Your top 20 new wave pop songs

[PeterG]

Simply put, just New Wave (aka post-punk) pop songs - 1976-ish to 1984-ish

One song per band:

Cardiacs - Nurses Whispering Verses (81)
Kate Bush - Army Dreamers
The Stranglers - Golden Brown
Ultravox - Vienna
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Happy House
The Cure - A Forest
Magazine - Song From Under the Floorboards
Squeeze - Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)
Icehouse - Hey Little Girl
Duran Duran - Save a Prayer
Spandau Ballet - To Cut a Long Story Short
Human League - Being Boiled
Visage - Fade to Grey
Jona Lewie - Stop the Cavalry
Kraftwerk - The Model
Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen in Love?
XTC - Senses Working Overtime
Simple Minds - New Gold Dream
Depeche Mode - New Life
Lene Lovich - Bird Song

[bigjohnwayne]

Here goes:
Most of these were singles, I think, but New Wave was a singles genre anyway in my opinion

Squeeze: Up the Junction
Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark: Enola Gay
New Order: As It Is, When it was
XTC: Summer's Cauldron
Tears for Fears: Head Over Heels
New Order: Bizarre Love Triangle
Blondie: X Offender
The Cars: Bye Bye Love (if it wasn't one song per group there would be about 7 Cars songs on this list)
The Dream Academy: Indian Summer
The Jam: Going Underground
The Cure: Just Like Heaven
The Smiths: Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
The Motors: Dancing the Night Away
Eddie and the Hot Rods: Do Anything You Wanna Do
Psychedelic Furs: Pretty in Pink
Elvis Costello: You Belong to Me
Joe Jackson: Happy Loving Couples

[iguana]

A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS “space age love song”
GARY NUMAN “cars”
NEW ORDER “bizarre love triangle”
VISAGE “the damned don’t cry”
THE CURE “inbetween days”
BUGGLES “adventures in modern recording”
WATERBOYS “the whole of the moon”
ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK “joan of arc / maid of orleans”
ANNE CLARK “sleeper in metropolis”
THE SPECIALS “gangsters”
MYLENE FARMER “desenchantee”
TUBEWAY ARMY “are ‘friends’ electric”
LAURIE ANDERSON “oh superman”
TALK TALK “such a shame”
FRIDA “i know there's something going on”
JOY DIVISION “transmission”
THE DAMNED “anything”
ULTRAVOX “the voice”
THE SMITHS “panic”
JOE JACKSON “steppin’ out”

can i have another 20 please? great stuff. my yoof.

[PeterG]

Shit! How the fudge did I forget Gary Nyman for my list,!!!!!

[Mr.Flower]

Gary Numan - Are Friends Electric?
Spandau Ballet - To Cut a Long Story Short
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Spellbound
Pretenders - Brass in Pocket
Squeeze - Up the Junction
Specials - Too Much too Young
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Geno
Ian Dury & the Blockheads - Hit Me (with your rhythm stick)
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
The Tubes - Young Punks on Dope
David Bowie - Fashion
Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime
Magazine - Shot by Both Sides
Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead
Devo - Whip It
Adam & the Ants - Ant Music
The Associates - Club Country
Orange Juice - Rip it Up
Simple Minds - Love Song
The Skids - Into the Valley

[Nijinsky Hind]

Devo- Unconrollable urge
talking heads- for artists only
Wire- Kidney bingos
Aha-Take on me
Polecats-Make the circuit
The Apostles-how can I prove
Freur-doot doot
Jam- Town called malice
Jam- Mr.Clean
Code Blue-Hurt
The Cure-10:15 on a saturday night
gang of 4-I found that essence rare
Stranglers-Mayan skies
Buzzcocks-ESP
The Triffids-life of crime
Shreikback-my spine is the bassline
Dream academy- life in a northern town
The beautiful south- woman in the wall
The english beat- I confess
Adam And the ants- dog eat dog

[Rarebird]

Let's give it a try. Don't know if I get to 20 and I don't know it's all new wave, but well, I see others (even PeterG) mentioned some acts I wouldn't consider new wave as well.

