NESP Forum

"One fine ass sits on this stool"

I like New England Soul Patrol Modern Whomp on seat
with styles of music around the edge, but anything will be cool

Music that followed the anarchic garage band ethos of the Sex Pistols was distinguished as "punk", while music that tended toward experimentation, lyrical complexity, or more polished production, was categorised as "New Wave". This came to include musicians who had come to prominence in the British pub rock scene of the mid-1970s, such as Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, Eddie and the Hot Rods and Dr Feelgood; [3] acts associated with the New York club CBGBs, such as Television, Patti Smith, and Blondie; and singer-songwriters who were noted for their barbed lyrical wit, such as Elvis Costello, Tom Robinson and Joe Jackson. Furthermore, many artists who would have originally been classified as punk were also termed New Wave. A 1977 Phonogram compilation album of the same name features US artists including the Dead Boys, the Ramones, Talking Heads and the Runaways.[1]

Later still, "New Wave" came to imply a less noisy, more pop sound, and to include acts manufactured by record labels,[citation needed] while the term “post-punk” was coined to describe the darker, less pop-influenced groups, as Siouxsie & the Banshees, considered one of the first post-punk bands.[citation needed] Although distinct, punk, New Wave, and post-punk all shared common ground: an energetic reaction to the supposedly overproduced, uninspired popular music of the 1970s.

Tom Petty (probably in jest) has taken credit for "inventing" New Wave. He has been quoted as saying that journalists struggled to define his band, The Heartbreakers, recognizing they were not punk rock, but still wanting to identify them with Elvis Costello and the Sex Pistols. He also suggests — again, probably half-jokingly — that the song When the Time Comes from the You’re Gonna Get It! album (1978) "might have started New Wave. Maybe that was the one."