- New Music (music industry)
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New Music Stylistic origins New Wave, Punk rock, post-punk, Ska, Motown, Reggae, Rockabilly, African Music Cultural origins Late 1970s, Early 1980s, United Kingdom Mainstream popularity Widespread in the United States early 1980s. Other topics Second British Invasion, Synthpop – New Romanticism – MTV New Music was an umbrella term used by the music industry and by music journalists in the United States, primarily during 1982 and 1983 to describe music acts who had come to commercial success in the United States through the cable music channel MTV. It was a pop music and cultural phenomenon in the United States associated with the Second British Invasion.[1][2]
During 1976 and 1977 there was a punk rock music explosion in the United Kingdom. In its wake the New Wave and post-punk genres emerged informed by a desire for experimentation, creativity and forward movement. As the 1980s began a number of these musicians desired to broaden these movements to reach a more mainstream audience. Out of this desire came a technologically oriented music that hid its less commercial and experimental aspects underneath a pop shell. From 1981 to 1983 music journalists began to replacing the term "New Wave" with New Romantic and New pop in Great Britain, and talk about "New Music" in America.[3] Unlike in Great Britain, attempts prior to 1982 to bring New Wave and music video to American audiences had brought mixed results. During 1982 New Music acts began to appear on the charts in the United States and clubs there that played it were packed.[1] In reaction to New Music Album Oriented Rock radio stations doubled the amount of new acts they played and the format "Hot Hits" emerged.[1][4] By 1983 New Music acts such as Duran Duran, Culture Club, and Men at Work were dominating the charts and creating an alternate music and cultural mainstream.[1] Annie Lennox and Boy George were the two figures most associated with New Music.[2][4]
"I hated the phrase 'new wave'. It sounded too trendy and could be gone in a year"
—Dennis McNamara program director who oversaw Long Island, New York radio station WLIR's 1982 change to a New Music format.[5]Many New Music acts were danceable, had an androgynous look, emphasized the synthesizer and drum machines, wrote about the darker side of romance, and were British. New music acts rediscovered Rockabilly, Motown, Ska, Reggae and merged it with African rhythms to produce what was described as a "fertile, stylistic cross-pollination".[1] The term "New Music" was also used to describe New Wave acts such as Elvis Costello and the Pretenders[4] and American MTV stars such as Michael Jackson.[2] Stephen Holden of the New York Times wrote at the time that New Music was more about its practitioners then the their sound. Teenage girls and males that had grown tired of traditional "phallic" guitar driven rock embraced New Music.[4]
Criticism of New Music emerged from both supporters of traditional rock and newer experimental rock. These critics looked at New Music as pro corporate at expense of rock music's anti-authoritarian tradition. Critics believed New Music's embrace of synths and videos were ways of covering in many cases lack of talent. Rock Journalist Simon Reynolds noted homophobic elements in the criticism occurring at the time.[4] Richard Blade a disc jockey at Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM speaking of the late 1980s said "You felt there was a winding-down of music. Thomas Dolby's album had bombed, Duran had gone through a series of breakups, the Smiths had broken up, Spandau Ballet had gone away, and people were just shaking their heads going, 'What happened to all this new music?' "[6]
References
- ^ a b c d e Triumph of the New Newsweek on Campus reprinted by the Michigan Daily March 2, 1984
- ^ a b c Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited" Von R. Serge Denisoff, William L. Schurk p. 441
- ^ The Death of New Wave Theo Canteforis Syracuse University 2009
- ^ a b c d e Rip it Up and Start Again Post Punk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds
- ^ WLIR, Denis McNamara ushered a wave of new music, Newsday, November 13, 2010
- ^ KROQ: An Oral History
See also
Categories:- Music genres
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