Synth & Swagger

New wave articles, commentary & more

Elvis. Costello, that is.

Elvis Costello’s early songs rarely mean what they seem. A look at the anger, ’50s influences, and clever misdirection behind his first three albums.

Best New Wave Songs of 1980

The year new wave truly exploded. Discover the best new wave songs of 1980: from synth-driven hits to genre-bending classics that reshaped pop music.

Blondie: Parallel Styles

Blondie moved effortlessly between punk, girl-group pop, disco, and global sounds. Explore how the band expanded across styles while keeping a distinct core identity.

A Tale of Two Ultravoxes

Ultravox didn’t just change singers — it changed its blueprint. Explore how John Foxx’s detached, dystopian minimalism contrasts with Midge Ure’s emotional, cathedral-sized synth anthems across worldbuilding, tone, scale, and structure.

New Wave's Headscratchers

Some New Wave songs are catchy. Others make you wonder what was in the studio air. Revisit the genre’s greatest head-scratchers—opera rap, pirate hip-hop, crying guitars, and more.

Disconnected by Design

From Cars to Television Man, five new wave songs where cars, screens, and signals become tools of isolation: long before smartphones existed.

Back to the Present: 2020s with New Wave Flair

New wave never disappeared - it evolved. Explore how 2020s artists like Chappell Roan, Yard Act, Magdalena Bay, and Nation of Language carry its emotional DNA forward.

Best New Wave Songs of 1979

Discover the best New Wave songs of 1979 — a curated list of iconic tracks from The Cars, Joe Jackson, The B-52s, The Buggles and more that defined the sound of the year.

The Omega A-Ha Moment

Was A-Ha the bookend of New Wave? A deep dive into Hunting High and Low, Scoundrel Days, and Stay on These Roads—restraint, tension, and cinematic scale.

New Wave’s Los Angeles (Sprawl, Surface, Silence)

Explore how Los Angeles shaped New Wave through Wall of Voodoo, Berlin, and the Motels—capturing sprawl, façades, and isolation inside the city.

Duran Duran Seven and the Ragged Tiger Deepdive

Deep dive into Seven and the Ragged Tiger: explore how Duran Duran’s third album balanced new wave synth-pop ambition with world-spanning sessions, chart-topping hits, and internal tensions.

B-52s: Do Call It a Comeback

Explore the B-52s’ remarkable comeback: how tragedy, creative risk-taking, and reinvented sound turned the Athens new wave oddballs into late-’80s hitmakers with Cosmic Thing and enduring joy.

Duran Duran Album Deepdives

Explore the definitive Duran Duran Album Deep-Dive Series: from their stylish 1981 debut and global breakout Rio to creative detours, reinventions, and the sleek late-’80s grooves of Notorious and Big Thing.

After the Backlash: New Wave Producers of the '90s

Discover how New Wave lived on through producers in the ’90: from Trevor Horn to Ric Ocasek and beyond. They shaped major albums even after the genre faded from the spotlight.

Best New Wave Songs of 1978

Explore the breakthrough year of New Wave with five essential 1978 songs: from Blondie’s Heart of Glass to Talking Heads’ energetic Take Me to the River. These songs marked the genre’s rise.

Starting Up a Brand New Day

Discover New Wave’s take on new beginnings: how songs by Squeeze, Eurythmics, INXS, and more frame fresh starts as escape, release, and renewal rather than spectacle.

Winter, Without the Cheer

Explore winter through New Wave music with seven tracks that capture cold as mood and metaphor -from icy synths to emotional freeze frames that go beyond holiday cheer

Duran Duran Rio Album Deep-Dive

Dive deep into Rio — explore how Duran Duran’s second album avoided the sophomore slump, sparked MTV fame, and blended synth-pop energy with artful songwriting and iconic videos.

Depeche Mode: Broken Synths to Black Cathedrals

Explore Depeche Mode’s transformation: from raw synth beginnings and lineup changes to global synth-pop icons, weaving darkness, devotion, and sonic reinvention in every album

Missing Persons' Strange Origins (Zappa in Neon)

Explore how Missing Persons fused Frank Zappa-trained virtuosity with LA’s neon New Wave aesthetic, influencing MTV sound and even future acts like Duran Duran.

