New Romantic

New Romantic was a short- lived fashion and music movement that occurred primarily in the United Kingdom and Ireland during the very early 1980s.

Typical musical and stylistic proponents of the New Romantic movement were Spandau Ballet, Visage, Japan, Ultravox, Adam & The Ants, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Classix Nouveaux.

Origins

The movement's genesis took place largely through clubs such as Billy's in Dean Street, London, which ran David Bowie and Roxy Music nights in the aftermath of punk. This evolved into the highly successful and elitist Blitz Club in Great Queen Street, and later Hell, which were hosted by Steve Strange who was also the doorman and Rusty Egan who was the DJ. Those two, together with Billy Currie and Midge Ure (both from Ultravox) formed the band Visage. Some bands classified as New Romantic were glam rock bands in the 1970s such as Japan and Ultravox and both underwent stylistic changes to their look. However they always had an experimental, arty and electronic side to their songs influenced by krautrock as well as Bowie and Roxy Music which was largely not present in guitar-based early 70s glam bands. This electronic element would adapt with the outbreak of and after punk and would largely merge or work in conjunction with the New Wave label, giving a musical base for New Romanticism.

Boy George was the cloakroom attendant who was sacked by Steve Strange for stealing money from a customer's purse. Marilyn also worked as a cloakroom attendant, doing impersonations of Marilyn Monroe. The club spawned a hundred suburban spin-offs in, around and outside London, among which were Croc's in Rayleigh, Essex, and The Regency in Chadwell Heath, where Depeche Mode and Culture Club had their debut gigs as fledgling bands.

History

The New Romantic phenomenon was similar to that of glam rock during the early 1970s, in that (male) New Romantics often dressed in caricaturally counter-sexual or androgynous clothing and wore cosmetics in the New Wave extension of (or reply to) punk fashion, with frilly "fop" shirts of the English Romantic period, or exaggerated versions of upscale, tailored fashion and grooming and often sported quiffs and used eye-liner liberally. David Bowie was an obvious influence and interestingly his 1980 single "Fashion" was influenced by and was simultaneously considered to be something of an anthem for the New Romantics, as were Brian Eno and Roxy Music. However, as with many art school-based youth movements, by the time this 'anthem' was pronounced, the movement itself, although successfully projecting many new stylish futuristic ideas and visions (with lots of various references to sci-fi), had been seized upon by commercial forces, and watered-down versions were being cheaply reproduced for the High Street[1]. Many thought the movement was anti-punk though the movement was largely an extension of it.

Of the many differences from glam, however, was that instead of guitar rock, the music was largely synthesiser-based electronic music, and rhythmically driven, layered with moody synth-produced melodies. Writing and musical composition tended towards emotionally romantic, mood and place evocative, again echoing the English Romantic artistic period. Some songs lacked lyrics and substance but made up for it with catchy danceable synthesizer-driven music, maybe even better than regular Synth pop and Electropop acts. The New Romantic was simply a style and dance sub genre of New Wave. Culturally separating the New Romantic from original Romanticism was the embrace of the present (technolog), at least musically speaking, rather than the rejection of it.[2] German electronic innovators such as Kraftwerk and Can were cross cultural musical influences as were American urban dance music, rap, funk and R&B music genres. Major British influences included the futuristic sounds of computer-synthesiser experimenters such as Landscape and Ultravox intelligently introducing innovative and experimental sounds. Rhythm machines were introduced into wide use by this movement largely due to the experiments of drummers Richard James Burgess (Landscape), Warren Cann (Ultravox) and Rusty Egan (Visage). The New Romantics provided possibly more danceable Synth pop and Electropop sound.Dublin, Ireland was strongly influenced by the New Romantic phenomenon and in the early 1980s, a popular dancing venue on the city's Southside called "The Afro Spot", featured New Romantic music and was crowded with "New Romanticists". One of the club's frequent patrons was the Dublin-born musician Gavin Friday of The Virgin Prunes.

Jim Fouratt of Danceteria, New York City spotted the burgeoning movement in London and was an early champion for what would become the second British invasion. Spandau Ballet visited New York in 1981 for a landmark performance at the Underground. By the mid 1980s the genre had its feet firmly planted in America.On the west coast in California its moniker saw a slight shortening and "New Ro" (pronounced newro) became a trend among teens looking for a synthetic medium between the surf and ska inspired "Mod" category, and the rougher guitar-based Punk scene.

The movement hit Los Angeles in the early 1980s, when Henry Peck and Joseph Brooks (original Proprietors of Vinyl Fetish) opened The Veil club in Los Angeles and ran it from April 1981 to August 1983. On a memorable evening, Steve Strange showed up where the club was held at Club Lingerie in a horse-drawn carriage. Brooks and Peck went on to open several other clubs including: the one of the earliest Goth clubs (The Scream Parlour was first, though it was heavily influenced by Brooks and Peck via Vinyl Fetish) in Los Angeles, the Fetish Club, modeled after London's The Batcave; TVC15; and The Glam Slam.

Even though the movement Hit Los Angeles the movement was barely known in the U.S. The majority of the bands were either not known in the U.S. or only had one hit major hit. The only bands that were superstars in the U.S. was Culture Club and Duran Duran. The only other band to have success in the U.S with more than one hit is Adam and the Ants. Duran Duran is generally considered the most successful New Romantic band, though some nowadays would class them vaguely in the New Wave movement. In the US most of the New Romantics were one or two hit wonders or completely unheard of.

Revival

In the mid-1990s, New Romantic was revived in England as a movement called Romo (romantic modern) in clubs like Club Skinny. Orlando is generally seen to have been the most successful Romo group.

Early in the 21st century the short-lived Electroclash scene revived many stylistic elements of the new romantic period; Fischerspooner and other bands were briefly popular. Electric Dreams club in London continues to keep the spirit of the music alive, and bands such as Kill Hannah have drawn upon the fashion sensibilities of the movement.

The scene is sometimes credited with paving the way for the success of the Scissor Sisters.

The music has also seen a new level of interest since the BBC's Ashes to Ashes series ran on TV.

See also

• New Primitives
• Neo-romanticism
• New Wave music
• Synthpop