The new wave of new wave (NWONW) was a term coined by music journalists to describe a subgenre of the British

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...

scene in the early 1990s, in which bands displayed

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-r ...

and new wave influences, particularly from bands such as

The Clash The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the w ...

, Blondie,

Wire Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm A wire is a flexible strand of metal. Wire is co ...

, and The Stranglers.Childs, Peter & Storry, Mike (1999) ''Encyclopaedia of Contemporary British Culture'', Routledge, , p. 365. The associated bands generally played guitar-based

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States a ...

often accompanied by keyboards. The movement was short-lived, and several of the bands involved were later linked with the more commercially successful Britpop, which it immediately preceded, and the NWONW was described by John Harris of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' (one of the journalists who first coined the term) as "Britpop without the good bits".Harris, John (2006
"The new wave of old rubbish"
''

'', 13 October 2006. The '' NME'' played a major part in promoting and covering the genre, and promoted the ''On'' event, which featured many of the bands they had labelled NWONW.Larkin, Colin (2006) ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', Oxford University Press. Record label

Fierce Panda Fierce Panda Records is a London-based independent record label, with its first release in February 1994. It also produced a small number of releases that year by now famous artists such as Ash, The Bluetones, Baby Bird and Supergrass. Fier ...

's first release, ''Shagging in the Streets'', was a tribute to the scene, featuring S*M*A*S*H, Done Lying Down,

These Animal Men These Animal Men were an English band active in the 1990s, as part of the New Wave of New Wave, and released two albums before splitting up in 1998. History These Animal Men These Animal Men formed in Brighton in 1989, signing to Hut Records ...

, and others. Associated bands have included Elastica, S*M*A*S*H, Menswear,Wolk, Douglas (1995) "Menswear - Nuisance, London", ''

CMJ New Music Monthly CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

'', December 1995. Sleeper, Echobelly,

Shed Seven Shed Seven are a alternative rock band, formed in York in 1990. One of the groups which contributed to the Britpop music scene of the 1990s, they continue to write, record and release music over thirty years later. They originally comprised si ...

,Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 965.

,Vazquez, Michael (1995) "These Animal Men - ''(Come On, Join) The High Society'' Review", ''

'', May 1995. and Compulsion.

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

identified the mid-1990s NWONW movement as the peak of a new wave revival that has continued on and off since, stating "1994 was the top of a curve we can't be certain we've reached the bottom of".Christgau, Robert (1996
"How to Beat the Law of Averages"
from ''Details'', 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Wave Of New Wave Britpop New wave music British styles of music British rock music genres