A Very New Wave Christmas

Celebrate a New Wave Christmas with synth-tinged, bittersweet ’80s holiday tracks — from Wham!’s Last Christmas to Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Israel.

New Wave, New Voices

Discover how unexpected artists like Tom Jones & the Cardigans and Eddie Vedder reinvent New Wave classics like Burning Down the House in surprising and inventive covers.

Raising a Small New Wave Fan

Watch a young New Wave fan take shape as dad shares how songs from Men Without Hats, Falco, and Split Enz get little ones dancing and loving ’80s synth-pop.

Tears for Fears’ Emotional Arc: From Hurt to Healing

Explore Tears for Fears’ emotional arc: from the primal trauma of The Hurting through cathartic synth-pop anthems and healing reflections across their classic albums.

New Wave Songs You Didn’t Know Were Covers - Part Deux

Discover five surprising New Wave covers - from the Flying Lizards’ Money to Kim Wilde’s You Keep Me Hangin’ On - where ’80s acts reinvented classics.

The Cars’ Road from Jangle to Gloss

Take a five-album tour through The Cars’ evolution: from jangly power-pop roots to glossy synth-fused New Wave hits like You Might Think and Drive.

Duran Duran Debut Album Deepdive

Dive into Duran Duran’s self-titled 1981 debut: how their blend of synth, dance rhythms, and new wave style on tracks like Planet Earth and Girls on Film helped define their early sound.

Del Shannon: New Wave's OG (and proto-Depeche Mode?)

Explore how Del Shannon’s early use of the Musitron synth and minor-chord melancholy foreshadowed New Wave’s electronic heart and echoed later acts like Depeche Mode.

Nine to Five, New Wave Style

Explore how ’80s New Wave bands like XTC, Devo, and The Police turned work, cubicles, and corporate grind into unforgettable songs about labor and life.

Cyndi Lauper: Girls Just Wanna Bend Time

Explore Cyndi Lauper’s New Wave impact, from her Queens roots to Girls Just Want to Have Fun and her three essential ’80s albums that defined her rise.

Reflections in the Waves: How New Wavers Wrote About Each Other - and Themselves

Explore how New Wave artists reflected on each other and themselves — from The B-52s’ tribute to Debbie Harry to Billy Idol’s nostalgic musings and self-mythologizing tracks.

Which New Waver Are You? Three Archetypes to Explore

Discover which New Wave archetype fits you: from punchy Power Pop & Skinny Tie Brigade to quirky Art-Pop Eccentrics and glamorous New Romantic Synthpop stars.

The Howard Jones Sutras (Synthpop Meets Zen)

Discover four “sutras” in Howard Jones’s music that blend synthpop warmth with mindfulness and optimism, showing how his songs offer emotional insight and calm

Full Moon on Monday - Halloween and New Wave

Explore New Wave’s spooky side with eerie tracks by Duran Duran, The Cure, Oingo Boingo, and more: perfect songs to soundtrack your Halloween dancefloor.

New Wave Empowerment: How the Pretenders, Go-Go’s, and Eurythmics Redefined It

Enhanced for members

Explore how the Pretenders, the Go-Go’s, and the Eurythmics redefined female empowerment in New Wave: from Chrissie Hynde’s grit to Annie Lennox’s command.

Friend and Foe: Adam Ant's Media War

Enhanced for members

Explore how Adam Ant’s early career became a battlefield with the British press. From Goody Two Shoes to Friend or Foe, his music turned media conflict into art.

Post-Punk vs New Wave: Shadows and Shimmers

Explore the contrast between post-punk’s brooding mood and mainstream New Wave’s glamour by comparing bands like The Cure, Joy Division, New Order, Duran Duran, and Blondie.

Squeeze: New Wave’s Literate Hitmakers

Explore how Squeeze’s Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook turned sharp, witty narratives and melodic hooks into some of New Wave’s most literate and enduring songs.

One-Hit Wonders - You Can Dance If You Want To

Explore New Wave one-hit wonders like The Safety Dance, Break My Stride, and Tarzan Boy, unpacking why these dance-ready tracks became timeless singles.

Australia and New Zealand New Wave Neon: Split Enz, Men at Work & INXS

Explore how Australasia’s new wave scene - from Split Enz and Men at Work to INXS - turned regional swagger into global synth-pop style and memorable hooks.

