A New Fan of New Wave Music

The older I get the more I have found myself going back to music I used to listen to, or flat out trying music that I never gave a chance in the past. During the pandemic I finally started listening to Talking Heads and now they're one of my favorite bands. I have recently gone back to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. I forgot how much I love their album "Howl". I have listened to more Prince lately. I found that, since I like The Beatles, why not give The Zombies and The Kinks a shot, and they both rule.

With this newfound trait to give different music a try, I have found that I have been leaning a bit more on New Wave music. I almost always passed New Wave up because it seemed akin to disco to me, a genre that I'm not all that into. I would see my brothers listening to Depeche Mode and Joy Division and just pass it off as "their" music. I was too busy listening to bad hip hop at that time of my life. But, after seeing that some Talking Heads songs are considered, hell they must be, new wave, I decided to jump in. And I have loved what I have been hearing.

I went online and found a new wave playlist and streamed it. I am really digging the sound. I have heard songs from Blondie, Talking Heads, The Smiths and Depeche Mode. These are songs I already knew, but never really gave a real listen to before. I have really enjoyed what I have heard from these artists. I love the music in the background of "Heart Of Glass". It sounds like a precursor to a ton of music I listen to now. It has a cool blend of pop and hip hop. I adore the song "Just Can't Get Enough". It is groovy and fun to dance and sing along to in the car. The Smiths can be a little preachy, but I do like the guitar in most of their stuff. I have also been introduced to some bands that I had heard of before, but never listened to. I'm glad I'm giving these bands a real chance. I heard The Cars today. I had no idea they sang "Just What I Needed". That song rules and is fun as hell. I also finally listened to XTC today and they are rad. I love their sound. It is a great blend of rock and synth music. The The is another band I was introduced to today and they are cool as hell. They have more of that new wave feel, and I'm here for it. And The Psychedelic Furs seems like the members may be pretentious, but damn do they make some good music.

As I was sitting back and thinking about new wave music today, it dawned on me why I like it so much. New wave is just rock music, maybe a little pop, and then the bands added a synth player. And the synth does some fine work in the songs. It adds a whole new layer to the music. It makes it funkier and easier to dance to while bopping along in my car. I fully understand that new wave may be more of the look of the bands and their lifelong fans, but for me it is all about that synth. It is so cool and it is one of my newfound favorite instruments.

I'm going to go full bore into the world of new wave at this point, so if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know who to listen to. I greatly appreciate it. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The Greatest American Band Debate: The Cars

We all have a soundtrack to our lives. There are songs we hear that immediately transport us back to a certain time in our life. These songs are not always considered great by the critics and keepers of pop culture, but they have strong personal feelings. Everybody born before 1980 can sing the first few bars of the song Alex P. Keaton hears when he thinks of Ellen. I had no idea who sang that song, or what it was called. (Billy Vera and the Beaters, At This Moment. Now you know, it that is half the battle.) Music is the closest thing we have to time travel. Sometimes we hear a song, and we are transported to a time long forgotten.

The Cars created some of the greatest memories with their incredible music. The band was able to build these memories by making some of the greatest music to come out in the early 1980's. Ric Ocasek and his sound is iconic, but he was not a solo artist.  The Cars were a band who went through many previous incarnations with new members being picked out of other small local bands until an influential sound could be created. Ocasek first picked up bassist Benjamin Orr in Cleveland and headed to Boston. Once in Boston the duo added and subtracted many members until the Cars were formed with Ocasek, Orr, Elliot Easton on guitar, Greg Hawkes on keyboards, and David Robinson on drums.  The synth heavy, new wave sound of The Cars helped move the nation away from disco. The bands first two albums, The Cars and Candy-O both brought the band great success, but their eternal greatness was going to be how The Cars music was brought to the masses visually.

On August 1st, 1981 MTV launched and created a new trajectory for popular music. Well regraded musicians who did not have a good look, such as Christopher Cross, were suddenly being left behind. The pretty bands like Duran Duran and Flock of Seagulls (???) were now taking over your screens and speakers. The Cars were one of the first bands to understand that great music videos could complement great music. They were already commercially and critically successful with their sound, now The Cars were gaining a new level of fame with their videos. At the very first MTV Video Music Awards, The Cars took home the top prize for their video for "You Might Think".

The Cars already had the great music, they now were considered the best music video artists. Incredible music and mind blowing videos is not how an entire generation will remember The Cars. In 1982 the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High opened and left its mark on all of generation x. Writer Cameron Crowe and director Amy Heckerling created iconic characters, and produced one particular scene that would hit a bit close to home for many of the audience. (link kind of NSFW). The iconic music used for this memorable scene was the song "Moving in Stereo" by The Cars. Like the Alex Keaton sad song, Phoebe Cates coming out of the pool song has been planted in our brains and created a moment we will never forget. The red bikini, the exit from the pool, the slow walk, the embarrassment, all to the voice and bass of Benjamin Orr with backing from the rest of The Cars. Anyone born before 1980 knows that scene, and they know that song. The Cars created an everlasting memory.

The Cars broke up in the late eighties, and bassist Benjamin Orr succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2000. There have been a few different line-ups touring under The Cars, mostly playing iconic hits from the bands greatest days. In 2010 the living founding members of The Cars reunited, recorded a new album, and went out on tour. It is down right criminal that The Cars have not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The keepers of the hall need to correct this oversight. The Cars created a sound for a generation.

In crowning the Greatest American Band, we get caught up in who made the most popular music, and we forget to give credit to the bands that are timeless. The Cars may not be the most popular, although they did pretty good at selling records, but they were unforgettable. When I listen to The Cars Pandora station, there is recognizable hit after hit. The moment "Moving in Stereo" comes on I am transported. Over thirty years later I can feel the excitement, and the embarrassment at the same time. That is true greatness.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. He hopes now that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has no more Beatles to induct, maybe a deserving band like The Cars can get some love. Nominate your Greatest American Band and write for SeedSing.