Warning: the following answers are based on the vaguest of memories, treat with caution.
Blondie
- New wave, I guess. But what actually characterises the new wave sound?
Hmmm, bubble-gum punk? But 'bubble-gum' as in surly teenage girls leaning against walls with their arms folded, as opposed to chirpy nippers with their fingers up their noses. Tuneful mix of guitars and cheap, hammond-style keyboards - yeah, in fact I think the high pitched keyboards are crucial to the New Wave sound. Maybe New Wave is easier to identify by image: big plastic-framed 60s style shades, smart but brightly coloured suits, thin ties, horizontally striped t-shirts, monochrome graphics. I think Martha and the Muffins were described as a New Wave band, and possibly The Tourists (Annie Lennox's pre-Eurythmics band).
The Mission
- Goth? Was it called goth at the time?
Definitely goth - hippy goth, in fact - and yes, it was called goth at the time. I think the earliest I heard the word goth was around '85 (the year of the first Sisters of Mercy lp), but I'm sure people closer to the scene would have been using it before that. Bauhaus were probably the first proper goth band, and they were doing their thing in '79 (maybe earlier?)
Public Image?
Gang of Four?
Wire?
Usually called post-punk, though the first Wire album is more straight-up punk. Post punk is basically people with a punk sensibility getting arty (if they were inspired by Krautrock and Beefheart, ie PIL, Wire) or funky (Gang of Four, The Pop Group).
Echo and the Bunnymen?
Tricky. I suppose they're yer standard indie pop, though with a touch of grandeur that that horrible phrase doesn't normally conjur up. Hints of goth and psychedelia in their sound.
Love and Rockets?
A Bauhaus spin-off, and most often bought by goths, though at a time when goths were taking lots of psychedelics and mutating into either hippies, metallers or grebos (cf Zodiac Mindwarp, Gaye Bikers on Acid etc). Poppy, psychadelic rock, I suppose.
Laurie Anderson?
Avant garde? |