Stranglers - No more heroes
XTC - Making plans for Nigel
The Cure - A Forest
The Nits - A touch of Henry Moore
Ultravox - Vienna
Anne Clark - Sleeper in metropolis
Tubeway Army - Are friends electric

[at least 100 dead]

Fehlfarben - Militürk
Ideal - Telepathie
Joachim Witt - Herbergsvater
Extrabreit - 110
Trio - Los Paul
Gary Numan - Down in the Park
Walker Brothers - Nite Flights
The Fall - Living Too Late
Simple Minds - Seeing out the Angel
Ultravox - Maximum Acceleration

XTC - Travels in Nihilon
Joy Division - Transmission
Killing Joke - Chessboards
New Order - Blue Monday
This Heat - A New Kind of Water
Comsat Angels - Waiting for a Miracle
The Cult - Brother Wolf, Sister Moon
Icehouse - Uniform
B-52's - Dance This Mess Around
Birthday Party - King Ink

[Sunlight Caller]

Lots of great songs and memories in the lists so far. Here's 30 of mine, I could go on and on though ...

Echo & The Bunnymen - A Promise
The Teardrop Explodes - Bouncing Babies
Simple Minds - Theme For Great Cities
New Order - Ceremony
Joy Division - New Dawn Fades
Psychedelic Furs - Pretty In Pink
The Slits - Typical Girls
Television - Marquee Moon
Magazine - The Light Pours Out Of Me
Comsat Angels - Independence Day
The Cure - Primary
Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime
The Associates - Transport To Central
Wire - Map Ref 41 N 93 W
Rchard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation
PIL - Poptones
The Only Ones - From Here To Eternity
... And The Native Hipsters - There Goes Concord Again
The Damned - New Rose
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Melt




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[bob_32_116]

I have never been quite sure what New Wave is. Reading this thread, I am now even less sure. Apart from the fact that it emanates from a particular time period, it seems to me just another term for "pop".

[at least 100 dead]

^^^ It's a "I know it when I hear it" thing, I guess.

Maybe it's New Wave if...

• it has a Motorik beat
• the bass plays straight 8th notes
• the singer wears Mascara
• the singer does that jerky dance w/ extended index finger
• the singer has an asymmetric hairdo

Dunno...

[iguana]

@100dead: danke für den herbergsvater!!!!

KiLLiNG JOKE: a glaring omission in my list. duh.

[at least 100 dead]

@ iguana: Glorious, innit? You're very welcome!

[iguana]

@ iguana: Glorious, innit? You're very welcome!

oh ja. it belongs here.

[Trane]

^^^ It's a "I know it when I hear it" thing, I guess.

Maybe it's New Wave if...

• it has a Motorik beat
• the bass plays straight 8th notes
• the singer wears Mascara
• the singer does that jerky dance w/ extended index finger
• the singer has an asymmetric hairdo

Dunno...

[Nijinsky Hind]

I have never been quite sure what New Wave is. Reading this thread, I am now even less sure. Apart from the fact that it emanates from a particular time period, it seems to me just another term for "pop".

Well, it really was and still is a sub genre of Rock music... Perhaps born of punk vs disco... Cleaned up for mass consumption, better musicianship than punk, a little edgier and experimental than disco... Mechanical beats, heavy guitars,Keyboards, synths, fashion... Guess you just had to be there, I dunno... But It's pretty clear to me what New Wave was.... I guess Blondie, the Cure, talking heads, Go Gos, were the most popular examples. There were sure a lot of bands that fell into the new wave genre. Not sure though if Killing Joke qualifies but hey why not?

2 or maybe even 3 of my picks could be considered by many to be more punk than New wave... Nothing is absolute.

[bob_32_116]

Well, it really was and still is a sub genre of Rock music... Perhaps born of punk vs disco... Cleaned up for mass consumption, better musicianship than punk, a little edgier and experimental than disco... Mechanical beats, heavy guitars,Keyboards, synths, fashion... Guess you just had to be there, I dunno... But It's pretty clear to me what New Wave was.... I guess Blondie, the Cure, talking heads, Go Gos, were the most popular examples. There were sure a lot of bands that fell into the new wave genre. Not sure though if Killing Joke qualifies but hey why not?