5 Songs That Secretly Echo New Wave

Explore five modern pop songs — from Justin Timberlake’s SexyBack to Dua Lipa’s Break My Heart - that secretly echo ’80s New Wave melodies, rhythms, or riffs.

New Wave’s Secret Ancestry

Discover how minority voices shaped New Wave’s sound and spirit: from Adam Ant’s Romani roots to Lene Lovich and Oingo Boingo’s Latino rhythms and cultural depth.

Thomas Dolby Didn’t Just Do Science

Discover how Thomas Dolby’s first four albums go beyond quirky synthpop, blending satire, sorrow, and sci-fi noir to reveal the depth behind his pioneering sound.

When New Wave Veterans Took the 2000s Revival Personally

Explore the mid-2000s new wave comebacks — how bands like Franz Ferdinand brought the sound back into fashion and helped icons like Duran Duran reconnect with their roots.

New Wave Hits and Their Evil Twins

Discover New Wave hit songs like Don’t You Want Me and Tainted Love, alongside their darker, evil twin B-sides that twist mood, theme, and sound in unsettling ways.

New Wave in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis – Regional Scenes and Hidden Gems

Uncover six under-the-radar regional new wave bands from Chicago, LA, and Minneapolis whose underground sounds captured the genre’s quirky DIY spirit and inventiveness.

Gay & Queer in New Wave

Explore the LGBTQ+ influence in New Wave music, from queer icons and club culture to songs like Johnny Are You Queer? that reshaped identity and expression in the ’80s.

New Wave Does the Summer

Explore New Wave’s sun-soaked side through hits like Katrina & The Waves’ Walking on Sunshine” and Bananarama’s Cruel Summer, where synths meet summer vibes.

Synthpop - How's It Different From Other New Wave?

Learn how synthpop’s electronic-first sound and hypnotic rhythms set it apart from broader New Wave styles like Blondie and The Cars in this deep genre comparison.

Under-the-Radar New Wave Songs

Unearth under-the-radar new wave tracks from 1979–1981. Think deep cuts by the Cars, Depeche Mode, Human League, and more that go beyond the hits.

New Wave & Music Videos - Like PB and J!

Explore New Wave’s most iconic music videos, from Talking Heads’ Once in a Lifetime to A-Ha’s Take On Me, and how visuals shaped the genre on MTV.

New Wave Hits That Are Actually Covers

Discover New Wave hits that were actually cover songs. Like Soft Cell’s Tainted Love and Blondie’s The Tide Is High, and how they became ’80s classics.

New Wave’s Second Wind: A Revivalist’s Guide

Explore how bands like Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, and The Bravery helped revive New Wave’s synth-infused sound in the 2000s and keep its spirit alive.

More Talking, More Head - An Artist Spotlight

Explore the influence of Talking Heads in New Wave music — from quirky art-rock beginnings to iconic tracks like Psycho Killer and Once in a Lifetime.

Falco: Vienna in a Tux

Discover Austrian New Wave pioneer Falco: from Der Kommissar to Rock Me Amadeus, his quirky synth-pop fusion and place in ’80s music history.

Rock Hall Nominees: Who Gets in?

An expert look at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees — comparing Cyndi Lauper, Billy Idol, and Joy Division/New Order on hits, influence, and Hall odds.

Women in New Wave: How Debbie Harry, Tina Weymouth, the Go-Go’s, and Cyndi Lauper Rewired Rock’s Possibilities

Discover how women like Debbie Harry, Tina Weymouth, the Go-Go’s, and Cyndi Lauper reshaped New Wave music, expanding its sound, style, and cultural impact.

Countdowns and Synth Sounds: How New Wave Captured the Cold War’s Anxious Pulse

Explore how New Wave’s synth sound captured Cold War anxiety, with tracks like Nena’s 99 Luftballons and Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Two Tribes echoing nuclear tension.

New Wave Aesthetics: an A to Z

Explore New Wave aesthetics from A to Z—how style, fashion, and visual flair defined the look of a genre that was as bold and quirky as the music itself.

Devo vs Oingo Boingo: Two Paths to the Weird

A head-to-head look at Oingo Boingo and Devo — two distinct New Wave innovators — exploring their styles, influences, and contributions to the genre

What is New Wave, Anyway?

A concise guide to what New Wave music is—its origins, sounds, and key characteristics—so you understand the genre’s identity and impact