Can someone help me recall a type of music from the '80s that some claimed would replace disco? I could be dead-wrong, but IIRC, I think the style which escapes me referred to the heavy influence of keyboards esp from European bands.
I want to say it was ‘fusion’, but that’s a style of jazz. Maybe some SDoper will help jog my memory!
That’s a tough one, as New Wave actually encompasses a whole wide range of music. I think when the average person thinks of “New Wave,” they think of bands like Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, The Cure, Devo, New Order, Culture Club, the Eurythmics – bands like that. But the terms is quite broad and can include bands like the Pretenders, the Police, Madness, etc. Basically, it originally (as I understand it), was a catch-all term for the music growing out of punk. Later, New Wave and Post-Punk were differentiated with New Wave being the poppier offspring of punk, and Post-Punk being more experimental, edgy, and arty.
As pulykamell says, the term “New Wave” was used as a catch-all for pretty much all post-punk stuff (or really almost anything that wasn’t disco or arena rock), but I think in the public mind it was most closely associated with the sort of synth-oriented bands linked above.
I worked in a record store during the 80s. A couple acts who are perhaps lesser known, but that perfectly embody the essence of New Wave (Synth Pop division):
A couple of songs in the more guitar/drum style of New Wave:
Bongos: “Barbarella” (only available at lala.com, but registration is quick and free, and it’s possibly my single favorite song from that era, so I urge you. :D)
Total Coelo: “I Eat Cannibal” (And probably the best chicks-in-hefty-bag-dresses video ever)
Belfegore: “All That I Wanted” (Another very favorite song of the era, and a very cool video)