New wave embraced pop musical stylings and injected a hefty dose of punk rock, synth-y goodness, and art into them. It was quite a time, and the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s were a fruitful time for the genre. Sadly, though, even the greatest new wave icons of the 1980s couldn’t quite survive the end of the era. Let’s look at a few examples, shall we?
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A Flock Of Seagulls
They had the new wave look and the 1980s synth-pop sound. But post-new wave, A Flock Of Seagulls largely disappeared from public consciousness. Such is the nature of being a one-hit wonder, and also of being part of a genre with a mainstream expiration date.
A Flock Of Seagulls scored their biggest hit, “I Ran (So Far Away)”, in 1982. That jam made it to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, their only Top 20 hit on that particular chart. They wouldn’t be considered one-hit wonders elsewhere, though, as the band continued to chart in the UK well through the mid-1980s. Sadly, though, new wave died off, and the band broke up in 1986 before reforming in 1988. Personally, I think this English new wave outfit deserved better.
The Human League
The Human League is one of the few new wave and synth-pop outfits that got together in the late 1970s and have been active ever since. This English band started out in experimental electronic music before catching some serious fame with their 1981 new wave record, Dare. The group produced a handful of successful singles from that album, including “Don’t You Want Me”. They even managed to continue charting in the Top 10 well through the 1980s with songs like “(Keep Feeling) Fascination” and “Human”. After a brief resurgence in popularity in the early-to-mid 1990s, the band has more or less disappeared from the spotlight.
The Human League continued on after the peak of new wave, but they never quite came close to the Dare-era relevance again. It’s a shame, because they were quite an amazing outfit.
Berlin
The American new wave outfit Berlin formed in 1978 and broke up in 1987, before getting back together in 1997. They’re still together today, but nothing really tops their mid-1980s era. In 1986, the band dropped “Take My Breath Away”, which was famously featured in the movie Top Gun. Apparently, members of the band took issue with “Take My Breath Away” defining them, and they also didn’t see much success from their album Count Three & Pray, despite it featuring their signature song.
Berlin was one of the greatest new wave icons of the 1980s, without a doubt. However, while “Take My Breath Away” remains iconic today, the song boxed them into a particular style that eventually aged out commercially.
Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns
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