View source for New wave music

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{{Short description|Music genre from the 1970s and 1980s}}
{{About|the 1970s–1980s music genre|other New Wave artistic movements|List of New Wave movements}}
{{Distinguish|New-age music|Wave music}}
<!--- See 2020 talk page discussions before removing tags--->
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox music genre
| name              = New wave
| native_name       = 
| etymology         = 
| other_names       = 
| image             = 
| alt               = 
| caption           = [[The Cars]] (pictured as [[the New Cars]] in 2011) were one of the most influential bands in the new wave genre.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ric Ocasek: Cars frontman who drove new wave into the mainstream |work=The Guardian |date=16 September 2019 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/16/ric-ocasek-tribute-cars-new-wave-pop- |last1=Petridis |first1=Alexis }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Cars Frontman Ric Ocasek Paved Path From Boston Punk To Mainstream New Wave |url=https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/09/16/the-cars-ric-ocasek-legacy |website=Wbur.org |date=16 September 2019 |last=Sullivan |first=Jim}}</ref>
| stylistic_origins = * [[Punk rock]]
* [[pop rock]]
* [[power pop]]
* [[glam rock]]
* [[Electronic music|electronic]]
* [[krautrock]]
* [[Pub rock (United Kingdom)|pub rock]]
* [[art pop]]
* [[funk]]{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|pp=202–205}}
* [[reggae]]<ref name="HistoryRock">{{cite book |title=History of Rock and Roll |last=Larson |first=Thomas E. |edition=4 |publisher=Kendall Hunt |location=[[Lincoln, Nebraska]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4652-3886-3 |page=269}}</ref>
* [[progressive rock]]
* [[disco]]<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.synthpunk.org/units/keyboard1.html| title= The New Synthesizer Rock |date=June 1982| magazine= Keyboard |first=Robert |last=Doerschuk | access-date= 15 May 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/22/arts/bernard-edwards-43-musician-in-disco-band-and-pop-producer.html |title=Bernard Edwards, 43, Musician In Disco Band and Pop Producer |newspaper=The New York Times |date=22 April 1996 |last=Strauss |first=Neil |quote=As disco waned in the late 70s, so did Chic's album sales. But its influence lingered on as new wave, rap and dance-pop bands found inspiration in Chic's club anthems }}</ref>
* [[bubblegum music|bubblegum]]<ref name=ste>{{cite web|url= http://www.allmusic.com/explore/essay/new-wave-t727 |first= Stephen Thomas |last = Erlewine |author-link= Stephen Thomas Erlewine |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101025110745/http://allmusic.com/explore/essay/new-wave-t727 |work= [[AllMusic]]|publisher = [[Rovi Corporation]] |archive-date= 25 October 2010 |title= New Wave |access-date= 4 May 2014}}</ref><ref name="bubgum">{{cite book |editor1-last=Cooper |editor1-first=Kim |editor2-last=Smay |editor2-first=David |year=2001 |title=Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth |page=248 |chapter=Bubblegum & New Wave |last=Smay |first=David |publisher=Feral House |isbn=0-922915-69-5 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/grab-bag_202304/Bubblegum%20Music%20is%20the%20Naked%20Truth%20The%20Dark%20History%20of%20Prepubescent%20Pop%2C%20from%20the%20Banana%20Splits%20to%20Britney%20Spears%20by%20Kim%20Cooper%2C%20David%20Smay%20%28z-lib.org%29/page/248/mode/1up |quote=Nobody took the bubblegum ethos to heart like the new wave bands.}}</ref>
* [[art rock]]
| cultural_origins  = Mid-1970s, United Kingdom and United States
| instruments       = 
| derivatives       = * [[Alternative dance]]
* [[alternative rock]]
* [[britpop]]
* [[synth-pop]]<ref name="synthpop subgenre">{{allMusic|subgenre|synth-pop-ma0000002887|Synth Pop}}</ref>
* [[neo-psychedelia]]<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Shaw|first1=Greg|author-link=Greg Shaw (writer)|title=New Trends of the New Wave|magazine=Billboard|date=14 January 1978|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=piQEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22acid+rock%22+%22nuggets%22&pg=PT59|access-date=23 November 2015}}</ref>
* [[indie pop]]
* [[sophisti-pop]]
* [[post-punk revival]]
* [[electroclash]]
* [[chillwave]]<ref>{{cite news| last= Pirnia| first= Garin | url= https://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/03/13/is-chillwave-the-next-big-music-trend| title= Is Chillwave the Next Big Music Trend?| work= The Wall Street Journal| date= 13 March 2010 | access-date= 15 May 2011}}</ref>
* [[new wave of new wave]]
| subgenres         = * [[Dark wave]]<ref name=Ogiba>{{cite web|last=Ogiba|first=Jeff|title=A Brief History Of Musical Waves From NEW To NEXT|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/a-brief-history-of-musical-waves-from-new-to-next/|website=Vice|date=11 July 2012}}</ref>
* [[minimal wave]]<ref name=Ogiba />
| fusiongenres      = [[Two-tone (music genre)|Two-tone]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/style/ska-revival-ma0000002403|title=Ska Revival|publisher=AllMusic}}</ref>
| regional_scenes   = * [[Neue Deutsche welle|Germany]]
* [[1980s Pinoy rock|Philippines]]<ref>[http://filipinojournal.com/our-columnist/sa-ugoy-ng-musika/a-tribute-to-the-%E2%80%9980s-philippine-new-wave-scene Filipinojournal.com] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140612135729/http://filipinojournal.com/our-columnist/sa-ugoy-ng-musika/a-tribute-to-the-%E2%80%9980s-philippine-new-wave-scene |date=12 June 2014 }} A Tribute to the '80s Philippine New Wave Scene</ref>
* [[New wave music in Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]<ref>{{cite journal|first= Jelena |last= Božilović |year= 2013 |title= New Wave in Yugoslavia-Socio-Political Context |journal= Facta Universitatis |series= Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology and History |volume= 12 |issue= 1 |pages= 69–83 |url= http://facta.junis.ni.ac.rs/pas/pas201301/pas201301-06.pdf}}</ref>
| local_scenes      = ''[[La Movida Madrileña]]''
| other_topics      = {{hlist|[[Post-punk]]|[[pop punk]]|[[dance-rock]]|[[dance-punk]]|[[New Romantic]]|[[new pop]]}}
| footnotes         = 
}}

'''New wave''' is a [[music genre]] that encompasses [[pop music|<!-- Per AllMusic source on new wave: "It is a catch-all term, collecting a variety of pop-oriented musics that weren't part of the mainstream, yet were melodic, catchy, idiosyncratic and quirky."&nbsp; -->pop]]-oriented styles that emerged in the mid- to late 1970s as a lighter and more melodic "broadening of [[Punk subculture|punk culture]]". The term new wave initially held distinct regional differences between the United States and United Kingdom. In the US, "new wave" had originally been used by music critics to label [[New York punk]] bands during the early-to mid 1970s. The term was later adopted by [[Sire Records]] founder [[Seymour Stein]], who launched the "Don't Call It Punk" campaign in October 1977 to replace "punk" with "new wave". In the UK, new wave was a catch-all for several musical styles that emerged after the initial popularity of [[punk rock]], such as [[synth-pop]], [[alternative dance]] and [[post-punk]].

New wave commercially peaked during the late 1970s into the early 1980s with an abundance of [[one-hit wonder]]s. In 1981, the [[MTV]] channel was launched, which heavily promoted and popularized new-wave acts in the United States. While regional new wave scenes developed across Europe, particularly  the Netherlands' [[Ultra (music)|ultra]], Germany's [[Neue Deutsche Welle]], Spain's [[La Movida Madrileña]], France, Poland and Belgium's [[Cold wave (music)|coldwave]], as well as the [[New wave music in Yugoslavia|Yugoslav new wave]]. Additionally, the movement inspired subgenres such as [[minimal wave]] and [[Dark wave|darkwave]].  

By the mid- to late 1980s, new wave was overtaken in the UK by the [[new pop]] and [[New Romantic]] movement, alongside the [[Second British Invasion]] in the US, where the style later declined in popularity as other music genres gained commercial success. In the 1990s and 2000s, new wave experienced a brief revival, labelled the "[[new wave of new wave]]" or "[[Electroclash|new new wave]]" by the press. The genre influenced later internet [[Microgenre|microgenres]] such as [[Zolo music|zolo]], [[bloghouse]], [[new rave]], [[chillwave]], [[synthwave]], [[vaporwave]] and [[devocore]]. 

