A Flock of New Wave Trivia Quiz

Answer: Punk

New Wave rose side by side with Punk, or some would say it grew out of Punk. One important difference was that New Wave was more sophisticated and above all more commercially accessible. New Wave would eventually crack the mainstream while Punk plunged into the underground fringes of hardcore.

The explosion of British Punk in 1976, with groups like the Sex Pistols, Damned and Clash, was referred to in the music press as the "New Wave." For a year or two, Punk and New Wave were basically synonymous. In the U.S., however, after the failure of the Sex Pistols' tour, major American record labels regarded Punk as unmarketable, with an aura of violence that had limited appeal.

This second appearance of the New Wave-the "new" New Wave of 1978 -- succeeded where Punk had failed, as new wave artists made serious inroads into both the album and the Top 40 charts.

Answer: Heavy use of the blues

Unlike the rock music that predominated the 1970s, New Wave drew very little from the blues tradition. Groups like Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow borrowed rhythms from Cuba, Jamaica, and West Africa (the "Burundi beat"), but not the blues. Although some groups (The Cars, Talking Heads, and The Police) kept the guitar central, many others (Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, and the Human League) raised the synthesizer to the principal instrument. With the help of new music media like MTV on cable (or pay) television, New Wave groups conquered the mainstream with the music video becoming a more important aspect to a successful song and to a winning act than ever before.

The blues is a distinctive style born of Southern Black American culture in the early 20th century, with a 12-bar chorus and also with a three-chord progression and melancholy sound from the use of flatted notes (blue notes).

Answer: Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello, together with the Pretenders, the Psychedelic Furs, and Nick Lowe comprised a core group of writers and performers from the London scene. In New York, Talking Heads and Blondie, led by the glamorous Deborah Harry, sprang from the nightclub scene, especially at the legendary venue CBGB, lurking at the corner of Bleecker Street and the Bowery from 1973 to 2006.

Devo, which exemplified futurism taken to extremes, emerged from a vortex of New Wave that developed in the suburbs of northwestern Ohio in 1973. They extraordinarily influenced New Wave, especially after their appearance on 'Saturday Night Live' in 1978.

Answer: The B-52's

The vocals of the B-52's blended the retro girl harmonies of Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson with the punk-like shouting energy of Fred Schneider. Pierson and Cindy sported a beehive hairdo that in earlier decades was called the B-52 for resembling the nosecone of the strategic bomber aircraft. Their many hits from the 1970s-80s included "Rock Lobster", "Private Idaho", "Wig", and "Love Shack".

When John Lennon heard "Rock Lobster", he told 'Rolling Stone' magazine, "it sounds just like [Yoko] Ono's music, so I said to meself, 'it's time to get out the old axe and wake the wife up!'". He then made his last album, "Double Fantasy" (1980).

There were other hubs of New Wave that formed in the United States, with very successful and influential acts. The Cars, led by Ric Ocasek, came from Boston. The Knack, whose "My Sharona" was released in 1979, was formed in Los Angeles, as was Oingo Boingo, founded by Danny Elfman, who went on to have a career composing film scores, including those of 'Batman' (1989) and 'Dumbo' (2019).

Answer: Pretty in Pink

"Pretty in Pink" was originally released by the Psychedelic Furs in 1981 from their second album 'Talk, Talk, Talk'. The Psychedelic Furs formed in London in 1977, and while they initially had a sort of art-rock/punk sound, they had moved into New Wave by the 1980s. (They called themselves "psychedelic" to distance themselves from punk rockers who explicitly rejected 1960s music.)

The Furs re-recorded the song "Pretty in Pink" for the eponymous movie that starred Molly Ringwald and other members of the Brat Pack, a group of young Generation-X actors who made many films together. (The name calls to mind the the "Rat Pack" of the 1960s which consisted of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and others). The plot of the movie greatly differs from the song, which is about adults, not teenagers, and the re-mixed version has more upbeat riffs that sweeten the bitterness that is in the lyrics themselves.

Answer: A Flock of Seagulls

A Flock of Seagulls formed in Liverpool in 1979 According to Mike Score, the group's founder, they took their name in part from the children's book 'Johnathan Livingston Seagull'. The video to "I Ran (So Far Away)" was low-budget even for its time, but it was a runaway hit on MTV during the Second British Invasion of the early 1980s.

