http://home.sol.no/~knhongro/Geir/pop/History.htm has an interesting take on this:
New Romantics
Picture: Thompson TwinsIf you don't like synths you may as well skip this whole
chapter, because the UK early 80s New Romantics craze definitely was about synths -
synths, music video and image. But New Romantics also was about great melodic pop
songs, and groups such as Spandau Ballet, Simple Minds, ABC, Culture Club, Japan,
Thompson Twins(picture right) and even teenyboppers Duran Duran made some songs worth
checking out.
Even more interesting (again if you don't hate synths) were the plain synthpop groups.
Human League made one of the best albums ever with "Dare", Depeche Mode and Yazoo
followed to make Daniel Miller, the man behind indie label Mute, rich. Orchestral
Manouvers In The Dark, Visage, Soft Cell, Ultravox and Human League-spinoffs Heaven 17
also made some great pop records. Vince Clarke, once a member of Depeche Mode and then
Yazoo, later formed Erasure, a band that still exists and has had more success than
Yazoo. There even was an American synthpop band, the slightly more musically eccentric
Devo. After some time a more musically sophisticated, and not that entirely synth
based, sort of synthpop was developing. Artists such as Talk Talk, Tears For Fears and
Howard Jones represented this new trend.
And there's this from http://www2.osk.3web.ne.jp/~buggle/lexicon.html#New Romantics
New Romantics started in the Club scene and it popped out by combing electronic pop
dance beat and showy fashion stemming glam rock via the visual media of MTV. It was
alternatively called "Futurist" and there was a Futurist chart in Indies.
Representative bands are Duran Duran, Kajagoogoo (such a silly name), Visage, the
second period Ultravox, the early Talk Talk, Spandau Ballet. The only ones with the
look above a certain level can be called as true New Romantics.
-B "flock of haircuts" B-
