Best 80s New Wave

I love
The Cars - Heartbeat City

Very true, n80. I'm trying to think of other bands from the 1st wave who changed their colours.

It seems that a number of punkers changed their colors. When Billy Idol was with Generation X he used to spew vitriol over Led Zep as a commercial sell out. I guess he finally figured out how wallets get lined.

I saw UK Squeeze in ’77 in a small NYC club. They were part of the punk invasion and were cursing and spitting on the crowd ala Sex Pistols. It was an ugly scene.

Their early stuff is not at all like the band who later became Squeeze.

I have a vague recollection of Rock Lobster blaring in the background in an addled daze of alcohol. In the early 80's maybe. 

But you wouldn't call that new wave, would you?

B-52s?  Anyone?

The Beat (English Beat)
Talking Heads
The Fixx
General Public
Blondie
The Tourists
Martha and the Muffins

oh, the benefits of a good record shop in my high school days....

Always liked Squeeze. Never thought of them as new wave though.

We can't forget about Milli Vanilli! Oh wait nevermind they faked all of their stuff.

Propaganda "A Secret Wish," the 12" remixes, and live.
Depeche Mode
Psych Furs
Love and Rockets
Sisters of Mercy
The Mission UK
Siouxsie & the Banshees
Peter Murphy/ Bauhaus
OMD
Dead Can Dance
The Cure
Cocteau Twins
The Chameleons
New Order

Some of these bands were a sub-genre of New Wave.

Love Love the following:
Simple Minds
China Crisis
Echo
Orange Juice
Propaganda
Alphaville
Depeche

Echo and the Bunnymen
Squeeze
Split Enz
The Style Council
English Beat

@shadorne Great list!! The bass line in China Crisis' Fire and Steel is so good! How could I forget Yaz?! Upstairs at Erics is one of my fav albums. I have more 12" singles than albums but I'm getting a lot of reissues on vinyl.

One of my fave Cars song is 'Touch and go'. Visage 'Fade to grey' is one of the finest early new romantic songs from 1980. Midge Ure wrote it then went on to Ultravox. Vienna is one of their best songs. Architecture & Morality by OMD is a classic album, too.

What about The Cars?

ABC
Spandau Ballet
Thompson Twins
Spoons
Men without Hats
Men at Work
China Crisis
Bugles
Thomas Dolby
After the Fire
Tears for Fears
Pete Shelley
Billy Idol
Visage
Flock of Seagulls
Boy George
Soft Cell
Yaz
Devo
Rational Youth
Howard Jones
Wang Chung
Eurythmics


just to name a few that have been missed, I have all the albums on Japanese vinyl and 90% of the 12 inch singles...

I thought DM Construction Time Again, Duran Duran Rio, Tears for Fears The Hurting and Human League Dare were the great albums of the period that you could listen to from end to end both sides...

The Two-tone ska revival hit North America in the early 80’s...it was a fun period for music and rock n roll struggled a bit with Queen, Rush, VH and Tom Petty resorting to synths in order to get radio play...a difficult time for guitarists (learning keyboards) and drummers (learning drum program machines). Amazingly Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel morphed into synth-pop dance crooners a la Human League style and became even more successful than prog rock band they left.

Who started it all - David Bowie I think with Ashes to Ashes....

How can we not include:

• Roxy Music-Avalon or Flesh and blood
• Berlin
• Haircut 100
• The Fixx- Reach the beach

I grew up in the punk explosion era in England which then led to a lot of new wave.

In no order.

Human League.
Ultravox
Simple minds
Aha
Talking Heads
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Depeche Mode



And the list could go on!

My top 5 are:

1) Echo & The Bunnymen
2) Psychedelic Furs
3) Talking Heads
4) XTC
5) Crowded House

I used to despise all those bands. Gave my little sister no end of grief over those Duran Duran girly boys. (At the time I was into Led Zep, The Who, Rush, U2, REM, Sabbath and various other heavy metal stuff.)

But now I like some stuff by Squeeze, The Cure and Depeche Mode.

Also I saw a recent Duran Duran concert on TV and they put on quite a show. They were very precise, very tight and very energetic. Still not a DD fan but props to them for not just phoning it in the way a lot of older bands do there days.

Does A-Ha count as new wave? I liked them at the time.

@pdreher Good List!! I love OMD's Sugar Tax from '91 even though Paul Humphries wasn't on that release.

@folkfreak Yep, I have the NO 12" singles and a few Madonna 12" singles from the 80s. I was also into OMD, Blancmange and Trevor Horn's ZTT project back then: 
-FGTH
-Propaganda
-Grace Jones
-Art of Noise

Good stuff!!!

Yep, got that one (haven’t listened to it in an age though so you reminded me to dig it out) -- plus all the New Order singles, a full run of Stone Roses and Ride, every 12" Madonna ever put out (through 2005 or so) etc -- guess you can tell how old I am!

But in a slightly different vein, and on 10" and 12" -- these are both beautiful
https://www.discogs.com/Virginia-Astley-A-Bao-A-Qu/release/1752426
https://www.discogs.com/Virginia-Astley-Tender/release/1236406

@folkfreak So true about the 12" singles (Blue Monday?) and Duel single. Do you have Propaganda's remix album Wishful Thinking? Soooo good! 

Actually the preferred vehicle for these artists is actually the 12" single!

The impact and sound quality of "Duel" in a clean 12" is visceral
https://www.discogs.com/Propaganda-Duel/release/29009

And this is a demo disc of the first order
https://www.discogs.com/a-ha-Crying-In-The-Rain/release/1255568

Most of these releases are dirt cheap and will wipe the floor with both the originals or any reissue

Totally agree with DM early albums---I love Music for the Masses. I saw that concert with OMD back in'88. DD's Rio is excellent as well.

Duran Duran's first few were pretty great. I agree with all listed except that DM's pre-Violator stuff so much better. I know Violator got them new fans but Black Celebration, Music For The Masses, 101 Live...all way better IMO