The New Romantic Movement was a fashion movement and a genre of music that enjoyed mainstream success in the early to mid-1980’s England; however the roots of the genre came about in the late 1970’s in Billy’s, a night club in Soho, London, where Rusty Eagan (the drummer from New Wave band The Rich Kids) started a “Bowie night” with Steve Harrington (better known as Steve Strange).
Eagan was the DJ on these Bowie nights, playing songs by artists such as David Bowie, Roxy Music as well as tracks from electronic bands from all over the world such as Kraftwerk (Germany), Yellow Magic Orchestra (Japan) and Brian Eno’s Landscape (UK). These artists had an electronic presence in the music, often using synthesisers, Drum machines and Theremins, as well as various Disco tracks.
These Bowie nights became so popular that the night moved from Billy’s to the Blitz club in Covent Garden and attracted more people who had a love for dressing up and showing of by wearing copious amounts of make up and generally trying to look as “fabulous” as possible. It was not an uncommon sight to see men dressed up as women, in fact there were generally more men in the girl’s toilet than women.
These nights were regularly frequented by the members of Spandau Ballet and employed Boy George as the cloakroom attendant.
The movement came about in the aftermath of Punk and with it’s flamboyant fashion sense and the androgynous behaviour of it’s participants it is easy to view the New Romantics as a reaction against punk when in fact it was a continuation of punk, having the same “be yourself” attitude without imposing anarchistic views on society for the simple reason they would rather look good and party than talk about politics.
Features of the Music
A lot of the New Romantic Bands used a lot of synthesisers in their music to create a very ambient sound that you dance to rather than use a guitar. The guitar was still used by most of the New Romantic acts but it was generally relegated to a backing instrument (which was quite the contrary to Punk a few years earlier) as can be heard In Visage’s “Fade to Grey” (featuring no Guitar at all) which is generally regarded as the most representative of the New Romantic Style. Ultravox, The Human League and Japan were another bands associated with the New Romantic movement who used the synthesiser as a prominent part of their sound.
Eagan was the DJ on these Bowie nights, playing songs by artists such as David Bowie, Roxy Music as well as tracks from electronic bands from all over the world such as Kraftwerk (Germany), Yellow Magic Orchestra (Japan) and Brian Eno’s Landscape (UK). These artists had an electronic presence in the music, often using synthesisers, Drum machines and Theremins, as well as various Disco tracks.
These Bowie nights became so popular that the night moved from Billy’s to the Blitz club in Covent Garden and attracted more people who had a love for dressing up and showing of by wearing copious amounts of make up and generally trying to look as “fabulous” as possible. It was not an uncommon sight to see men dressed up as women, in fact there were generally more men in the girl’s toilet than women.
These nights were regularly frequented by the members of Spandau Ballet and employed Boy George as the cloakroom attendant.
The movement came about in the aftermath of Punk and with it’s flamboyant fashion sense and the androgynous behaviour of it’s participants it is easy to view the New Romantics as a reaction against punk when in fact it was a continuation of punk, having the same “be yourself” attitude without imposing anarchistic views on society for the simple reason they would rather look good and party than talk about politics.
Features of the Music
A lot of the New Romantic Bands used a lot of synthesisers in their music to create a very ambient sound that you dance to rather than use a guitar. The guitar was still used by most of the New Romantic acts but it was generally relegated to a backing instrument (which was quite the contrary to Punk a few years earlier) as can be heard In Visage’s “Fade to Grey” (featuring no Guitar at all) which is generally regarded as the most representative of the New Romantic Style. Ultravox, The Human League and Japan were another bands associated with the New Romantic movement who used the synthesiser as a prominent part of their sound.
Other bands such as Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Adam and the Ants still had guitars as a prominent part of their sounds (Adam and the Ants especially). “Girls on film” a hit for Duran Duran in 1981 features a guitar riff and bass line that wouldn’t sound out of place on a 70’s Disco record, whilst also only having a subtle keyboard part in the chorus. This was also a trait of their friendly rivals Spandau Ballet though having a more prominent synthesiser parts as can be heard on their breakthrough hit “True”.
But the punk sound was still prominent in some of the acts, Adam and the Ants being the most obvious. Without a keyboard player, Adam and the Ants had a sound that had dwelled more on the glam rock side of the New Romantic sound than the electronic, tending to have a dominant bass line and a good deal of guitar feedback as well as a trademark "Burundi Beat" provided by two drummers.