==Etymology and characteristics==
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, new wave music encompassed a wide variety of [[pop music|pop]]-oriented styles that shared a quirky, lighthearted, and humorous tone.<ref name="ste" /><ref name="britann" /> Though the term was originally coined by [[Seymour Stein]] of [[Sire Records]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=New Wave music {{!}} EBSCO Research Starters |url=https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/music/new-wave-music |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=ebsco.com}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Communications |first=W. M. G. |date=2023-04-02 |title=RIP SEYMOUR STEIN |url=https://www.wmg.com/news/rip-seymour-stein |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=Warner Music Group}}</ref> as a catch-all for the various styles of music that emerged after [[punk rock]]. The phrase also alluded to the [[French New Wave]], a 1960s film movement known for its experimental approach and departure from traditional forms.<ref name="britann" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Graham |title=American Culture in the 1980s |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2007 |page=163}}</ref> 

Common characteristics of new wave music include a humorous or quirky pop approach, the use of electronic sounds, and a distinctive visual style in music videos and fashion.<ref name="allmusic.com">{{cite web |title=New Wave Music Genre Overview |url=https://www.allmusic.com/style/new-wave-ma0000002750 |publisher=AllMusic}}</ref>  According to [[Simon Reynolds]], new wave music had a twitchy, agitated feel. New wave musicians often played choppy rhythm guitars with angular [[riff]]s and fast tempos; keyboards, and stop-start song structures and melodies are common, with the use of jerky rhythms, and [[Synthesizer|synthesizers]]. Reynolds noted new-wave vocalists sound high-pitched, geeky, and suburban.<ref name="Reynolds160">[[Simon Reynolds|Reynolds, Simon]] ''Rip It Up and Start Again PostPunk 1978–1984'' p.160</ref><ref name="britann">{{cite web |last=Seddon |first=Stephen |title=New wave |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/new-wave-music |access-date=26 May 2020 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref><ref name="Anglomania: The Second British Invasion" />   

In America, new wave became widely popularized by channels like [[MTV]], which would play British new wave music videos because most American hit records did not have music videos to play. British videos, according to head of S-Curve Records and music producer [[Steve Greenberg (record producer)|Steve Greenberg]], "were easy to come by since they'd been a staple of UK pop music TV programs like ''[[Top of the Pops]]'' since the mid-70s."<ref name="From Comiskey Park To 'Thriller'">{{cite web |last=Greenberg |first=Steve |title=From Comiskey Park To 'Thriller' (How The Pop Music Audience Was Torn Apart, And Then Put Back Together) |url=https://s-curverecords.com/?stevesblog=from-comiskey-park-to-thriller |website=S-Curve Records |publisher=S-Curve Records |access-date=18 March 2022 |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220318193708/https://s-curverecords.com/?stevesblog=from-comiskey-park-to-thriller |archive-date=18 March 2022 |quote=Why did MTV choose to play videos of songs that weren't on the radio, rather than concentrating on the biggest pop hits? Quite simply, music videos for most of the American hit records of the day did not exist. Desperate to fill a round-the-clock schedule with videos, MTV's initial playlists were chock full of clips by British new wave acts unfamiliar to American radio audiences. British videos were easy to come by since they'd been a staple of UK pop music TV programs like 'Top of the Pops' since the mid-70s.}}</ref> This rise in technology made the visual style of new wave musicians important for their success. In the early 1980s, virtually every new pop and rock act – and particularly those that employed [[synthesizer]]s – were tagged as "new wave" in the United States, while the term was also later used to label bands in the British post-punk scene.<ref name="allmusic.com" /> The term has been described as so loose and wide-ranging as to be "virtually meaningless", according to the ''New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock''.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=11}}<ref name="QA Theo Cateforis" />

A nervous, nerdy persona was a common characteristic of new wave fans, and acts such as [[Talking Heads]], [[Devo]], and [[Elvis Costello]].{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=75}} This took the forms of robotic dancing, jittery high-pitched vocals, and clothing fashions that hid the body such as suits and big glasses.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=84}} This seemed radical to audiences accustomed to post-counterculture genres such as [[Disco|disco dancing]] and macho "[[cock rock]]" that emphasized a "hang loose" philosophy, open sexuality, and sexual bravado.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|pp=71–94}}<ref>Bobby Vox: ''Gorgonen, Hydras & Chimären – Interview with Marquee Moon'', E.B. music magazine, issue 3/86, p.&nbsp;18, May 1986</ref><ref name="NewLife88">New Life Soundmagazine, issue 38, description of the single "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division, p.&nbsp;10, November 1988</ref> 

[[File:Blondie1977.jpg|thumb|[[Blondie (band)|Blondie]], 1977. L–R: Gary Valentine, Clem Burke, Deborah Harry, Chris Stein and Jimmy Destri.]]

New wave may be seen as an attempt to reconcile "the energy and rebellious attitude of punk" with traditional forms of pop songwriting, as seen in the [[rockabilly]] riffs and classic craftsmanship of [[Elvis Costello]] and the 1960s [[Mod (subculture)|mod]] influences of [[the Jam]].<ref name="QA Theo Cateforis">{{cite web |last=Cateforis |first=Theo |title=Q&A with Theo Cateforis, author of Are We Not New Wave? |url=https://press.umich.edu/pdf/9780472115556-qa.pdf |website=University of Michigan Press Blog |date=4 May 2011 |publisher=Michigan Publishing |access-date=19 March 2022 |ref=none |archive-date=26 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526211701/http://blog.press.umich.edu/2011/05/interview-theo-cateforis-author/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="UKNewWave">{{cite web |last=Nickson |first=Chris |author-link=Chris Nickson |date=25 September 2012 |title=New Wave Music in The 70s |url=https://www.ministryofrock.co.uk/NewWave.html |access-date=16 February 2024 |website=ministryofrock.co.uk}}</ref> [[Paul Weller]], who called new wave "the pop music of the Seventies",<ref>{{cite book|last1=Reed|first1=John|title=Paul Weller: My Ever Changing Moods|date=1996|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=9780857120496|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGwARtGyc4kC&pg=PT113|quote=In half a year, the Jam sound had evolved considerably - and for that alone, the LP was an achievement. Weller once spoke of the album as their attempt to "cross over" into new wave - "the pop music of the Seventies," as he called it. They were patently keen to progress beyond the punk mould of ''In the City'', as evidenced by the melodic rush of Paul's slower, more contemplative songs and the cover photo by legendary Sixties photographer Gered Mankowitz.}}</ref> explained to Chas de Whalley in 1977:

{{blockquote|text=It's just pop music and that's why I like it. It's all about hooks and guitar riffs. That's what the new wave is all about. It's not heavy and negative like all that [[Iggy Pop|Iggy]] and [[New York punk|New York]] stuff. The new wave is today's pop music for today's kids, it's as simple as that.<ref>{{cite web|website=[[Record Collector]]|title=When you're young|last=de Whalley|first=Chas|date=17 October 2007|url=https://recordcollectormag.com/articles/when-youre-young}}</ref>}}

Although new wave shares punk's [[do-it-yourself]] artistic philosophy, the musicians were more influenced by the light strains of 1960s pop while opposed to mainstream [[corporate rock|"corporate" rock]], which they considered creatively stagnant, as well as the generally abrasive and political bents of punk rock.<ref name="britann" /> In the early 1980s, particularly in the United States, notable new wave acts embraced a [[crossover (music)|crossover]] of pop and rock music with African and African-American styles. [[Adam and the Ants]] and [[Bow Wow Wow]], both acts with ties to former [[Sex Pistols]] manager [[Malcolm McLaren]], used [[Burundi]]-style drumming.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|pp=185–201}} Talking Heads' album ''[[Remain in Light]]'' was marketed and positively reviewed as a breakthrough melding of new wave and African styles, although drummer [[Chris Frantz]] said he found out about this supposed African influence after the fact.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|pp=203–211}} As the decade continued, new wave elements would be adopted by African-American musicians such as [[Grace Jones]], [[Janet Jackson]], and [[Prince (musician)|Prince]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Berlatsky |first=Noah |title=New Wave is Defined By Whiteness |url=https://www.splicetoday.com/music/new-wave-is-defined-by-whiteness |access-date=3 May 2023 |website=Splice Today |date=11 May 2021}}</ref> who in particular used new wave influences to lay the groundwork for the [[Minneapolis sound]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Michael |title=Popular music in America: the beat goes on |date=2009 |publisher=Schirmer Cengage Learning |isbn=978-0-495-50530-3 |edition=3rd |location=Boston |oclc=310962465}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Fitzmaurice |first=Larry |date=2019-10-14 |title=How Chillwave's Brief Moment in the Sun Cast a Long Shadow Over the 2010s |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/article/2010s-chillwave-best-coast-washed-out-neon-indian/ |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=Pitchfork}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Ogiba |first=Jeff |date=2012-07-11 |title=A Brief History Of Musical Waves From NEW To NEXT |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/a-brief-history-of-musical-waves-from-new-to-next/ |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=VICE}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=webdesignwavzine |date=2021-03-11 |title=Giving Up the Ghost: Vaporwave, Pastiche, and Hauntology |url=https://www.wavzine.com/post/giving-up-the-ghost-vaporwave-pastiche-and-hauntology |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=wavzine}}</ref>

