, has a different kind of '80s music in his earliest adventures, with Michael Jackson even getting involved, and not to mention, Genesis was both the video game console his adventures debuted on, and the band that Phil Collins turned from progressive rock into a poppy style similar to new wave. These interesting coincidences were the reason the genre recieved the name during its inception.