Lyrical Content
The New Romantic bands had varying lyrical themes ranging from love songs to arrogant self loving.
Duran Duran’s had a few recurring lyrical themes such as ogling women from a far which can be heard on their hits “Girls on Film” and “Rio”. Example:
“Wider baby smiling you just made a millionFuses pumping live heat twisting out on a wireTake one last glimpse into the night I'm touching close I'm holding bright, holding tightGive me shudders in a whisper take me up till I'm shooting a star”(“Girls on Film”) (from azlyrics.com)
They also had a theme of angst towards been broken up with a partner, using metaphors of a post-apocalyptic world which can be heard on “Is there anyone out there?” Example:
“Well I tried to phone last night but you never answeredJust left me ringing on the lineOutside is there anyone out there anyone else outsideWoah outside love is there anyone out there anyone else outside” (From azlyrics.com)
Adam and the Ants had a much more egotistical approach to their lyrics, trying to convince the listener to stop listening to the music of previous years and listen to this new sound. Their single “Antmusic” is probably the best example of this:
“So unplug the jukebox and do us all a favour That music's lost its taste so try another flavour Antmusic” (From Lyricsdownload.com)
Significant Artists
Of all the artists in the New Romantic scene, the most commercially successful of these acts was easily Duran Duran, having several multi platinum selling albums not just in the U.K., but also America and Australia to an accumulated total of about 85 million records sold.
Culture Club, Spandau Ballet, Adam and the Ants and Japan also enjoyed success on both sides of the Atlantic as well as Europe and Australia.
Visage on the other hand never really took off out side of the Dance floors of Britain and Europe with “Fade to Grey” being their only top ten hit in the UK and gaining the number one spot in Germany.
Image and Fashion
In the late 70’s after Punk had lost its ability to shock, its anti-fashion attitude had become uniformed and stale, people had a way of expressing themselves in a way that was exciting for them. But within Punk there was always a fraction of participants that revolved more around their appearance and there was always bound to be people within the Punk movement who felt that they would rather look good than push forward for anarchy.
A lot in the New Romantic genre revolved around wearing a large amount make-up and often drawing inspiration from Glam rock acts such as David Bowie and Marc Bolan’s T-Rex with the sophisticated edge of 18th century Romanticism and the aristocracy of the time, except exaggerating the traits in order to attract attention. Vivienne Westwood was a London based fashion designer who used this to great effect when designing the outfits for Adam and the Ants, using a great deal of make-up, bright colours, frilly shirts and outrageous patterns to form an eye catching image that some what resembles the stereotypical image of a pirate.
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(Image from www.npg.org.uk)
Influences/Influenced
The New Romantic sound was very much shaped by Rusty Egan and the music he played at the Bowie nights at the Blitz club. Artist such as Kraftwerk and Landscape with their electronic trickery was definitely felt by artists such as Visage, Human League and later Soft Cell. David Bowie with his various image changes and alternate personas defiantly had an impact on the imagery of these artists as well as the minimal guitar approach to there music.
The new romantics have influenced a great deal of music and fashion since. In the 1990’s there was a movement of music known as “Romo” which had a extroverted attitude of bands such as Visage, but it never achieved the commercial success of it’s 80’s predecessors and simply became a sub set of the much more popular Brit pop movement.
Important Albums and Singles
The single that brought the New Romantic movement to the public eye in Britain was actually “Ashes to Ashes” by David Bowie as the video featured regulars from the Blitz club that were recruited Personally by David Bowie. Steve Strange was one of regulars picked. This paved the way for Visage’s single “Fade to Grey” which became a top ten hit and a slew of bands of bands that followed them into the charts for several years after. They also won awards for their music such as Adam and the Ant’s “Kings of the wild Frontier” scooping the “Best selling Album” at the Brit awards in 1982.
The Relationship between Society and Culture
The late 70’s and early 80’s was quiet a bleak period for working class in Britain, with the country in recession, unemployment was a common sight around the country caused by a crippled economy and the trade unions going strike, coupled with high taxes.
The New Romantics escaped to the clubs in which they could distract themselves in the Blitz by being themselves, getting wasted and exploring their sexuality to a fresh soundtrack.
Sources used:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Romantic
http://last.fm/
http://www.fashion-era.com/new_romantics1.htm
http://www.npg.org.uk/
http://www.lyricsdownload.com/
http://www.azlyrics.com/
Channel 4 Documentary “Where have all the Gender Benders Gone?”
http://www.youtube.com/
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