==History==
===Forerunners===
[[The Velvet Underground]] have been heralded for their influence on new wave.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 March 2020 |title=Punk'd: The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico |url=https://acrn.com/2020/03/02/punkd-the-velvet-underground-the-velvet-underground-nico/ |access-date=23 April 2023 |website=Acrn.com |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412011312/https://acrn.com/2020/03/02/punkd-the-velvet-underground-the-velvet-underground-nico/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Chris |title=BBC – Music – Review of The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico (Deluxe Edition) |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/fq4h/ |access-date=23 April 2023 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>{{sfn|Unterberger|2009|pp=6, 358}} The [[Glam rock|glam]] and [[art rock]] inspired style of [[Roxy Music]] and [[Sparks (band)|Sparks]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-07-26 |title=Vinyl Video: The neurodivergent appeal of THE SPARKS BROTHERS |url=https://www.moviejawn.com/home/2023/7/26/vinyl-video-the-neurodivergent-appeal-of-the-sparks-brothers |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=Moviejawn}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Howard |first=Will |date=2024-11-26 |title=Sparks name the "most infectious song" of all time |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/sparks-infectious/ |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk}}</ref> were also influential to the genre alongside the works of [[David Bowie]], [[Iggy Pop]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Peacock |first=Tim |date=21 April 2023 |title=Best Iggy Pop Songs: 20 Tracks With An Insatiable Lust For Life |url=https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/best-iggy-pop-songs/ |access-date=3 May 2023 |website=uDiscover Music}}</ref> and [[Brian Eno]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=James |first=Mark |date=28 February 2023 |title=What is New Wave Music? 9 Examples & History |url=https://www.musicindustryhowto.com/what-is-new-wave-music/ |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=Music Industry How To}}</ref> The work of [[experimental rock]] artists such as [[Captain Beefheart]], [[Frank Zappa]], and [[the Residents]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Quietus |first=The |date=2014-04-24 |title=First Contact: Meet The Residents 45 Years On |url=https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/meet-the-residents-anniversary-review/ |access-date=2025-08-20 |website=The Quietus}}</ref> underground [[Psychedelic rock|psychedelic]] bands [[Lothar and the Hand People]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cantrell |first=M. Asher |date=2011-04-10 |title=6 Songs That Were Decades Ahead of 'Groundbreaking' Music |url=https://www.cracked.com/article_19094_6-songs-that-were-decades-ahead-groundbreaking-music.html |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=Cracked.com}}</ref> as well as Germany's [[krautrock]] and [[Electronic music|electronic]]-based [[kosmische musik]] scene, particularly the work of [[Kraftwerk]], have been described as influencing or presaging the movement.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Draper |first=Jason |date=2025-08-01 |title='Doc At The Radar Station': How Captain Beefheart Came Back Fighting Fit |url=https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/rediscover-doc-at-the-radar-station/ |access-date=2025-08-14 |website=uDiscover Music}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-11-07 |title=Neue Deutsche Welle: When Germany Surfed the New Wave |url=https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/neue-deutsche-welle-list |access-date=2025-08-14 |website=Bandcamp Daily}}</ref>   

The influence of [[Avant-garde art|avant-garde]] and [[Abstract art|abstract]] [[Art movement|art movements]] such as [[Dada]], [[Cubism]] and the [[Bauhaus]] school would also influence the visual aesthetic and sound of new wave artists, which became contemporaneous with the development of the [[Memphis Group|Memphis Design]] aesthetic adopted by [[MTV]] and many new wave artists during the 1980s.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-06-14 |title=The Zany Exuberance of Memphis Group Blooms Amidst the Grandeur of Palazzo Franchetti |url=https://www.yatzer.com/memphis-plastic-field |access-date=2025-08-20 |website=Yatzer}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-09-20 |title=No Powerful Idea Lasts Long: The Memphis Group and the Look of the '80s |url=https://wearethemutants.com/2018/09/20/no-powerful-idea-lasts-long-the-memphis-group-and-the-1980s-look/ |access-date=2025-08-20 |website=We Are the Mutants}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Zara |first=Janelle |date=2017-07-21 |title=The return of Memphis: how the 80s design staple found a new audience |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/jul/21/memphis-group-ettore-sottsass-design-radical-met-breuer |access-date=2025-08-20 |work=The Guardian |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Additionally, [[Peter Ivers]] early output was later recognized as a precursor to new wave with Ivers contributing to the ''[[Eraserhead]]'' soundtrack and later hosting the influential show [[New Wave Theatre]] which helped popularize many early Californian new wave acts.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-11-11 |title=Unraveling the Mystery of Peter Ivers |url=https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/peter-ivers-becoming-peter-ivers-interview |access-date=2025-08-14 |website=Bandcamp Daily}}</ref> 

===Early 1970s===
The term "new wave" was originally coined by [[Seymour Stein]] of [[Sire Records]]<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> as a catch-all for more accessible music that emerged after [[punk rock]] in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-04-03 |title=Seymour Stein, legendary co-founder of Sire Records who signed Madonna, The Ramones and Talking Heads, dies at 80 |url=https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/seymour-stein-legendary-co-founder-of-sire-records-who-signed-madonna-the-ramones-and-talking-heads-dies-at-80/ |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=Music Business Worldwide}}</ref> At the time, due to the emergence of the [[Sex Pistols]], the American media portrayed punk rock as dangerous and violent, leading to a stigma that made music "virtually unmarketable,"<ref name="QA Theo Cateforis" /> emerging groups who stemmed from the American punk scene, began to adopt "new wave" as a form of marketing that distanced themselves from the "punk" label.<ref name="allmusic.com" />

[[File:Talking Heads band1.jpg|thumb|[[Talking Heads]] performing in [[Toronto]] in 1978]]
As early as 1973, critics including [[Nick Kent]] and [[Dave Marsh]] were using the term "new wave" to classify New York–based groups such as [[the Velvet Underground]] and [[New York Dolls]].{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=20}} In the US, many of the first new wave groups were found in the early [[New York punk]] scene, with acts such as [[Milk 'N' Cookies]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Milk 'N' Cookies Biography |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/milk-n-cookies-mn0000505863#biography |access-date=2025-08-12 |website=AllMusic |first=Mark |last=Deming}}</ref> [[the Shirts]], [[Mumps (rock band)|Mumps]], [[Talking Heads]], [[Mink DeVille]], and [[Blondie (band)|Blondie]] who drew influences from [[Glam rock|glam]], [[art rock]], and [[power pop]] and were primarily associated with the [[CBGB]] scene.<ref name="EncyclopediaofContemporaryBritishCulture" /> Alongside [[Devo]] and [[Pere Ubu]] who emerged out of the early [[Cleveland punk|Ohio punk]] scene, followed by [[Ultravox]] in London.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/14/clevelands-early-punk-pioneers-ohio|title=Cleveland's early punk pioneers: from cultural vacuum to creative explosion|last=Savage|first=Jon|date=14 November 2013|work=The Guardian|access-date=6 October 2019|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/ohio-78.php|title=Robert Christgau: A Real New Wave Rolls Out of Ohio|website=Robertchristgau.com|access-date=6 October 2019}}</ref> Some influential bands, such as New York's [[Suicide (band)|Suicide]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Summer 1978, New York's New Wave Heatwave: Suicide |website=Electronic Sound |url=https://www.electronicsound.co.uk/features/long-reads/summer-1978-new-yorks-new-wave-heatwave-suicide/ |access-date=2025-08-14}}</ref> and Boston's [[the Modern Lovers]] debuted even earlier, with drummer [[David Robinson (drummer)|David Robinson]] later joining early new wave band [[the Cars]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i76oAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 |title=The Ramones' Ramones|last=Rombes|first=Nicholas|date=18 February 2005|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|isbn=9781441103703}}</ref> CBGB owner [[Hilly Kristal]], referring to the first show by [[Television (band)|Television]] at his club in March 1974, said; "I think of that as the beginning of new wave".<ref>Clinton Heylin, ''Babylon's Burning'' (Conongate, 2007), p. 17.</ref> Many musicians who would have originally been classified as punk were also described as new wave, with the label used interchangeably with punk bands before it denoted a specific sound. A 1977 [[Phonogram Records]] compilation album of the same name (''[[New Wave (compilation album)|New Wave]]'') includes American punk rock bands such as the [[Dead Boys]] and [[Ramones]] alongside [[Talking Heads]] and [[the Runaways]].<ref name="EncyclopediaofContemporaryBritishCulture">{{cite book |author1=Peter Childs |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofco0000unse_l1e7 |title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture |author2=Mike Storry |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-415-14726-2 |page=365 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name=Savage>Savage, Jon. (1991) ''England's Dreaming'', Faber & Faber</ref>  

