A Year in the 80’s – New Wave Music

When I think of early 80’s music, New Wave is what first comes to mind. Wikipedia says that “New Wave music is an umbrella term for several late-1970s to mid-1980s pop/rock musical styles…broadly analogous to punk rock before branching as a distinctly identified genre, incorporating electronic/experimental music, mod, disco and pop.”

I think of New Wave as punk-ish, pop-ish, stylized, individualistic, creative, synthetic, and highly electronic. And like Punk, New Wave was a style beyond the music, with its own distinct fashion sense – that maybe made no sense, haha. But it was creative, you have to give them that!

Here are some videos of what I think of as New Wave Music:

Culture Club, Karma Chameleon, 1982

.

Adam Ant, Goody Two Shoes, 1982

.

Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), 1983

.

Cyndi Lauper, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, 1983

.

Thompson Twins, Hold Me Now, 1983

.

Howard Jones, Things Can Only Get Better, 1985

.

I read once that the music you loved during your formative years will stick with you the rest of your life. That must be true, because I definitely still have a place in my heart for the synthetic sounds of New Wave.

~~~

How about you?

What kind of music did you listen to
when you were first starting to really get into music?