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Daniel Bukszpan

The Encyclopedia of New Wave Paperback – May 1, 2012

by Daniel Bukszpan (Author), Gerald Casale (Foreword)

4.5 35 ratings

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The Talking Heads, The Boomtown Rats, Blondie, Elvis Costello: this fun new addition to the successful Encyclopedia series celebrates the hugely influential New Wave musical movement of the late 1970s and 80s. Originating as a less-aggressive sister movement to punk, New Wave encompassed a wide range of styles, from Brit pub-rock to electronica, synth-pop, and even ska. The Encyclopedia of New Wave comprehensively captures this eclectic music, all of which enthralled the newly emergent MTV generation. With its tendency toward romantic minimalism, dark dance beats, and gender-bending antics, New Wave changed the course of popular musical history, as well as fashion and art.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Sterling
Publication date

May 1, 2012
Dimensions

9 x 1.25 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1402784724
ISBN-13

978-1402784729
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Editorial Reviews

Review

*"This colorful and wildly entertaining look at the New Wave era in pop music (roughly, late 1970s through the end of the 1980s and defined within as “a straightforward songwriting approach relying heavily on synthesizers and other electronic equipment”) covers more than 150 artists and bands-from a-ha to Ze Popes. Best-selling acts such as Duran Duran, the Police, and the Smiths are included alongside one-hit wonders like the Flying Lizards, Kajagoogoo, and Q-Feel. Influential music-related personalities of the era, including Malcolm McClaren and Brian Eno, are also featured. A foreword by Gerald Casale, of the band Devo, and the introduction by the author serve to define New Wave and explain who was included as well as what was left out. Entries range from one column to three page spreads. The longer entries are made up of many photographs, with larger, well-known bands getting more coverage. The text is highly subjective and meant to be more for entertainment than research. A snarky-but amusing-tone is found throughout (e.g., 'Despite writing songs for uniformly despicable films, Go West has managed to keep a career going; In 1989, Cutting Crew released the appropriately named The Scattering, which sent record buyers running in all directions looking for somewhere-anywhere-to go in order to not buy it.' The eye-popping graphics-featuring a massive amount of photographs-will delight any fan of the music and the time period. Interesting sidebars are peppered throughout the text, such as 'Gender-Bending,' 'NY Clubs,' 'Heartthrobs,' 'Men's Fashion,' 'The Many Sounds of New Wave,' 'Music Videos,' 'Female Sex Symbols,' and 'Movies.' Appendixes include several 'Best of New Wave' lists, including 'Fifty Most Essential New Wave Singles,' 'Top Ten New Wave Bands with the Most Ridiculous Hair,' 'New Wave Timeline,' 'Ten Weirdest New Wave Singles,' and 'Top Twenty Essential New Wave Albums.' A bibliography and an index of artists and song titles round out the book..Cheeky yet incredibly informative, this is an inexpensive must-have for any music collection and will do especially well in circulation." --Booklist [STARRED REVIEW]

About the Author

Daniel Bukszpan is a talented freelance journalist and music critic, but only a mediocre guitarist. He has written countless music reviews and feature articles for various newspapers, magazines, and online publications. Bukszpan is also the author of the best-selling Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal, with a foreword by Ronny James Dio. In his spare time, he performs heavy metal and occasionally produces records under his own label, Smoking in Bed Records. Bukszpan lives in New York City with his wife and son.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sterling (May 1, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1402784724
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1402784729
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.9 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9 x 1.25 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #988,273 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #136 in MIDI & Mixers
- #759 in Music Encyclopedias
- #3,043 in Rock Music (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 35 ratings

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Daniel Bukszpan
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Daniel Bukszpan
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Daniel Bukszpan is the author of The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal, published in 2003 by Barnes & Noble, The Encyclopedia of New Wave, published in 2012 by Sterling Publishing, The Art of Brutal Legend, published in 2013 by Udon Entertainment, The Essential Wit of the World's Funniest People, published in 2017 by Fall River Press and Woodstock: 50 Years of Peace & Music, published in 2019 by Imagine/Charlesbridge. He also contributed to AC/DC: High-Voltage Rock ’N’ Roll, The Ultimate Illustrated History (2010), Aerosmith: The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Boston Bad Boys (2011), Iron Maiden: The Ultimate Unauthorized History of the Beast (2012), Metallica: The Complete Illustrated History (2013) and Rush: The Illustrated History (2013), all by Voyageur Press. He is also a regular contributor to CNBC.com. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and son.
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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

35 global ratings

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The Ghost

Pretty Good

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2013

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I really enjoy this book, although certainly it is nowhere near comprehensive. It is chock full of wonderful color photos of the bands, and I like the period-proper style and layout. Most of the individual band write-ups are decent, although there is no new ground broken here and its all pretty standard stuff, but its nice to have it all together in one book. And yes, there may be some errors, but a project of this scope is bound to have a few misses.

