AAJ » Music » Styles » Rock » New Wave » Category Description

While the name "New Wave" originally described a diverse, creative underground form that was (confusingly) often seen as a part of Punk, it eventually came to be used as a blanket term for any early '80s pop music that used synthesizers.

Early New Wave included the likes of the legendary Talking Heads (who were a part of the original New York Punk scene, but were also classified as post-punk for their artfulness and as New Wave at least partly for their MTV success), the bubblegummy Blondie, the poppy but smart Cars, the opera-singing spaceman Klaus Nomi, and the anxious and articulate Elvis Costello. With the birth of MTV, New Wave became a household phrase associated with a new, telegenic crop of pop-influenced acts such as Culture Club, Haircut 100, and A Flock of Seagulls.

Today, the term is almost too broad to be meaningful as a true description of the sound, but ask any child of the '80s what New Wave is, and almost everyone is likely to mention some of the artists listed on these pages.

Choices

• Dirigibles Josh Nelson
• Momentum Mike Baggetta Quartet
• Into Your Love Rick Britto
• Love For Sale Laura Ainsworth
• Choral Andreas Ulvo
• Bovina Jeremy Udden
• Portrait Of Lola Marquis Hill
• Dindi Lauren Henderson
• Notably So The Bob Szajner TRIAD IV
• Rise and Shine Tommy Vig

Jazz Icons Series 5