===Mid- to late 1970s===
Between 1976 and 1977, the terms "new wave" and "punk" were used somewhat interchangeably.<ref name="dissertation">{{cite conference |last=Cateforis |first=Theo |year=2009 |title=The Death of New Wave |url=http://iaspm-us.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Cateforis.pdf |conference=IASPM US |location=San Diego |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130205120043/http://iaspm-us.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Cateforis.pdf |archive-date=5 February 2013}}</ref><ref name="Joynson11to12" /><!--For a while in 1976 and 1977 the terms punk and new wave were largely interchangeable. By 1978, things were beginning to change, although the dividing line between punk and new wave was never very clear.-->
Music historian Vernon Joynson said new wave emerged in the UK in late 1976, when many bands began disassociating themselves from punk.<ref name="Joynson11to12">{{Cite book |title=Up Yours! A Guide to UK Punk, New Wave & Early Post Punk|last= Joynson|first= Vernon|year= 2001|publisher=Borderline Publications|location= Wolverhampton|isbn= 1-899855-13-0 |pages= 11–12}}</ref> That year, the term gained currency when it appeared in UK punk [[fanzine]]s such as ''[[Sniffin' Glue]]'', and music weeklies such as ''[[Melody Maker]]'' and ''[[New Musical Express]]''.<ref name=Gendron>Gendron, Bernard (2002). ''Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde'' (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press), pp. 269–270.</ref> In November 1976, [[Caroline Coon]] used the term "new wave" to designate music by bands that were not exactly [[punk rock|punk]] but were related to the punk-music scene.<ref>Clinton Heylin, ''Babylon's Burning'' (Conongate, 2007), pp. 140, 172.</ref> The mid-1970s British [[Pub rock (United Kingdom)|pub rock]] scene became another source of many of the most-commercially-successful new wave acts, such as [[Ian Dury]] and [[Nick Lowe]], as well as Ireland's [[Boomtown rats|Boomtown Rats]].<ref name="Bomp">Adams, Bobby. "Nick Lowe: A Candid Interview", ''Bomp'' magazine, January 1979, reproduced at [https://powerpop.blogspot.com/2005/12/pppda-nick-lowe-interview-from-1979.html]. Retrieved 21 January 2007.</ref>

In the US, [[Sire Records]] chairman [[Seymour Stein]], believing the term "punk" would mean poor sales for Sire's acts who had frequently played the New York club [[CBGB]], launched a "Don't Call It Punk" campaign in October 1977 designed to replace the term with "new wave".{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=25}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ellis |first=Iain |date=2019-02-14 |title=New Wave: Turning Rebellion into Money » PopMatters |url=https://www.popmatters.com/new-wave-rebellion-into-money-2628904704.html |access-date=2025-11-15 |website=www.popmatters.com |language=en-US}}</ref> The term "punk" drew negative associations in the US due to the British [[punk subculture]], while radio consultants had advised their clients that punk rock was a fad, and so they settled on the new term.  ''[[The New York Rocker]]'', which was suspicious of the term "punk", had been using the term "new wave" since December 1976 and was the first American journal to enthusiastically use the term, at first for British acts and later for acts associated with the CBGB scene.<ref name=Gendron /> At first, most American writers used the term "new wave" exclusively in reference to British punk acts.<ref>''The Grove Dictionary of American Music'', 2nd edition New 3 September 2014</ref> The music's stripped-back style and upbeat tempos, which Stein and others viewed as a much-needed return to the energetic rush of rock and roll and 1960s rock that had dwindled in the 1970s with [[progressive rock]] and stadium spectacles, attracted them to new wave.<ref name="Cateforis, Theo 2014">Cateforis, Theo. "New Wave." ''The Grove Dictionary of American Music'', 2nd ed., Oxford University Press. 2014.</ref>{{page needed|date=May 2022}}

In England, the terms "[[post-punk]]" and "[[new musick]]" were coined by music journalist [[Jon Savage]] in the November 26, 1977 issue of [[Sounds (magazine)|''Sounds'']] in an article titled "New Musick: Devo Look Into the Future!" to describe a strain of bands that were moving passed the [[garage rock]] conventions of punk rock and incorporating wider influences.<ref name=":4">{{cite magazine |last=Savage |first=Jon |date=26 November 1977 |title=New Musick: Devo Look Into the Future! |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/new-musick-devo-look-into-the-future |access-date=17 June 2025 |magazine=Sounds}}</ref> The terms "post-punk" and "new wave" were used interchangeably to describe these groups before the genres perceptibly narrowed, some artists adopted synthesizers.<ref>{{cite book|author=Greil Marcus|title=Ranters and Crowd Pleasers|page=109|publisher=Anchor Books|year= 1994}}</ref> In London, artists such as Ultravox, [[Elvis Costello]] and [[Gary Numan]]'s [[Tubeway Army]] later released influential new wave albums during this period. While punk rock wielded a major influence on the popular music scene in the UK, in the US it remained a fixture of the underground.<ref name="Cateforis, Theo 2014" />

By the end of 1977, "new wave" had replaced "punk" as the term for new [[underground music]] in the UK.<ref name="Gendron" /> In early 1978, [[XTC]] released the single "[[This Is Pop]]" as a direct response to tags such as "new wave". Songwriter [[Andy Partridge]] later stated of bands such as themselves who were given those labels; "Let's be honest about this. This is pop, what we're playing&nbsp;... don't try to give it any fancy new names, or any words that you've made up, because it's blatantly just pop music. We were a new pop group. That's all."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bernhardt|first1=Todd|last2=Partridge|first2=Andy|author-link2=Andy Partridge|title=Andy discusses "This Is Pop"|url=http://chalkhills.org/articles/XTCFans20071111.html|website=Chalkhills|date=11 November 2007}}</ref> 

In October 1978, the Cars released the single "[[My Best Friend's Girl (song)|My Best Friend's Girl]]" which was one of the first new wave singles to enter the Top 40 peaking at number 35 on the U.S. [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] chart, and reaching number three in the UK.<ref name="billboard">{{cite book |last=Whitburn |first=Joel |title=The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits |publisher=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard Books]] (Nielsen Business Media, Inc.) |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8230-7499-0 |edition=8th |location=New York |page=53}}</ref><ref name="billboard2">{{cite book |last=Whitburn |first=Joel |title=The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits |publisher=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard Books]] (Nielsen Business Media, Inc.) |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8230-7499-0 |edition=8th |location=New York |page=53}}</ref> In January 1979, Blondie released "[[Heart of Glass (song)|Heart of Glass]]" which became the first new wave single to reach number 1 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and the [[UK singles chart|UK Singles Chart]]. This success was followed by other new wave hits including [[M (band)|M]]'s "[[Pop Muzik]]", [[Tubeway Army]]'s "[[Are "Friends" Electric?|Are 'Friends' Electric?]]", [[the Police]]'s "[[Roxanne (The Police song)|Roxanne]]" and "[[Message in a Bottle (The Police song)|Message in a Bottle]]", [[Gary Numan]]'s "[[Cars (song)|Cars]]", [[the Knack]]'s "[[Good Girls Don't]]" and [[the Buggles]]' "[[Video Killed the Radio Star]]", which not only became a hit but later made history in 1981 as the first music video played on MTV.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Douris |first=Raina |date=2021-07-30 |title=The First 100 Videos Played On MTV |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/world-cafe/2021/07/30/1021813462/the-first-100-videos-played-on-mtv |access-date=2025-08-17 |work=NPR}}</ref>

