Posted April 16, 200619 yr At the beginning of the 80's just after punk, the new romantic movement appeared, spawning bands like Duran Duran Spandau Ballet Japan Adam & Ants Soft Cell Human League They nearly all had success in varied degrees, but would they still have made it as big if its wasn't for the birth of MTV at the same time, These were all very photographic artists who looked good on video, whereas at that time in the states,they were still listening to progressive rock and stadium bands like REO speedwaggon & Boston who were not very photographic and couldn't handle videos very well. What do you think? Would they still have succeeded without the music video.
April 16, 200619 yr i personally loved the movement! and yes i indulged in double brested shirts, big flowing ones, cuban heeled boots, the baggy trooz...lol.. im big into history and many of the early fashions used historical clothing ... love it! (id still wear it now...) but to me, the real new romantic era was over by the time the human league went to #1 with the pretty awful 'dont you want me', duran and spandau also lost their appeal by courting mainstream pop. so by the end of 81, the movement had been hi-jacked by business and the original meaning (which was directly derived from 'punk' ethics... do it yourself, express yourself) was over. loved early human league, adam, spandau, duran, visage, ultravox and hundereds of others....
April 16, 200619 yr Loved Japan, early Human League (before the birds joined), Cabaret Voltaire, Gary Numan/Tubeway Army, Visage...... Adam and the Ants were fun..... Then it all went so fantastically tits-up for him..... :wacko:
April 17, 200619 yr I love music from the New Romantics era. Human League, Adam and The Ants and Duran Duran being my favourites.
April 17, 200619 yr I'm still a Duranie (not that I like to talk about it). I loved the whole synth-pop New Romantic movement.
April 17, 200619 yr At the beginning of the 80's just after punk, the new romantic movement appeared, spawning bands like Duran Duran Spandau Ballet Japan Adam & Ants Soft Cell Human League They nearly all had success in varied degrees, but would they still have made it as big if its wasn't for the birth of MTV at the same time, These were all very photographic artists who looked good on video, whereas at that time in the states,they were still listening to progressive rock and stadium bands like REO speedwaggon & Boston who were not very photographic and couldn't handle videos very well. What do you think? Would they still have succeeded without the music video. MTV didn't start in the US until August 1981, and the UK until 1987. While MTV helped UK acts break through into the US it wasn't that influential until 1982. By then, these acts had massive hits in the UK, of which video played differing, and often minor, roles in their success. I've often wondered why acts made videos as the norm in the pre-MTV years, especially from about 1978 to 1981. There simply were few outlets to play the songs, save the odd Saturday morning TV show. TOTP still preferred the act to record an appearance. But it was the influence of MTV in the US from its launch to about 1984, especially in the early years, where they were forced to field a disproportionate amount of videos by UK acts, that helped introduce these, and many other acts to the US. By then though, New Romantics had come and gone. I guess the peak for New Romantics was around the time of the release of Spandau's "Chant No.1", after that all the fuss and media hype died down. Plus this was the exact time of the UK riots and media attention turned elsewhere. Bottle throwing youths get more media attention than people wearing frilly shirts!
April 18, 200619 yr I would also add Heaven 17 & ABC to this list. The lead singers of new romantic bands were not the best singers in my opinion ,although the music was good. Simon Le Bon,Phil Oakey,Adam Ant & Marc Almond often sang flat live or on their records.
April 18, 200619 yr I love the look too, not just the music. same here, however i hated 'glam' from the early 70's... strange really
April 19, 200619 yr MTV didn't start in the US until August 1981, and the UK until 1987. While MTV helped UK acts break through into the US it wasn't that influential until 1982. By then, these acts had massive hits in the UK, of which video played differing, and often minor, roles in their success. But there was cable music channels available to all from about '85.... I remember Gaz Top having one of the first ever music shows on cable (or was it satellite dish?)...
April 21, 200619 yr But there was cable music channels available to all from about '85.... I remember Gaz Top having one of the first ever music shows on cable (or was it satellite dish?)... In the UK? Yeah, I forgot about that. Well remembered! I think some regions were able to get some cable music channel. It might have been just those regions / towns with CATV (the underground cabling network built in the 70s), mainly based in the New Towns (I live in one of them). But according to the link below, some individual cable companies appeared in 1984/5 eg Swindon Cable Company and Aberdeen cable Company, which later became called Atlantic. Up here it was those of us who had cable provided by Rediffusion, which then became some cable Company or other, I forget the name. Then about 1990/1 it was taken over by BT and the music channel closed. ntl now run the CATV service. Some estates in my town that have CATV can get UK Gold and Sky One alongside the normal TV channels, though they've never been able to get Channel 5. I used to have this service at my previous address. Just checked - the cable music channel was called Music Box and it seems to have started in the early to mid-80s, was that the one you were thinking of? I also remember that when ITV began broadcasting overnight, with "Nighttime" or whatever it was called, it was mainly music videos. Apparently, other channels broadcast via cable at this time were called Screensport, Sky Channel (presumably the first Sky Channel, before it merged with BSB, and the one that usually required that square aerial dish to receive if you didn't have CATV) and TEN. I don't recall any of them, but by then I was living in a non-cabled area. all explained here! http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cable/history/ Edited April 21, 200619 yr by Robbie
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