My four star rating is because of numerous omissions which I find bothersome. No Clash or U2 or Sex Pistols? Okay, The Clash and Pistols were punk, but The Clash edged into new wave/pop territory, and PiL is here, so why not the Pistols? U2 became a stadium supergroup, but they had punky/new wave roots. Where was Bowie or Iggy Pop or The New York Dolls? Other notable omissions include CBGB's -- why did this iconic epicenter of the New York punk and new wave scene not get its own write-up? What about the film Urgh! A Music War, which highlighted dozens of important new wave bands? No mention anywhere of it. Of course a book like this can't hope to cover everything, but there are basics that should be included.

Other bands which I was personally disappointed and surprised to find excluded included The Payola$, The Plastics, John Foxx, Hazel O'Connor, YMO,The Mission UK, and a host of others. Again, alot of this sort of stuff is personal preferences, but including folks like Robert Palmer and Grace Jones while skipping some of these others seems ridiculous. Maybe the author will do a second volume one day and include these artists who were excluded this time. Let's hope.

One final thought: several reviewers have mentioned the snarky tone the author uses throughout the book. I agree that it is highly annoying, but I didn't find as much of that sort of thing as I expected from the other reviews. Most of the snark seems to have been reserved for photo captions -- band entries are pretty reverent in some instances.

So, overall a pretty good book that would have been a great book with a little more work. I recommend it to any 80's/new wave music fans.

2 people found this helpful

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A. Devereux

Totally 80s, totally awesome!

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2012

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When this book arrived, I was so pleased at the heft of it. It is bigger and much heavier than I imagined with bright glossy pages . It would actually make a great coffee-table book. I bought this as a Christmas gift for my sister and her husband who graduated high school together in 1988 and still love and listen to the same music. And since I grew up with a new wave sister, I also know quite a bit about it, and went through the book page by page. True, this book isn't exactly a thesis on the new wave movement (and who would even want that), but it goes through each and every new wave band and a few trends with a paragraph to page-long write up on each. There are photos included for each entry, and every page is decorated with bright designs; I don't think there is an inch of blank space to be found. I think this gift will be a hit since it is a really fun book to flip through, both visually and reminiscently, and who would have expected it to even exist? I recommend this book to anyone who appreciates New Wave and wants a fun coffetable-style book to show off that appreciation!

3 people found this helpful

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ferdinand joel lozano

80s New Wave Memories!

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2012

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Being a teenager during the late 70s and into the 80s, I think I grew up at a great time for music. From the guitar rock of the 70s, to the punk scene, the heavy metal, the pop and even rap music, and into the new wave.
I had purchased the previous volumes "The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock", "The Encyclopedia of Punk", and "The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal" and have thoroughly enjoyed them. And now I've completed my collection with this volume.
My only gripe with the "Encyclopedia of New Wave" is that it is slightly smaller than the other volumes and looks out of place alongside the others on my bookshelf. But despite its smaller packaging, it still packs quite a lot of information and memories inside.
If you loved the music of the 80s, then you'll love this book. And if you get the chance, I would advise you to check out the other volumes as well.
I would certainly be interested in seeing future volumes to include "Encyclopedia of Rap" or even an "Encyclopedia of R&B and Soul".

One person found this helpful

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ETO Buff

Ignores a Lot of Good Bands

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2016

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The book brought back a lot of memories from my teens and early twenties, but the profanity wasn't necessary. I wouldn't have had a problem with it in those days, but I've grown out of it, and it made me not want to share some of the content with my kids, who are now in their teens. I found it interesting that the author chose to include Madonna (who was NEVER thought of as New Wave), Matthew Wilder, Tommy Tutone, and a few other questionable acts, but completely ignored bands like Blancmange, X, Bad Manners, Re-Flex, Bollock Brothers, JoBoxers, and many other acts that were genuinely part of the New Wave movement.
Some of the information is incomplete, and there is a good portion of facts that are replaced by the author's personal tastes. Other than that, if you enjoy the music genre as I still do (I began a 31-year career as a DJ because of my love for this stuff), then you'll probably find a lot of this book interesting, or at least nostalgic for a time when so many bands produced music more for the music than to please the mainstream population.

4 people found this helpful

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Elizabeth Blumberg

LOVE IT!!!

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2014

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I was probably dragged away from MTV in it's early days to do things like eat dinner and go to school, but I remember none of that. What I remember far more clearly than whoever taught me Social Studies in the Sixth grade is how very much I loved Billy Idol. This well-researched guide to all the awesomeness that was the '80's includes a full-color photo of a shirtless Billy Idol, worth the purchase price by itself, but also includes tons of fun facts about my favorite bands and even some pioneers in the genre that never quite made it to the big time. A great fun read!

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2014

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ANY fan of new wave music needs to read this and have it in their collection. This book goes over every new wave band from A to Z and then some. The price was unbeatable, and the shipping; fast! Worth every penny!

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2017

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No REM?!?

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indomir

Nil desperandum, worth a look.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 2, 2018

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Something of a culture clash if you are a reader from the UK/Ireland. Turn to the 'lists' at the back of the book and you will see what I mean. #1 Essential New Wave Album = Outlandos d'Amour, The Police. #1 Most Essential New Wave Single = Take on Me, a-ha.
So, if you can accept that 'New Wave' in the US can mean something from a different galaxy, far far away, there is lots and lots to be enjoyed in this, if you like this sort of thing, which I do, and I did.

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