===1980s===
<section begin="overview"/>In the early 1980s, new wave gradually lost its associations with punk in popular perception among some Americans. Writing in 1989, music critic Bill Flanagan said; "Bit by bit the last traces of Punk were drained from New Wave, as New Wave went from meaning Talking Heads to meaning the Cars to [[Squeeze (band)|Squeeze]] to [[Duran Duran]] to, finally, [[Wham!]]".{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=63}} Among many critics, however, new wave remained tied to the punk/new wave period of the late 1970s. Writing in 1990, the "Dean of American Rock Critics" [[Robert Christgau]], who gave punk and new wave bands major coverage in his column for ''[[The Village Voice]]'' in the late 1970s, defined "new wave" as "a polite term devised to reassure people who were scared by punk, it enjoyed a two- or three-year run but was falling from favor as the '80s began."<ref>{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1990|title=Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s|publisher=[[Pantheon Books]]|isbn=0-679-73015-X|url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg80/glossary.php}}</ref>

[[Lester Bangs]], another critical promoter of punk and new wave in the 1970s, when asked if new wave was "still going on" in 1982, stated that "The only trouble with New Wave is that nobody followed up on it ... But it was really an exciting burst there for like a year, year and a half."<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.furious.com/perfect/lesterbangs2.html |first = Jim |last = DeRogatis |title = A Final Chat with Lester Bangs |work = Perfect Sound Forever |date = November 1999 }}</ref> Starting around 1983, the US music industry preferred the more generic term "[[New Music (music industry)|new music]]", which it used to categorize new movements like [[new pop]] and [[New Romantic]]ism.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|pp=12, 56}} In 1983, music journalist Parke Puterbaugh wrote that new music "does not so much describe a single style as it draws a line in time, distinguishing what came before from what has come after."<ref name="Anglomania: The Second British Invasion">{{cite magazine |last1=Puterbaugh |first1=Parke |title=Anglomania: The Second British Invasion |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/new-wave-1980s-second-british-invasion-52016/ |access-date=18 March 2022 |magazine=Rolling Stone |publisher=Penske Media Corporation |date=10 November 1983 |quote=New music betokens a kind of pop modernism with a British bias, without getting too specific. It can be said to have originated in the U.K. around 1977 with the noisy, infidel insurrections of the Clash, the Sex Pistols and the Jam, and it continues—in a broken line and through all manner of phases and stages—to the present day, with such bands as Culture Club, Duran Duran and Big Country. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220310140313/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/new-wave-1980s-second-british-invasion-52016/ |archive-date=10 March 2022 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Chuck Eddy]], who wrote for ''The Village Voice'' in the 1980s, said in a 2011 interview that by the time of British new pop acts' popularity on MTV, "New Wave had already been over by then. New wave was not synth music; it wasn't even this sort of funny-haircut music. It was the guy in [[the Boomtown Rats]] wearing pajamas."<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Los Angeles Review of Books]]|title=The Writer's Jukebox: An Interview with Chuck Eddy|last=Matos|first=Michaelangelo|url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-writers-jukebox-an-interview-with-chuck-eddy/|date=29 September 2011|access-date=21 December 2023}}</ref> Similarly in Britain, journalists and music critics largely abandoned the term "new wave" with the rise of synth-pop.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=254}} According to authors Stuart Borthwick and Ron Moy, "After the monochrome blacks and greys of punk/new wave, synth-pop was promoted by a youth media interested in people who wanted to be pop stars, such as [[Boy George]] and [[Adam Ant]]".<ref name=Borthwick>{{citation|title=Popular Music Genres: an Introduction|author1=S. Borthwick  |author2=R. Moy  |name-list-style=amp |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7486-1745-6 |chapter=Synthpop: into the digital age |publisher=Routledge |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGPdDwAAQBAJ}}</ref>

In 2005, [[Andrew Collins (broadcaster)|Andrew Collins]] of ''[[The Guardian]]'' offered the breakup of [[the Jam]], and the formation of Duran Duran, as two possible dates marking the "death" of new wave.<ref name="Collins">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/mar/19/popandrock |title=And then came the wave...: When he was growing up in 1970s Northampton, Andrew Collins would have killed anyone who'd called his favourite bands new wave |author-link=Andrew Collins (broadcaster) |first=Andrew |last=Collins |newspaper=The Guardian |date=18 March 2005 |access-date=18 May 2020 }}</ref> British rock critic [[Adam Sweeting]], who described the Jam as "British New Wave at its most quintessential and successful", remarked that the band broke up "just as [[British pop music|British pop]] was being overrun by the preposterous leisurewear and over-budgeted videos of Culture Club, Duran Duran and ABC, all of which were anathema to the puritanical [[Paul Weller|Weller]]."<ref>{{cite web|website=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2002/apr/26/shopping.artsfeatures|title=That was the modern world|last=Sweeting|first=Adam|date=25 April 2002}}</ref> Scholar Russ Bestley noted that while punk, new wave, and post-punk songs had featured on the [[Top of the Pops (record series)|Top of the Pops album series]] between mid-1977 and early 1982, by the time of the first ''[[Now That's What I Call Music (original UK album)|Now That's What I Call Music!]]'' compilation in 1983 punk and new wave was "largely dead and buried as a commercial force".<ref name=ual>{{cite web|first=Russ|last=Bestley| title=The Top of the Poppers sing and play punk|year=2019|website=[[University of the Arts London]]|url=https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/14980/1/TOTP%20Article%20.pdf|access-date=20 March 2024}}</ref><section end="overview"/>

New wave was closely tied to punk, and came and went more quickly in the UK and Western Europe than in the US. At the time punk began, it was a major phenomenon in the UK and a minor one in the US. When new wave acts started being noticed in the US, the term "punk" meant little to mainstream audiences, and it was common for rock clubs and discos to play British dance mixes and videos between live sets by American guitar acts.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|pp=46–47, 62}}

Illustrating the varied meanings of "new wave" in the UK and the US, Collins recalled how growing up in the 1970s he considered [[the Photos]], who released one album in 1980 before splitting up a year later, as the most "truly definitive new wave band". In the same article, reviewing the American book ''This Ain't No Disco: New Wave Album Covers'', Collins noted that the book's inclusion of such artists as [[Big Country]], Roxy Music, Wham!, and [[Bronski Beat]] "strikes an Englishman as patently ridiculous", but that the term means "all things to all cultural commentators."<ref name="Collins"/> By the 2000s, critical consensus favored "new wave" to be an umbrella term that encompasses [[power pop]], synth-pop, [[ska revival]], and the soft strains of punk rock.<ref name="bubgum"/> In the UK, some post-punk music developments became mainstream.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|pp=46–47}} According to music critic David Smay writing in 2001:

{{blockquote|quote=Current critical thought discredits new wave as a genre, deriding it as a marketing ploy to soft-sell punk, a meaningless umbrella term covering bands too diverse to be considered alike. Powerpop, synth-pop, ska revival, art school novelties and rebranded pub rockers were all sold as "New Wave".<ref name="bubgum"/>}}

==Popularity in the United States (1970s–1980s)==
[[File:Energy Dome.jpg|thumb|Painting of a [[Devo]] energy dome hat]]
{{synthesis|section|date=May 2020}}
===1970s===
In mid-1977, [[arena rock]] and [[disco]] dominated the U.S. charts<ref name="StJames" /> while acts associated with punk/new wave received little or no radio airplay and music industry support, despite favorable lead stories by ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919062-2,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090124151910/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919062-2,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 January 2009 |title=Anthems of the Blank Generation | magazine=Time |date=11 July 1977 |access-date=15 May 2011}}</ref> and ''[[Newsweek]]''.<ref name="punk/newwave">{{cite web |url-status=dead |url=https://www.allmusic.com/descriptor-check/d4491 |website=AllMusic |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527144714/https://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/punk-new-wave-ma0000011872 |archive-date=27 May 2022 |title=Punk/New Wave }}</ref> Small new wave scenes developed in major cities, but public support remained limited to elements of the artistic, bohemian, and intellectual population.<ref name=Gendron /> In early 1979, Eve Zibart of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' noted the contrast between "the American audience's lack of interest in New Wave music" compared to critics, with a "stunning two-thirds of the Top 30 acts" in the 1978 [[Pazz & Jop]] poll falling into the "New Wave-to-rock 'n' roll revivalist spectrum".<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|last=Zibart|first=Eve|date=30 January 1979|title=Clash-Consciousness: The Latest Breaking of Britain's New Wave|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/01/31/clash-consciousness-the-latest-breaking-of-britains-new-wave/ab744a16-b80a-4aa0-aef2-a81657c07233/|access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref> A month later, Zibart called [[Elvis Costello]] the "Best Shot of the New Wave" in America, speculating that "If New Wave is to take hold here, it will be through the efforts of those furthest from the punk center" due to "inevitable" American middle-class resistance to the "jarring rawness of New Wave and its working-class angst."<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|last=Zibart|first=Eve|date=8 February 1979|title=Elvis Costello: Best Shot of the New Wave|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/02/09/elvis-costello-best-shot-of-the-new-wave/78b41e9a-4042-4667-9a5b-bccac1446c03/|access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref>

