Hey a couple of music questions for those in the know.

1. How would you explain New Wave to someone?

2. Say I was interested in exploring a bit of progressive rock. (Because I am.) Current exposure is basically Pink Floyd. Where should I start?

1. How would you explain New Wave to someone?

Well, "New Wave" was a marketing ploy to find a more palatable name for Punk. But really it was a splitting off of one part of early punk - the part interested in pop hooks and dance beats and wacky imagery. Bands like Devo, Rezillos, B-52s were all kitschy and catchy.

As a genre it's more keyboard driven, and - as I put it in the Bubblegum book - the refuge for gays, geeks and girls as punk turned into hardcore (white, suburban, skater boys).

In a way it encompassed the bands that owed the most to Bowie and Roxy Music, the artier end of glam rock. And less to the Stooges/NY Dolls.

So Gary Numan, Devo, the Cars, B-52s, Lene Lovich...

Slate did a series on the history of prog last year: [link]

Check out this 60-minute concert (5 songs) of Genesis with Peter Gabriel from 1973: [link]

As a genre it's more keyboard driven, and - as I put it in the Bubblegum book - the refuge for gays, geeks and girls as punk turned into hardcore (white, suburban, skater boys).

I like this. I think this is pretty much what I was looking for.

So Gary Numan, Devo, the Cars, B-52s, Lene Lovich...

This is interesting, with the exception of Devo, none of those acts come first to mind when I think of New Wave. (For me New Wave mostly means UK, so Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Ultravox, Adam and the Ants etc.)

(For me New Wave mostly means UK, so Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Ultravox, Adam and the Ants etc.)

Those are all New Romantics which is yet a later wave. (Though New Romantics are properly a sub-genre of New Wave.)

Those are all New Romantics which is yet a later wave. (Though New Romantics are properly a sub-genre of New Wave.)

Not the Eurythmics, and Adam Ant disavows the label (unconvincingly, to my mind), but yes, there's a lot of New Romantic in my New Wave.

I recorded Biyi an album of 80s New Wave; artists on it were:

The Buggles
Split Enz
Devo
Robert Palmer
Adam and the Ants
Ultravox
Duran Duran
The Human League
Kim Wilde
The Stranglers
Madness
ABC
A Flock Of Seagulls
Eurythmics
Spandau Ballet
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Thompson Twins
Nik Kershaw

Being specifically 80s, obviously it's going to be a bit further from the genre's origins. Nonetheless, i'm noticing that I barely associate New Wave with the US at all. (I'd say unfairly, except that this is more about personal taste than a comprehensive survey. Still, that's quite a bias.)

Apparently I like New Wave! Or New Romantics!

I hate the term prog, though. It sounds unfinished aloud, and in print I always read it as prong

and Adam Ant disavows the label

Tough shit! Musicians don't get to decide what buckets we put them in! That's my job.

Also, Siouxsie? Goth! Bauhaus? Goth! Sisters of Mercy? Guess what? UBER GOTH! Tough shit you goth-denying doofus. Your name is fucking Andrew Eldritch, (real name in 4th form: Andy Taylor) so quit whining about how your music is misunderstood and miscategorized. And then you park goth icon, Patricia Morrison, next to you with the biggest hair in Christendom and you're going to say you're not Goth?

Anyway, Adam Ant practically defines New Romanticism with his piratey/highwayman get-ups. What's more Romantic than puffy pirate shirts?

The American wing of New Wave was generally the poppier/dancier end of the CBGBs bands (specifically Talking Heads and Blondie, but not just). Then there were folks like Patti Smith and Television who weren't really Punk or only occasinally Punk sound-wise, but not really New Wave either.

There were bands doing similar things popping up around the country at that time as well (The Cars out of Boston, for instance).

real name in 4th form: Andy Taylor

He should clearly join Duran Duran.