The New Romantic was mainly associated with then-popular New Wave Music. While everyone was influenced by punk, many performers who fit the New Romantic label were also influenced heavily by Disco, Soul, Funk, Synth-Pop and the simple music and extravagant image of early seventies glam rockers like Mott the Hoople and David Bowie, as well as the art rock exemplified by Roxy Music and Bowie's hugely popular Berlin Trilogy. Furthermore, while many punks shunned new technology and recording techniques, New Romantic bands were almost certain to have a keyboard players and often experimented with what could be done on synths. The first band to be described as New Romantics in the music press was Spandau Ballet, whose high energy synth-funk tune "To Cut A Long Story Short" was also the first New Romantic song to become a significant hit when it reached number five in the UK charts. Expensive concept videos soon became the thing most people remember about a lot of these groups and allowed them to export their sound to America through the new MTV channel.
The main site of the New Romantic scene was the Blitz club in London, where club owner and doorman Steve Strange ruled with an iron fist. He became noted for refusing entry to any potential patron he believed was not dressed extravagantly enough to suit his standards. Boy George worked here as a cloakroom attendant before he joined Culture Club, although he was eventually sacked by Strange for stealing from patrons.
The movement had mostly gone out of style in 1985, by which point many of the original groups had split up or distanced themselves from the New Romantic label, turning to Synthpop. Live Aid turned out to be the movement's peak, after which everyone seemed to burn out; Culture Club broke up, Spandau Ballet released a mediocre AOR album, Duran Duran went on hiatus for a year before putting out a string of polarizing records, and Ultravox went into an on-again, off-again period of activity with a constantly-changing lineup and a cavalcade of records that neither fans nor critics liked. After 1986, music fans were more interested in the likes of Prince, Wham! and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. While there was a brief revival in the form of the "Romo" scene, with some groups like Mansun becoming successful, the chances of a serious revival remain highly remote.
Artists active in the New Romantic scene included:
- ABC
- Adam and the Ants: Probably closer to glam punk, but their look and their style matched the scene.
- 1979 - Dirk Wears White Sox
- 1980 - Kings of the Wild Frontier
- 1981 - Prince Charming
- Culture Club
- 1982 - Kissing to Be Clever
- 1983 - Colour by Numbers
- 1984 - Waking Up with the House on Fire
- 1986 - From Luxury to Heartache
- Dead or Alive
- Duran Duran: The most successful group associated with the scene, although they were probably the first to disassociate themselves from it. More rock than the average band associated with the movement. Their cinematic music videos (many of which were directed by Russell Mulcahy) are some of the most famous released in the pre-Thriller era.
- 1982 - Rio
- Fiction Factory
- A Flock of Seagulls
- Japan: Despite them vehemently denying their ties with the movement and aligning themselves with Glam Rock (they formed during the peak of the latter's relevance), they started shifting to a New Romantic approach following "Life in Tokyo", their 1979 collaboration with Giorgio Moroder. This lasted all of two albums before shifting to an avant-pop direction presaging frontman David Sylvian's solo career on their last record.
- Seona Dancing
- Spandau Ballet: Famous for wearing kilts, they were the first band to be described as New Romantic and the first such group to have a big hit single. Later traded their costumes for sharp suits and started performing soul music.
- Talk Talk
- Ultravox: During the Midge Ure era; during the period with John Foxx on vocals and Stevie Shears and Robin Simon on guitar, they were more of an aggressive Punk Rock/New Wave band that happened to use synthesizers.
- 1978 - Systems of Romance
- 1980 - Vienna
- 1981 - Rage in Eden
- 1982 - Quartet
- 1984 - Lament
- 1986 - U-Vox
- Visage: A band formed by the aforementioned Steven Strange with Blitz club co-owner and DJ Rusty Egan and Midge Ure of Ultravox.
Artists associated with the scene, but not really New Romantics themselves:
- David Bowie: His number one single "Ashes to Ashes" was a New Romantic club anthem, and his seventies work (especially Ziggy Stardust and the Berlin Trilogy) was a significant influence on many of the bands mentioned on this page. He dipped his toes into the genre in Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) before transitioning into straight pop.
- Depeche Mode
- Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
- Roxy Music
- Soft Cell
- David Sylvian: The former frontman of Japan, who quickly moved into an avant-pop direction when he went solo but is still considered a key figurehead of the New Romantic movement.
- Village People: Tried and failed to transition from a disco group to a new romantic group with Renaissance.
Tropes
- '80s Hair
- Ambiguous Gender: For some people, this was the whole point of the flamboyant costumes.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: All over the place.
- Dressed to Plunder: One of the flamboyant dress codes for the movement. Fashion designer Viviene Westwood coincidentally released her "Pirate Collection", which the movement quickly jumped on the looks.
- Flanderisation: The entire scene ended up stereotyped as "ugly pop stars", which prompted the rise of simpler groups like the Undertones and especially The Smiths (who called themselves the Smiths as a reaction to the more over-the-top New Romantic band names).
- A Good Name for a Rock Band: Bands took their names from a variety of unusual sources. Duran Duran, for example, took theirs from Professor Durand Durand from Barbarella.
- Post-Punk
- Second British Invasion: New Romantic videos were some of the first to be shown on MTV. When they turned out to be popular, the "Second British Invasion" was the result. Duran Duran eventually came out on top of it.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: An important selling point for the movement, emphasized by their embrace of music videos.
- Form-Fitting Wardrobe: With Painted-On Pants and the like.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: The Trope Codifiers since 1980. They can also be seen as Impossibly Tacky Clothes as well.
- Surreal Music Video: Plenty of famous ones, especially from Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet.
- Synth-Pop: The association between this genre and the New Romantic scene is sometimes strong enough that many synthpop bands who weren't really New Romantics often get lumped in with them anyway. Conversely, there were New Romantics that didn't play synthpop (Culture Club being the most obvious example).
- Viewer Gender Confusion: An obvious outcome. Boy George is probably the most famous example.