In late 1978 and 1979, punk acts and acts that mixed punk with other genres began to make chart appearances and receive airplay on rock stations and rock discos.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=37}} [[Blondie (band)|Blondie]], Talking Heads, the Police, and the Cars charted during this period.<ref name="dissertation" /><ref name=StJames>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/new-wave-music |title=New Wave Music |encyclopedia=St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture |first=Steve |last=Graves |via=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=30 March 2019}}</ref> In 1979, "[[My Sharona]]" by [[the Knack]] was ''Billboard'' magazine's number-one single; its success, combined with new wave albums being much cheaper to produce during the music industry's worst slump in decades,{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=37}} prompted record companies to sign new wave groups.<ref name="dissertation" /> At the end of 1979, [[Dave Marsh]] wrote in [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] that the Knack's success confirmed rather than began the new wave movement's commercial rise, which had been signaled in 1978 by hits for the Cars and Talking Heads.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|title=The Flip Sides of 1979|last=Marsh|first=Dave|author-link=Dave Marsh|date=27 December 1979|access-date=14 February 2024|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-flip-sides-of-1979-113608/}}</ref> In 1980, there were brief forays into new wave-style music by non-new wave artists [[Billy Joel]] (''[[Glass Houses (album)|Glass Houses]]''), [[Donna Summer]] (''[[The Wanderer (Donna Summer album)|The Wanderer]]''), and [[Linda Ronstadt]] (''[[Mad Love (Linda Ronstadt album)|Mad Love]]'').<ref name="dissertation" />

===1980s===
Early in 1980, influential radio consultant [[Lee Abrams]] wrote a memo saying with a few exceptions, "we're not going to be seeing many of the new wave circuit acts happening very big [in the US]. As a movement, we don't expect it to have much influence."<ref name="AOR Lee Abrams Memo">{{cite news |last1=Abrams |first1=Lee |last2=Goldstein |first2=Patrick |title=Is New-Wave Rock on the Way Out? |url=https://ladailymirror.com/2010/02/16/radio-consultant-sees-dim-future-for-new-wave-rock/ |access-date=18 March 2022 |date=16 February 1980 |format=Image |quote="With the exception of the Boomtown Rats, the Police and a few other bands, we're not going to be seeing many of the New Wave circuit acts happening very big over here (in America). As a movement, we don't expect it to have much influence."}}</ref><ref name="allmusic.com"/> A year earlier, Bart Mills of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' asked "Is England's New Wave All Washed Up?", writing that "The New Wave joined the Establishment, buying a few hits at the price of its anarchism. Not a single punk band broke through big in America, and in Britain [[John Travolta]] sold more albums than the entire New Wave."<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|title=Is the New Wave All Washed Up?|date=13 January 1979|access-date=14 February 2024|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/01/14/is-the-new-wave-all-washed-up/999ed5b9-a680-4c50-80f2-3105e365db8d/}}</ref> Lee Ferguson, a consultant to [[KPWR|KWST]], said in an interview Los Angeles radio stations were banning disc jockeys from using the term and noted; "Most of the people who call music new wave are the ones looking for a way not to play it".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2010/02/radio-consultant-sees-dim-future-for-new-wave-rock.html |first=Patrick |last=Goldstein |title=Is New-Wave Rock on the Way Out? |work=Los Angeles Times |date=16 February 2010 |access-date=15 May 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111230060423/https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2010/02/radio-consultant-sees-dim-future-for-new-wave-rock.html |archive-date=30 December 2011 }}</ref> Second albums by new wave musicians who had successful debut albums, along with newly signed musicians, failed to sell and stations pulled most new wave programming,<ref name="dissertation" /> such as Devo's socially critical but widely misunderstood song "[[Whip It (Devo song)|Whip It]]".<ref>{{Cite web |url-status=deviated |url=http://www.allmusic.com/song/whip-it-mt0007666679 |publisher=AllMusic |title=Whip It Review |first=Steve |last=Huey |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904004520/http://www.allmusic.com/song/whip-it-mt0007666679 |archive-date=4 September 2015 |quote=But even though most of the listening public took 'Whip It' as just a catchy bit of weirdness with nonsensical lyrics about a vaguely sexy topic, the song's actual purpose – like much of Devo's work – was social satire. Putting the somewhat abstract lyrics together, 'Whip It' emerges as a sardonic portrait of a general, problematic aspect of the American psyche: the predilection for using force and violence to solve problems, vent frustration, and prove oneself to others}}.</ref>

In 1981, the start of MTV began new wave's most successful era in the US.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} British musicians, unlike many of their American counterparts, had learned how to use the music video early on.<ref name=StJames /><ref name=Reynolds>''Rip It Up and Start Again Postpunk 1978–1984'' by [[Simon Reynolds]] Pages 340, 342–343</ref> Several British acts on independent labels were able to outmarket and outsell American musicians on major labels, a phenomenon journalists labeled the "[[Second British Invasion]]" of [[New pop|"new music"]], which included many artists of the [[New Romantic]] movement.<ref name=Reynolds /><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WE&s_site=kansas&p_multi=WE&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADB2EE79F08981&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |title=1986 Knight Ridder news article |publisher=Nl.newsbank.com |date=3 October 1986 |access-date=15 May 2011 |archive-date=10 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111110082513/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WE&s_site=kansas&p_multi=WE&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADB2EE79F08981&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1981, ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' contrasted the movement with the previous new wave era, writing that "the natty Anglo-dandies of [[Japan (band)|Japan]]", having been "reviled in the New Wave era", seemed "made to order for the age of the clothes-conscious New Romantic bands."<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Tuscaloosa News]]|title=Rolling Stone Random Notes|last=Loder|first=Kurt|author-link=Kurt Loder|date=17 July 1981|access-date=14 February 2024|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ricdAAAAIBAJ&pg=3175,3968351&dq=japan+sylvian&hl=en|via=Google News Archive}}</ref> MTV continued its heavy rotation of videos by "post-New Wave pop" acts "with a British orientation" until 1987, when it changed to a [[Heavy metal music|heavy metal]] and rock-dominated format.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/15/arts/the-pop-life-681988.html?scp=80&sq=%22new+wave%22+music&st=nyt |title=The Pop Life |work=The New York Times |date=15 June 1988 |access-date=15 May 2011 |first=Stephen |last=Holden}}</ref>

In a December 1982 [[Gallup poll]], 14% of teenagers rated new wave as their favorite type of music, making it the third-most-popular genre.<ref name=Gallup1982 /> New wave had its greatest popularity on the West Coast. Unlike other genres, race was not a factor in the popularity of new wave music, according to the poll.<ref name=Gallup1982>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QJcRAAAAIBAJ&pg=2928,4154291 |title=Rock Still Favorite Teen-Age music | newspaper=Gainesville Sun |date=13 April 1983 |access-date=15 May 2011}}</ref> [[Urban contemporary]] radio stations were the first to play dance-oriented new wave bands such as [[the B-52's]], [[Culture Club]], Duran Duran, and [[ABC (band)|ABC]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AO4gAAAAIBAJ&pg=4293,518718 |title=Crossover: Pop Music thrives on black-white blend |publisher=Knight Ridder News Service |date=4 September 1986 |access-date=15 May 2011}}</ref>
[[File:Ian_McCulloch1.jpg|thumb|[[Ian McCulloch (singer)|Ian McCulloch]] of [[Echo & the Bunnymen|Echo and the Bunnymen]] ]]

