Isn't it Romantic?
Flamboyant concert gear, wicked make-up, avant gard hair styles, androgeny...was Glam Rock staging a revival? Not exactly.
In the late 70's and early 80's, a New Wave began invading the pop charts on both sides of the Atlantic. And like any movement that becomes mainstream, it produced a few offspring. One of the most notable was New Romanticism. If Ziggy Stardust was hatched in 1980, he would've been a New Romantic. The sound was something like New Wave crossed with Glam Rock as many of the bands were heavily influenced by David Bowie and Roxy Music. What was produced was icy synth pop that was good on the dancefloor but generally offered up weak lyrics with no real passion or warmth.
But what lacked in lyrical content was more than made up for in style. Like Glam, theatricality was first and foremost and no musical genre since has quite reached such fashionable heights. Many bands turned to costumiers for their clothes and sales of pancake make-up sky-rocketed. Socially speaking, New Romanticism was a reaction against the other rock styles of the time; it followed on the heels of punk's gritty anti-fashion aesthetic and snubbed it's nose at the mod revival's clean minimalism. It all started when some London underground club kids started mixing period, often Victorian, costume with outrageous hair and severely painted faces. As the movement gained momentum, it seemed as though any form of historical garb was acceptable. From Adam Ant's militant tribesman to Spandau Ballet's Arabian knights, the New Romantics embraced many looks from the past, just as their Glam-fathers had just a decade before.
This was also the same time that video killed the radio star. A fledling cable channel specializing in something called the music video made it's debut in 1980. MTV, with it's visualization of music, was, for better or for worse, a perfect outlet for the New Romantics as they used this medium to their full advantage. Most of these bands probably wouldn't have been nearly as successful had they not had their pretty made up faces splashed across international television screens.
However, with all things that are style and not substance, longevity usually doesn't exist. With the exception of Duran Duran (and to a lesser extent in the UK, Spandau Ballet), New Romantic bands broke up by the mid-80's and have been stamped as one-hit-wonders. Not that they are completely forgotten. The current 80's revival has brought back interest in the fashion and the music of the earliest part of that decade. Clubs are one again spinning Soft Cell at revival nights and some brave kids have been donning eyeliner and vision-reducing hairstyles. During the past couple years, movie houses have played host to flicks including "200 Cigarettes", "The Wedding Singer", "The Adventures of Sebastian Cole" and "Me Without You", all of which boast strong 80's soundtracks. So, it seems that no matter how trite or pointless a certain period of time might seem, there will always be people who are nostalgic for it.
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