In some ways A Flock of Seagulls were ahead of their time. Throughout their history, they were often derided by music critics, not only for Mike Score's distinctive back-combed haircut (to suggest a bird) but also for their dramatic style. In the 2010s they started becoming more recognized for how pioneering they had been in electronic music, particularly their songs with flowing, multi-layered cascades of sound such as "Space Age Love Song". The work of lead guitarist Paul Reynolds has also gained more appreciation.

A Flock of Seagulls went on hiatus in 1986, but re-formed in 1988. In 2018 they recorded an album with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra called 'Ascension'.

Answer: The Go-Go's

Belinda Carlisle led the Go-Go's to their success in the 1980s. All Music Guide described the quintet's debut album as one of the "cornerstone albums of the U.S. new wave". In March 1982, the "Beauty and the Beat" hit number one on the Billboard 200 album chart -- a feat that by the beginning of the 2020s still had not been duplicated by an all-woman band that writes their own material and plays all their own instruments. Singles released from the album include "Our Lips are Sealed" (number 20 on the Billboard chart) and "We Got the Beat" (number two).

The Bangles got their start in Los Angeles in 1981. Bananarama formed in London in 1979. The Pointer Sisters, not a New Wave but an R&B group, formed back in 1969.

Answer: Duran Duran

The New Romantics (NR) were a subset of New Wave that was consciously reacting against the austerity of punk (as it had become by the 1980s) and was strongly influenced by the glam rock of David Bowie and by earlier punk styles. Both sexes would wear androgynous clothing (though the NR were mostly men) and makeup, with generous amounts of eyeliner.

Duran Duran were part of the original NR scene that grew out of Birmingham (as well as London). As part of the Second Invasion, they capitalized on MTV, and they shot most of their videos in 35mm and collaborated with professional filmmakers. "Hungry Like a Wolf" was written in a flash in all of a weekend, but the video was a longer project. In fact, Duran Duran filmed three videos, including the iconic "Hungry Like a Wolf" in Sri Lanka which added to their exotic image.

Other New Romantic acts include Spandau Ballet, Visage, and the Thompson Twins, as well as the Culture Club, led by the gender-bending Boy George.

Because of his sexy highway-bandit look, especially when he was part of Adam and the Ants, the singer Adam Ant is often included in the New Romantics although he was never part of the original scene and he rejected the label (and so did the Ants). The Human League is also sometimes retrospectively included as among the New Romantics, but the group never considered themselves such during the 1980s and rather saw themselves in league with the futurists (such as Devo).

Answer: It's Still Rock and Roll to Me

"It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" came from Billy Joel's seventh studio album 'Glass Houses' (1980). Other songs from the album include "You May Be Right" and "Don't Ask Me Why", which has a very Latin style.

"It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" is a New Wave song (indeed the whole album has been characterized as such) in that it adopts the edge, instrumentation, rhythm, etc., but it expresses an anti-New Wave spirit, or at least a bit of cynicism about the movement. The end of the song muses:
"Don't you know about the new fashion honey? /
All you need are looks and a whole lotta money" /
It's the next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways /
It's still rock and roll to me. /
Everybody's talkin' 'bout the new sound /
Funny, but it's still rock and roll to me."

Billy Joel was not alone in his foray into New Wave territory. Alice Cooper tried his hand with 'Flush the Fashion' (1980). Linda Rondstadt, seeking to shed her mellow hippie image from the 1970s, released an album of New Wave covers, called 'Mad Love' (1980).

Answer: Blue Monday

"Blue Monday" is regarded as a synth-pop masterpiece. The song was originally released in 1983 with a futuristic video, and then remixed and re-released by New Order in 1988 and 1995. The deadpan vocals of lead singer Bernard Sumner, the distinctive synth bass line, and the upbeat electronic drums that contrast with the brooding lyrics -- all of these have contributed to the song's staying power. Unlike most pop songs, "Blue Monday" does not have a verse-chorus structure, although there is the repeating motif of "how does it feel" and "how should I feel". Well into the 21st century, "Blue Monday" remained the best-selling 12-inch single since the recording industry began keeping track.

While "Blue Monday" (with renditions by New Order and Sebastian Böhm) appears in some of the official trailers for 'Wonder Woman 1984', the song does not appear in the film itself! However, the New Wave hits "Rio" by Duran Duran and "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood do find their way into the soundtrack. (Some critics have suggested that the movie would have done better to have been scored with nonstop 1980s hits).