New wave soundtracks were used in mainstream [[Brat Pack (actors)|Brat Pack]] films such as ''[[Sixteen Candles]]'', ''[[Pretty in Pink]]'', and ''[[The Breakfast Club]]'', as well as in the low-budget hit ''[[Valley Girl (1983 film)|Valley Girl]]''.<ref name=StJames /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/sep/26/drama.comedy1 |title=But what does it all mean? How to decode the John Hughes high school movies |work=The Guardian |location=UK |access-date=15 May 2011 |date=26 September 2008}}</ref> [[John Hughes (filmmaker)|John Hughes]], the director of several of these films, was enthralled with British new wave music, and placed songs from acts such as [[the Psychedelic Furs]], [[Simple Minds]], [[Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark]], and [[Echo and the Bunnymen]] in his films, helping to keep new wave in the mainstream.<ref>{{cite web |date=27 March 2025 |title=John Hughes movie soundtrack collection set for release |url=https://www.classicpopmag.com/news/john-hughes-movie-soundtrack-collection-set-for-release/ |url-status= |access-date= |work=Classic Pop |language=}}</ref> Several of these songs remain standards of the era.<ref>{{cite web|last=Gora |first=Susannah |url=http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1633289/20100305/story.jhtml |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130129085617/http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1633289/20100305/story.jhtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 January 2013 |title=Why John Hughes Still Matters |work=MTV |date=7 March 2010 |access-date=15 May 2011}}</ref> Critics described the MTV acts of the period as shallow or vapid.<ref name=StJames /><ref name=Reynolds /> [[Homophobia|Homophobic]] slurs were used to describe some of the new wave musicians.{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|p=233}} Despite the criticism, the danceable quality of the music and the quirky fashion sense associated with new wave musicians appealed to audiences.<ref name=StJames /> [[Peter Ivers]], who started his career in the late 1960s, went on to become the host for the television program [[New Wave Theatre]] that showcased rising acts in the underground new wave scene. He has been described by [[NTS Radio]] as "a virtuosic songwriter and musician whose antics bridged not just 60s counterculture and New Wave music but also film, theater, and music television."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Radio |first=N. T. S. |title=In Focus: Peter Ivers 10th March 2020 |url=https://www.nts.live/shows/in-focus/episodes/in-focus-peter-ivers-10th-march-2020 |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=NTS Radio}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |title=New Wave Theater, The Waitresses and The Plimsouls: 1982 Los Angeles |url=http://www.tvparty.com/homeroom1/4-07-82.html |access-date=21 April 2023 |via=Tvparty.com |magazine=Data-Boy |date=7 April 1982 |first=Billy |last=Eye}}</ref>

In September 1988, ''Billboard'' launched its [[Modern Rock]] chart, the acts on which reflected a wide variety of stylistic influences. New wave's legacy remained in the large influx of acts from the UK, and acts that were popular in rock discos, as well as the chart's name, which reflects the way new wave was marketed as "modern".{{sfn|Cateforis|2011|pp=65–66}} According to Steve Graves, new wave's [[Independent music|indie]] spirit was crucial to the development of [[college rock]] and [[grunge]]/[[alternative rock]] in the latter half of the 1980s and onward.<ref name="StJames" /> Conversely, according to Robert Christgau, "in America, the original New Wave was a blip commercially, barely touching the nascent alt-rock counterculture of the '80s."<ref name="Christgau">Christgau, Robert (1996) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/music/recess-det.php "How to Beat the Law of Averages"], from ''Details'', 1996.</ref>

=== 1990s ===
{{See also|New wave of new wave}}
In the US, new wave continued into the mid-1980s but declined with the popularity of the [[New Romantic]], [[new pop]], and new music genres.<ref name="USNewWave">{{cite news |last=Collins |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Collins (broadcaster) |date=18 March 2005 |title=And then came the wave...: When he was growing up in 1970s Northampton, Andrew Collins would have killed anyone who'd called his favourite bands new wave |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/mar/19/popandrock |access-date=16 February 2024 |newspaper=The Guardian |quote=Costello, new wave's patron saint, was smart enough to put its musical licks behind him by 1980. In the US, of course, it flourished for years after, with bands as sappy as the Bangles and Huey Lewis & The News rocking the look into 1986 and beyond.}}</ref><ref name="dissertation"/> Some new wave acts, particularly [[R.E.M.]], maintained new wave's [[Independent record label|indie label]] orientation through most of the 1980s, rejecting potentially more lucrative careers from signing to a major label.<ref name=StJames /> In the UK, new wave "survived through the [[post-punk]] years, but after the turn of the decade found itself overwhelmed by the more outrageous style of the New Romantics."<ref name="UKNewWave" /> In response, many British [[Independent music|indie]] bands adopted "the kind of jangling guitar work that had typified New Wave music",<ref>{{cite web|website=ministryofrock.co.uk|title=Indie and the New Musical Express|last=Nickson|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Nickson|url=https://www.ministryofrock.co.uk/Indie.html|date=25 September 2012|access-date=13 February 2024}}</ref> with the arrival of [[the Smiths]] characterised by the [[music press]] as a "reaction against the opulence/corpulence of nouveau rich New Pop"<ref>{{cite book|first =Simon|last=Reynolds|author-link=Simon Reynolds| title =Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing About Hip Rock and Hip Hop| chapter=The Smiths: A Eulogy| date=26 September 1987|publisher=Catapult |isbn=978-1-59376-460-9 | chapter-url =https://books.google.com/books?id=H9wREAAAQBAJ&pg=PT61}}</ref> and "part of the move back to guitar-driven music after the keyboard washes of the New Romantics".<ref>{{cite web|website=ministryofrock.co.uk|title=The Smiths Were The Idols of Indie|last=Nickson|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Nickson|url=https://www.ministryofrock.co.uk/the-smiths-were-the-idols-of-indie.html|date=31 July 2010|access-date=13 February 2024}}</ref> In the aftermath of [[grunge]], the British music press launched a campaign to promote the [[new wave of new wave]] that involved overtly punk and new-wave-influenced acts such as [[Elastica]], but it was eclipsed by [[Britpop]], which took influences from both 1960s rock and 1970s punk and new wave.<ref name=EncyclopediaofContemporaryBritishCulture /><ref>{{cite web|website=ministryofrock.co.uk|title=The History of Britpop|last=Nickson|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Nickson|url=https://www.ministryofrock.co.uk/britpop.html|date=11 February 2015|access-date=13 February 2024}}</ref> Robert Christgau identified the mid-1990s NWONW movement as the peak of a new wave revival that has continued on and off since, stating in 1996, "1994 was the top of a curve we can't be certain we've reached the bottom of".<ref name="Christgau2">Christgau, Robert (1996) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/music/recess-det.php "How to Beat the Law of Averages"], from ''Details'', 1996.</ref>

=== 2000s–2010s ===
{{See also|New new wave}}
[[File:Franz-ferdinand-live-2006-tag.jpg|thumb|right|[[Franz Ferdinand (band)|Franz Ferdinand]] performing in 2006]]
During the 2000s, a number of artists that exploited a diversity of new wave and post-punk influences emerged through the alternative rock scene. In New York, these acts were encompassed by the [[electroclash]]<ref name="dancecult2">{{Cite journal |author=David Madden |date=2012 |title=Crossdressing to Backbeats: The Status of the Electroclash Producer and the Politics of Electronic Music |url=https://dj.dancecult.net/index.php/dancecult/article/view/342 |journal=Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture |pages=27–47 |access-date=January 3, 2015 |quote=Electroclash combines the extended pulsing sections of techno, house and other dance musics with the trashier energy of rock and new wave.}}</ref> and [[post-punk revival]] movement, sometimes labeled "New New Wave".<ref name="msnbc">{{cite web|last=Paoletta |first=Michael |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/new-wave-back-hot-new-bands-wbna6031887 |title=New wave is back – in hot new bands |publisher=Today.com |date=17 September 2004 |access-date=15 May 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/stefani_gwen/artist.jhtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051124153746/http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/stefani_gwen/artist.jhtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 November 2005 |title=Gwen Stefani MTV biography |work=Mtv |access-date=15 May 2011}}</ref> 

According to British music journalist [[Chris Nickson]], Scottish band [[Franz Ferdinand (band)|Franz Ferdinand]] revived both Britpop and the music of the late 1970s "with their New Wave influenced sound".<ref>{{cite web|website=ministryofrock.co.uk|title=Britpop Revival|last=Nickson|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Nickson|url=https://www.ministryofrock.co.uk/BritpopRevival.html|date=29 June 2013|access-date=13 February 2024}}</ref> [[AllMusic]] notes the emergence of these acts "led journalists and music fans to talk about a post-punk/new wave revival" while arguing it was "really more analogous to a continuum, one that could be traced back as early as the mid-'80s".<ref name="Revival">[{{AllMusic|class=style|id=new-wave-post-punk-revival-ma0000012020|pure_url=yes}} New Wave/Post Punk Revival]. AllMusic.</ref> In England, the resurgence of [[indie rock]] music that emerged through the 2000s post-punk revival scene led to a proliferation of formulaic acts collectively labelled "[[landfill indie]]". James New of [[Mumm-Ra (band)|Mumm-Ra]], an artist associated with this era, stated "I went into a weird new-wave band, because it felt so saturated seeing the same bands with kids in skinny jeans." <ref>{{Cite web |last=Bassil |first=Ryan |date=2020-09-11 |title=A Big 'Landfill Indie' Roundtable With Preston, Little Man Tate and Mumm-Ra |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/landfill-indie-interview-round-table-bands/ |access-date=2025-09-18 |website=VICE |language=en-US}}</ref> 

