The genre I have chosen to write about for my 80’s blog is the music of New romantics.
I will be talking about,
• Features of the music
• Lyrical content
• Significant artists
• Who artists were influenced by and who they have inspired since
• Important albums and singles
• The image this genre created
• And lastly the relationship that had come from the music and the public of that time.
The genre of New romantics was very flamboyant. And one of the main features of this genre was being noticed and partying. A well known club was ‘The blitz’. This club came to life in London, Coventry, in the early 1980’s. Steve strange ran this club and associated in this club with names like, Marilyn (Peter Robinson), boy George, Rusty Egan and Gary Kemp from the band Spandau ballet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPqi9JjSZPM&feature=related this video give you a small idea of the new romantics scene and what the blitz club was like in the eighties. As you may find, there are a lot of men with make-up on and dressing as women, this was all part of the new romantics scene and I will explain more of that in ‘The image this genre created’.
The lyrical content from New Romantics was a lot to do with love and heart break. I think the lyrics are very erratic and random but still a lot of lyrical content was to do with love, for example, ‘come undone’ by the band Duran Duran is about love in my opinion the lyrics ‘Can’t ever keep from falling apart at the seams, can’t I believe your taking my heart to pieces’ , which i think mean that’s he could possibly be falling in love but doesn’t want to http://www.lyrics007.com/Duran%20Duran%20Lyrics/Come%20Undone%20Lyrics.html, here are the lyrics for more of an insight of the lyrical content. Big artists in the New Romantics scene loved to express feeling through song writing, big artists such as David Bowie and Human league.
You can’t mention New Romantics without mentioning the significant names like, Adam and The Ants, Ultrvox, Spandau ballet, Roxy music and of course David Bowie who was obviously a big influence on the New romantics scene in the eighties. Other names that stand out when it comes to this genre are, Boy George and Steve Strange, which both played a big part in the club’s. Steve Strange is known well from the incident he had with Mick Jagger when he denied him from a club he was managing the door at, that story was so big for so long in the New Romantics clubs in the eighties.
I think the music and image David Bowie and Roxy music created in the late seventies had a huge impact on artists to come in the eighties. David Bowie especially had a big influence, everyone wanted to be just like him and everyone tried to take on the same images he had and a lot of artists created songs with the same kind of sound as some of his songs too. I also think David Bowie had inspired today’s biggest pop star, lady gaga an awful lot. There was a big question about the sex of both stars in their prime, so they both really made this image of being neither woman or man. And you can defiantly see a similarity in music as lady gaga has a similar sound to David Bowie. Plus they both have that same lightning bolt painted on their faces.
Some huge singles and albums of the time were, ‘The rise and fall of Ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars’ and ‘Aladdin Sane’ by David bowie, ‘More than this’ by Roxy music and singles from Steve Strange like, ‘Visage’ and ‘Fade to grey’.
The New romantics scene was a such an outgoing flamboyant image to portray. It was all about big bright hair and very bold make up. Everyone on this scene all tried to look different but just as unusual. A lot of questions were asked about every ones sexuality and what gender they were because of the image. Even today with the big influence those questions are still asked.
I think New Romantics was a social, political reaction to the sign of the time and reaction to the end of the punk era. I also believe it made many people’s lives a lot less boring. It gave off such a bold image it made people from the public of that time want to stand out and make a stand for the new romantics scene. The relationship between this genre and the public of the time was all about making a statement in my opinion.
Faine Dovaston.