2 or maybe even 3 of my picks could be considered by many to be more punk than New wave... Nothing is absolute.

OK, most of those acts you mention pretty much correspond with what I think of "New Wave". Add The Police, The Cars, The Pretenders.
The problem I have is when bands like Orchestral Manouevres, Spandau Ballet, Human League, Flock of Seagulls get included, because I think of them as "synth-pop"... and I know genres are always going to overlap, but to me the distinction is significant, because while I have plenty of admiration for acts like Blondie and the Cure I have little time for Spandau Ballet or Flock of Seagulls. Indeed that's true for most of the early 80s synth-pop bands. I make an exception for OMD who definitely had the gift of making interesting tunes.

[the winter tree]

"One Thing Leads to Another - The Fixx
"Fish Below the Ice" - Shriekback
"Airwaves" - Thomas Dolby
"One of Our Submarines" - Thomas Dolby
"Sinking" - The Cure
"Destination Unknown" - Missing Persons
"Reap the Wild Wind" - Ultravox
"Obsession" - Animotion
"Mexican Radio" - Wall of Voodoo
"Bang On the Drum" - Todd Rundgren
"Love Plus One" - Haircut 100
"Let Me Go" - Heaven 17
"Told You So" - Depeche Mode
"Save A Prayer" - Duran Duran
"Great Commandment" - Camouflage
"Some People" - Belouis Somme
"Never Stop" - Echo and the Bunnymen
"The Lebanon" - Human League
"Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven" - Love and Rockets
"Mesopatania" - B52s
"New Year's Day" - U2
"Riding On the Metro" - Berlin

[Nijinsky Hind]

OK, most of those acts you mention pretty much correspond with what I think of "New Wave". Add The Police, The Cars, The Pretenders.
The problem I have is when bands like Orchestral Manouevres, Spandau Ballet, Human League, Flock of Seagulls get included, because I think of them as "synth-pop"... and I know genres are always going to overlap, but to me the distinction is significant, because while I have plenty of admiration for acts like Blondie and the Cure I have little time for Spandau Ballet or Flock of Seagulls. Indeed that's true for most of the early 80s synth-pop bands. I make an exception for OMD who definitely had the gift of making interesting tunes.

Yeah your right about those bands you mention... Synth pop was a new wave thing though for sure. The bands you mention seem to me to be more like ultravox who had been around before the term New Wave was even coined as far as I know. kraftwerk too...

Every genre has its peripheral or satellite bands I suppose.

[PeterG]

I have never been quite sure what New Wave is. Reading this thread, I am now even less sure. Apart from the fact that it emanates from a particular time period, it seems to me just another term for "pop".

Put it this way, back then (78 to 82) certain new bands in the UK weren't considered New Wave/Post Punk, despite the fact that they were active at the same time. Mostly, it was the pub rockers/funksters/soulsters and third wave ska/white reggae/mod bands that we never considered as New Wave back then: dire straits, pretenders, Nick Lowe, dave Edmunds, Joe Jackson, Ian dury, police, madness, the specials, bad manners, selecter, the jam to name but a few. The end of the application of the term was really about 82, and definitely nothing later than 83 was called New Wave. By the time the smiths released their first lp in 84, we were already using the terms jangle pop, guitar pop, alt rock, indie pop, indie rock, goth rock, and goth pop.

[PeterG]

Original raw punk was shortlived, and had already passed by 76, 77. After that the softer punk and new wave were basically the same and being played by the same bands, undertones, members, buzzcocks, stranglers, damned, Costello, gen x, clash.

[PeterG]

The stranglers are an object lesson in that they started in the early 70s as a pub rock/college/garage band and progressed straight to new wave, and with the exception of a few live tracks completely bypassed the first burst of punk in 75-77. Their albums from their debut onwards were a mix of new wave, with touches of rock n roll and hard rock. JJ famously once shouted at a journo "we're not a fucking punk band"