New wave has been called one of the definitive genres of the 1980s. Moving away from the popular rock, blues and punk rock music, new wave gave birth to new sounds to create pop music that incorporate disco, mod and electronic music - a truly distinct genre! It subsequently engendered subgenres and fusions.
Looking back - we can see that the music following punk could be divided more or less into two categories - post-punk and new wave. New wave was pop music, the friendly sister to post punk which boasted more artsy and challenging elements. New wave gave us countless one hit wonders but also generated some of the world’s major artists, that continue to influence the face of music today.