Sep 30, 2026 · 2 hr 58 min · 11 segments
This month we're diving into the colorful, synth-soaked world of New Wave, exploring the movement that blurred the lines between punk, pop, art rock, and electronic music. We discuss the bands that…
So I, uh, working i accessed the google machine and put together some information for us about what was new wave the sound new wave wasn't just a single genre it was an artistic explosion emerging in the late 1970s and dominating the 1980s it was the cleaner more melodic and highly inventive cousin of punk rock While punk wanted to burn down the music industry with raw aggression, New Wave wanted to rebuild it using art, fashion, and technology.
It mixed traditional rock and roll guitars with cutting-edge electronic synthesizers, drum machines, and quirky jerky rhythms.
It gave us everything from the jittery intellectual art rock of Talking Heads to the gloomy gothic atmospheres of The Cure.
all the way to the sleek, neon-drenched electric pop of Depeche Mode and Duran Duran.
So, where did the name come from? The term was first borrowed from the French New Wave, or Nouveau, I believe it's pronounced, the French New Wave cinema movement, in fact, of the 1950s and 60s, which broke traditional filmmaking rules to create something self-aware, artsy, and radically cool.
The term came to be applied to music in the mid to late 70s when there were British music writers, magazines like Enemy and Melody Maker and also the head of Sire Records in the US, Seymour Stein.
Hello, signed the Ramones.
They started using the term new wave to describe bands that had the raw energy of punk, but were too pop friendly, sophisticated or experimental to be called punk.
It was their wave to get these edgy bands played on the radio.
The visual revolution.
You can't talk about New Wave without talking about how it looked.
It was the first musical movement engineered for the visual age because video killed the radio star.
When MTV launched in 1981, New Wave bands with their dramatic haircuts, hello Billy Idol, asymmetrical fashion and theatrical makeup became the kings and queens of the music video format.
It rejected the hairy, denim-clad arena rock look of the 70s.
Hey, I resemble that remark.
In favor of retrofuturism, neon colors, geometric shapes, and gender-bending fashion.
So why does it still matter today? It laid the foundation for modern alternative rock, indie pop, and electric dance music.
So every time you hear a modern band using a driving synthesizer hook or a moody bass line, you're hearing the DNA of the new wave.
And as I was saying all of that and thinking about what Jay had said, I also came up with this, which is think of it like alternative music in the 90s.
alternative music was not just nirvana
more helpful even though that was a hugely helpful definition you just read the last thing you said was the most helpful thing
because yeah alternative music was everything from nirvana to the cranberries to yeah you know it was it was alternative but it wasn't just a single thing and that's pretty much the same way you need to look at new wave
that is helpful, especially since I'm looking at the Wikipedia page with lists of bands, there's some shocking names on there.
I think John's going to walk us through a list of bands soon, or maybe even now, but I, and like I say, looking in the Wikipedia page, there's like little things where there's a Billy Joel during the glass houses.
lost so and john hyatt is listed there during a certain era
So I, uh, working i accessed the google machine and put together some information for us about what was new wave the sound new wave wasn't just a single genre it was an artistic explosion emerging in the late 1970s and dominating the 1980s it was the cleaner more melodic and highly inventive cousin of punk rock While punk wanted to burn down the music industry with raw aggression, New Wave wanted to rebuild it using art, fashion, and technology.
It mixed traditional rock and roll guitars with cutting-edge electronic synthesizers, drum machines, and quirky jerky rhythms.
It gave us everything from the jittery intellectual art rock of Talking Heads to the gloomy gothic atmospheres of The Cure.
all the way to the sleek, neon-drenched electric pop of Depeche Mode and Duran Duran.
So, where did the name come from? The term was first borrowed from the French New Wave, or Nouveau, I believe it's pronounced, the French New Wave cinema movement, in fact, of the 1950s and 60s, which broke traditional filmmaking rules to create something self-aware, artsy, and radically cool.
The term came to be applied to music in the mid to late 70s when there were British music writers, magazines like Enemy and Melody Maker and also the head of Sire Records in the US, Seymour Stein.
Hello, signed the Ramones.
They started using the term new wave to describe bands that had the raw energy of punk, but were too pop friendly, sophisticated or experimental to be called punk.
It was their wave to get these edgy bands played on the radio.
The visual revolution.
You can't talk about New Wave without talking about how it looked.
It was the first musical movement engineered for the visual age because video killed the radio star.
When MTV launched in 1981, New Wave bands with their dramatic haircuts, hello Billy Idol, asymmetrical fashion and theatrical makeup became the kings and queens of the music video format.
It rejected the hairy, denim-clad arena rock look of the 70s.
Hey, I resemble that remark.
In favor of retrofuturism, neon colors, geometric shapes, and gender-bending fashion.
So why does it still matter today? It laid the foundation for modern alternative rock, indie pop, and electric dance music.
So every time you hear a modern band using a driving synthesizer hook or a moody bass line, you're hearing the DNA of the new wave.
And as I was saying all of that and thinking about what Jay had said, I also came up with this, which is think of it like alternative music in the 90s.
alternative music was not just nirvana
more helpful even though that was a hugely helpful definition you just read the last thing you said was the most helpful thing
because yeah alternative music was everything from nirvana to the cranberries to yeah you know it was it was alternative but it wasn't just a single thing and that's pretty much the same way you need to look at new wave
that is helpful, especially since I'm looking at the Wikipedia page with lists of bands, there's some shocking names on there.
I think John's going to walk us through a list of bands soon, or maybe even now, but I, and like I say, looking in the Wikipedia page, there's like little things where there's a Billy Joel during the glass houses.
lost so and john hyatt is listed there during a certain era
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
