WHAT New Romantics???

All the press coverage of Stephen Strange's death made me wonder, were there really that many New Romantic bands out there? (DJs/club owners/trendsetters sure, but actual bands that self-identified as being NR?). The only ones I could think off offhand were:

Visage
early Spandu Ballet
early Duran Duran
Classix Nouveaux
early Depeche Mode (maybe)
mid-period Ultravox (maybe)
Cuddly Toys?


There were folks who were involved in the movement who later went on to decidedly non-NR bands (Boy George), folks who always denied being part of said movement (Japan), and folks whom you see on "New Romantics" compilations and go WTF?!? (OMD? Thomas Dolby?)

Did I miss anyone?

Adam & The Ants were always lumped in with that scene.

Were there any American NuRo bands? Berlin, maybe?

No new romantics actors there, kill it, kill it!! - Mark E. Smith

Spandau Ballet?

Culture Club and A Flock of Seagulls were lumped in as well . . .

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Were there any American NuRo bands?

There could be a thesis in the idea that hair metal was the American version of New Romantics, but I can't think of any topic I'd have less interest in researching.

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There could be a thesis in the idea that hair metal was the American version of New Romantics, but I can't think of any topic I'd have less interest in researching.

Both genres appear to have been defined by a style-over-substance aesthetic.

Q. - Were there any hair-metal bands that featured electronic drum machines?

I just realized that I don't rightly know what good new romantic music is. since I don't listen to any of them fellers y'all listed.

gimmie old romance over new romance any day...

shane macGowan and kirsty macColl

honestly though jaydee45, my idea (idealistic aren't I) of a new romantic band is either wendy O williams/plasmatics or luscious Jackson.



Post Edited (02-21-15 18:32)

Bowie's Let's Dance?
ABC
The Romantics "Talking In Your Sleep"
some Eurythmics

Adam & the Ants always kicked against being pigeonholeed as New Romantics (though you could understand the confusion).

Early Berlin did seem to be fairly NR, esp. in the early (Pleasure Victim-era) videos, though they "grew" out of that before too long.

Maybe there were a bunch of British (and US) NR bands that never made it to vinyl before the fad ended. Or maybe NRs were more interested in going to clubs than entering recording studios. (I think the UK press tried to kickstart a "new" New Romantics fad in the 90s or early 00s but that obviously didn't take off).

Now that I think about it, it's pretty clear that Goth ended up absorbing the New Romantic movement, at least the fashion end of it. The Bauhaus & Siouxsie and the Banshees predated the New Romantics, but I have no clue if their fan bases played vampire dress-up prior to the Blitz Club's peak year or two. But they definitely were doing so afterwards.

Human League was definitely classified as New Romantic.

We should listen again to Attila the Stockbroker's "(Your Raincoat is) Flapping in the Wind" for more names in a genre he loved to abhor.

> Early Berlin did seem to be fairly NR, esp. in the early (Pleasure Victim-era) videos, though they "grew" out of that before too long.

When I saw Berlin in 1983, on the Pleasure Victim tour, the whole band definitely had the NR fashion sense going on. Indeed, they could've passed for an American version of Spandau Ballet or Duran Duran. Every one of the guys in the band had his hair perfectly coiffed and wore very noticeable makeup -- heavy on the brightly colored eye shadow, and on the rouge to emphasize the cheekbones. And Terri Nunn, of course, was dressed to dazzle, blond hair piled high (she wasn't doing the two-toned hair look yet) and wearing a frilly purple dress.

Come to think of it, Prince's early look might qualify as New Romantic. Look at the 1999-era videos and tell me what you think.

How could we forget Einstein-A-Go-Go by Landscape?

As much as I like many so-called New Romantic bands, I could never understand the "rules of the game." That Adam Ant got roped in with bands like Visage shows where that can lead! Was it instrumentation [synths, usually? Appearance/Clothing/Makeup? All of that had been a part and parcel of Rock for some time prior thanks to Glam nearly a decade earlier. Many of my confusions about Glam carried over into New Romantic, since the same divergent criteria were applied to both camps.

Personally, I find "Systems Of Romance" to be the ground zero of New Romantic. I hold New Ro to have at its core a sense of alienation/ennui/languor/if-not-actual-depression. With synthesizers. A European, classically-derived melodicsm. And at least a soupçon of pretension. The bands sometimes took this to cartoonish extremes, but that's it in a nutshell, for me. Strip away the synthesizers, add guitars, strings, and outright depression and you've got Goth.



Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

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For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

Post Edited (03-05-15 19:46)

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Q. - Were there any hair-metal bands that featured electronic drum machines?

That depends on a) if you consider Guns & Roses to have been hair metal, b) if you consider the G&R of Chinese Democracy to actually be a band, c) if any of the electronic elements Axl was working into the material during its 20 year gestation period remain on the final album and d) if you're willing to listen to it to find out.

I've listened to it, but don't remember enough about it to know if there are any drum machines on it. I know at some point Axl was steering the damn thing towards a metal/electronica hybrid and had Moby working on it and apparently electronic instruments abounded. But that may have all been scoured away on the final version.

I'm not personally inclined to listen to it to find out anytime soon. I remember not actually hating it when I did listen to it, but also remember feeling that it was one of those albums that hearing once was sufficient.

I listened to it a few times, hoping it would sink in at some point. It never did. Apparently Slash and Izzy wrote all the memorable melodies.

You know, I seem to recall that for all the hype of a metal/electronica blend, what was left was some ambient synth noises here and there. I thought the whole thing sounded like an attempt to be Nickelback or Breaking Benjamin or something. It had that mid-late 90s guitar sheen that Howard Benson (may he burn in hell, despite producing Motorhead) made de rigeur for rock radio. Of course, by the time CD came out, that sound was already several years out of date.

There's gotta be hair metal bands that used drum machines. I've noticed over the years that a lot of folks from the 80s with corporeal drummers in the their band still used machines in the studio, even when you didn't think they did.

I know very little about the New Romantic movement. I tend to think most 80s music that leaned heavily on makeup and hooks was an extension of 70s glam rock (the guitar-based wing of goth, for example), and thus worth exploring, but outside of some ABC singles and Japan (the originators, whether they like it or not - and a band with definite roots in glam), most of the music leaves me cold.

I'll give Spandau Ballet this, though - they proved surprisingly perfect for "Satellite of Love" at the Lou Reed tribute at last year's SXSW.

Yeah, Visage might have been more popular/known (at the time) but PPM makes a good point about Systems of Romance being ground-zero. And a much as they denied being part of said movement, it probably would have been hard to find a NewRo disco, er, event without Japan's "Gentlemen Take Polaroids", etc. being spun in the background. (If they'd been on the mainland instead of Scotland, chances are Simple Minds would have ended up being roped into said movement).

Of course as with most things, Bowie probably had a bit hand in this as well, via his "Berlin Trilogy" and Scary Monsters (though with the latter whether it had to do more with the cover art and videos or the actual music, I'll let greater minds decide).

And I forgot about that Village People LP (and probably so did everyone else). In a way it kinda reminds me when Darby Crash tried to turn into an US version of Adam Ant in his post-Germs (pre-reunion) phase.

>
> There's gotta be hair metal bands that used drum machines. I've
> noticed over the years that a lot of folks from the 80s with
> corporeal drummers in the their band still used machines in the
> studio, even when you didn't think they did.


I think Def Leppard used drum machines even before Rick Allen's accident, and certainly after. I don't think there's a single live drum on Hysteria.

Not hair metal, but didn't Born in the USA use drum machines?