New wave revivalism influenced later internet [[Microgenre|microgenres]] such as [[Zolo (music genre)|zolo]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chalkhills: "Zolo Synthesis: A Discography", 1997 |url=http://chalkhills.org/articles/Zolo1997.html |access-date=2025-09-18 |website=chalkhills.org}}</ref> [[bloghouse]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Writers |first=Staff |date=2023-07-13 |title=The Ultimate Bloghouse Playlist To Welcome Its Renaissance |url=https://scenestr.com.au/music/the-ultimate-bloghouse-playlist-to-welcome-its-renaissance-2o230713 |access-date=2025-09-18 |website=scenestr.com.au |language=en-gb}}</ref> [[chillwave]], [[synthwave]] and [[vaporwave]]. In the mid- to late 2010s, an online [[internet meme]], led to the coining of a microgenre originally known as "[[devo-core]]", and later renamed "[[egg punk]]". The style was pioneered by Indiana band the Coneheads and characterized by the zany, lo-fi and edgier aspects of new wave band Devo.<ref name="P4K">{{cite web |last=Snerburne |first=Phillip |date=7 October 2021 |title=25 Microgenres That (Briefly) Defined the Last 25 Years |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/microgenres-25th-anniversary/ |accessdate=25 April 2024 |website=Pitchfork}}</ref>

=== 2020s ===
{{See also|Indie sleaze}}
In 2021, the New York electroclash and bloghouse scenes of the 2000s which drew inspiration from new wave music, led a woman named Olivia V. to coin an [[Internet aesthetics|internet aesthetic]] known as "[[indie sleaze]]", through the launching of the [[Instagram]] account @indiesleaze, which was dedicated to documenting the visual style of that period.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dazed |date=2022-09-05 |title=The return of indie music: the comeback nobody asked for |url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/56708/1/why-indie-music-should-stay-in-the-00s-the-kooks-sleaze-strokes |access-date=2025-09-18 |website=Dazed |language=en}}</ref>

== Regional scenes ==

=== Soviet Union ===
{{Distinguish|Sovietwave}}

During the 1970s and 1980s, under the [[Soviet Union]], an underground music scene influenced by the [[punk subculture]] in the United States and UK led to the development of several [[post-punk]] and new wave influenced acts in countries such as Bosnia, Estonia, Russia, Serbia, and Belarus. In Russia, prominent post-punk acts were centered in [[Leningrad]] such as [[Kino (band)|Kino]], [[Aquarium (band)|Akvarium]], [[Auktyon]], [[Nautilus Pompilius (band)|Nautilus Pompilius]] and [[Piknik]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Raspopina |first=Sasha |date=2016-09-06 |title=Rock in the USSR: Leningrad's short-lived subculture – in pictures |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2016/sep/06/soviet-union-rock-music-late-1980s-american-culture-perestroika |access-date=2025-10-19 |work=the Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=VICE |date=2015-04-06 |title=Allowed for Performance: Punk and Rebellion in 1980s Siberia |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/siberian-punk-scene-in-the-1980s/ |access-date=2025-10-19 |website=VICE |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Bennetts |first=Marc |date=2019-06-05 |title=Joanna Stingray – the woman who smuggled punk rock out of the USSR |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jun/05/joanna-stingray-russia-cold-war-soviet-union-underground-music |access-date=2025-10-19 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

=== Spain ===
{{Main|La Movida Madrileña}}

{{See also|Punk rock in Spain}}
In post-[[Francoist Spain|Francoist]] Spain during the late 1970s and early 1980s, the influence of punk rock led to [[La Movida Madrileña]] (The Madrid Scene),<ref>{{Cite news |last=Phelan |first=Stephen |date=2020-02-11 |title='Bless the chaos': La Movida Madrileña, Spain's seedy, wild post-Franco underground |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/feb/11/la-movida-madrilena-spain-post-franco-anarchists-alaska-pedro-almodovar |access-date=2025-10-19 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> a countercultural movement centered in [[Madrid]] that emerged after the death of Spanish dictator [[Francisco Franco]]. The movement musically drew influences from [[post-punk]], [[synth-pop]] and new wave music.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-04-15 |title=Ten Artists Keeping Spanish Pop Campy and Rebellious |url=https://daily.bandcamp.com/scene-report/spanish-camp-pop-list |access-date=2025-10-19 |website=Bandcamp Daily}}</ref> In the 2010s and 2020s, the Spanish post-punk scene became encompassed by acts such as Depresión Sonora.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-05-12 |title=Post-Punk Rising Star Depresión Sonora on L.A. Culture Shock and Tacos ~ L.A. TACO |url=https://lataco.com/depresion-sonora-tacos-mexico |access-date=2025-10-17 |website=lataco.com |language=en}}</ref>
== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* {{anl|Postmodern music}}
* {{anl|No wave}}
* {{anl|Lostwave}}
* {{anl|Minimal wave}}
* {{anl|Doomer wave}}
* {{anl|Dance-punk revival}}
* {{anl|Juchewave}}
* {{anl|Simpsonswave}}
* {{anl|Signalwave}}
* {{anl|Fashwave}}
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |last=Cateforis |first=Theo |date=2011 |title=Are We Not New Wave?: Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s |url=http://www.press.umich.edu/152565/are_we_not_new_wave |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |isbn=978-0-472-03470-3 |access-date=4 June 2014 }}
* Coon, Caroline. ''1988: the New Wave Punk Rock Explosion''. London: [[Orbach and Chambers]], 1977. {{ISBN|0-8015-6129-9}}.
* {{cite book |last=Haddon |first=Mimi |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/What_Is_Post_Punk/p-ClEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |title=What Is Post-Punk?: Genre and Identity in Avant-Garde Popular Music, 1977–82 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-0-472-03921-0 |access-date=13 November 2025 |url-status=live}}

==Further reading==
* Bukszpan, Daniel. ''The Encyclopedia of New Wave''. [[Sterling Publishing]], 2012. {{ISBN|978-1-4027-8472-9}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ODs8IEzC4Z0C |title=Walking on the Moon: The Untold Story of the Police and the Rise of New Wave |first=Chris |last=Campion |date=7 January 2010 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=9780470627839 }}
* Majewski, Lori: Bernstein, Jonathan ''Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s''. [[Abrams Books|Abrams Image]], 15 April 2014. {{ISBN|978-1-4197-1097-1}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}<!-- Any external link that is promotional in nature such as toward a new wave radio stations will be deleted as soon as it is seen by other editors [[WP:LINKSPAM]] -->
* [http://newwavecomplex.com/ New Wave Complex] – the original page dedicated to new wave music since 1996
* [http://last.fm/tag/new+wave/albums New wave albums] statistics and tagging at [[Last.FM]]
* [http://last.fm/tag/new+wave/tracks New wave tracks] statistics and tagging at Last.FM
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01kcq0k BBC Two - Sounds of the 70s 2, New Wave - Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick] [[Sounds of the 70s]], Series 2, Episode 10
* [https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9098396/new-wave Encyclopædia Britannica Definition]
* {{cite news |url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/ohio-78.php |title=A Real New Wave Rolls Out of Ohio |author-link=Robert Christgau |first=Robert |last=Christgau |work=[[Village Voice]] |date=17 April 1978 }}
* {{cite news |url= https://robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pj78.php |title= New Wave Hegemony and the Bebop Question|author-link=Robert Christgau |first=Robert |last=Christgau |work=[[Village Voice]] |date=22 January 1979 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090810155314/http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1617857/story.jhtml 1997 Interview with Brat Pack Film Director John Hughes] Published MTV 7 August 2009
* [http://www.krakowpost.com/article/1849 Rock Against the Bloc] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102155357/http://www.krakowpost.com/article/1849 |date=2 November 2013 }} A look back at the punk/new wave movement in Poland by the ''[[Krakow Post]]'', 1 February 2010
* {{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oFY1AAAAIBAJ&pg=1480,26529883 |title=Drowning In My Nostalgia |newspaper=Philippine Inquirer |date=7 September 2002 |quote=A critic looks back at her teenage fan days in the Philippines and Los Angeles }}

{{New Wave music}}{{Electronic rock}}
{{Punk}}
{{Rock}}
{{Electronica}}
{{Authority control}}

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