Lexicon Magazine / Section 6 of 7

The Wave

New wave was a marketing category before it was a sound, applied to bands with very little in common. These entries look at what the label actually covered, and at how quickly the guitar stopped being the centre of the arrangement.

2 entries · Punk to new wave, and what the label covered.

Vinyl records lined up in a bin with a rock/indie alternative divider tab — The category was applied to bands with very little in common, and the shelf it produced is where most listeners met the sound first.Photo: cottonbro studio / Pexels

Every entry in The Wave

One machine, room or technique each

6.1 What the label covered New wave was a marketing category before it was a sound, applied to bands with very little in common.
6.2 Punk to synth The shift from guitar to sequencer happened faster than the story usually allows.

The other six sections

The whole magazine, one click away

The Machines Drum machines, polysynths and samplers. The Rooms Studios treated as instruments. The Desk Producers and what they changed. Tape Editing as composition. Formats How it was carried. Disputed Origin stories that do not agree.