No wave

No wave was a short-lived avant-garde music and art scene that had its beginnings during the late 1970s in downtown New York City.[1][2] In part a reaction against punk rock's recycling of traditionalist rock tropes, no wave musicians instead experimented with noise, dissonance and atonality in addition to a variety of non-rock genres. The no wave scene often reflected an abrasive, confrontational and nihilistic worldview.[3][4]

The term "no wave" was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music, and first became used in downtown New York City concurrent with the 1981 show, "New York/New Wave" that had been curated by the artist/curator Diego Cortez.[5] The term "no wave" was probably inspired by the French New Wave pioneer Claude Chabrol, with his remark "There are no waves, only the ocean".[6][7] The movement would last a relatively short time but profoundly influenced the development of independent film, fashion and visual art.[8]

Musical styles and characteristics

No wave is not a clearly definable musical genre with consistent features, although it was generally characterized by a rejection of the recycling of traditional rock aesthetics, such as blues-rock styles and Chuck Berry guitar riffs, in punk and new wave music.[3] Various groups drew on such disparate styles as funk, jazz, blues, punk rock, avant garde[1] and experimental. There were, however, some elements common to most no-wave music, such as abrasive atonal sounds; repetitive, driving rhythms; and a tendency to emphasize musical texture over melody—typical of La Monte Young's early downtown music.[8]

No wave music presented a negative and nihilistic world view that reflected the desolation of late 1970s downtown New York and how they viewed the larger society. Lydia Lunch noted: "The whole fucking country was nihilistic. What did we come out of? The lie of the Summer of Love into Charles Manson and the Vietnam War. Where is the positivity?"[9]

Music history

The repetitive synthesizer-driven music and confrontational stage act of New York City's Suicide, established in 1970, would become a primary influence to the development of no wave.[3]

In 1978 a punk subculture-influenced noise series was held at New York's Artists Space that led to the Brian Eno-produced recording No New York, documenting James Chance and the Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Mars and DNA.[10]

Sonic Youth made their first live appearance at Noise Fest, a noise music festival curated by Thurston Moore at the art space White Columns in June 1981.[11] Each night three to five acts performed, including Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Rudolph Grey, Robin Crutchfield's Dark Day, Off Beach and others,.[9]

No wave had a notable influence on noise music and industrial bands which followed, such as Big Black, Helmet and Live Skull. Theoretical Girls influenced Sonic Youth, who emerged from the scene and eventually reached mass audiences and critical acclaim.[12]

According to Simon Reynolds, writing for Slate:

And although "affection" is possibly an odd word to use in reference to a bunch of nihilists, I do feel fond of the No Wave people. James Chance's music actually stands up really well, I think; there are great moments throughout Lydia Lunch's long discography, and Suicide's records are just beautiful.[13]

No wave inspired the "Speed Trials" noise rock series organized by Live Skull members in May 1983 at White Columns which included, from the UK, The Fall, and from the US, Sonic Youth, Lydia Lunch, Beastie Boys, Elliott Sharp, Swans, The Ordinaires, Arto Lindsay and Toy Killers. This was followed by the after-hours Speed Club that was fleetingly established at ABC No Rio.[14]

Other no wave musicians

In addition to those mentioned above, the following musical artists are cited as being part of the original no wave:[15]

Cinema

Main article: No Wave Cinema

No wave cinema was an underground film scene in Tribeca and the East Village. Filmmakers included Amos Poe, Eric Mitchell, Charlie Ahearn, Vincent Gallo, James Nares, Jim Jarmusch, Vivienne Dick, Scott B and Beth B and Seth Tillett, and led to the Cinema of Transgression and work by Nick Zedd and Richard Kern.[16]

Visual art

Visual artists played a large role in the no wave scene, as visual artists often were playing in bands, and/or making videos and films, while making visual art for exhibition. An early influence on this aspect of the scene was Alan Vega (aka Alan Suicide) whose electronic junk sculpture predated his role in the music group Suicide.

An important exhibition of no wave visual art was Colab's organization of the "Times Square Show".[17] In June 1980, more than 100 artists installed their work in an empty massage parlor near Times Square that included punk visual artists, graffiti artists, feminist artists, political artists, Xerox artists and performance artists.[18]

No wave art found an ongoing home on the Lower East Side with the establishment of ABC No Rio Gallery in 1980, and a no wave punk aesthetic was a dominant strand in the art galleries of the East Village (from 1982–86).[14]

Visual artists

Legacy

In a foreword to the book No Wave, Weasel Walter wrote of the movement's ongoing influence,

I began to express myself musically in a way that felt true to myself, constantly pushing the limits of idiom or genre and always screaming "Fuck You!" loudly in the process. It's how I felt then and I still feel it now. The ideals behind the (anti-) movement known as No Wave were found in many other archetypes before and just as many afterwards, but for a few years around the late 1970s, the concentration of those ideals reached a cohesive, white-hot focus.[19]

In 2004, Scott Crary made a documentary, Kill Your Idols, including such no wave bands as Suicide, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, DNA and Glenn Branca as well as bands influenced by no wave including Sonic Youth, Swans, Foetus and others.

In 2007–2008, three books on the scene were published: Soul Jazz's New York Noise,[20] Marc Masters' No Wave,[9] and Thurston Moore and Byron Coley's No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980.[21]

Coleen Fitzgibbon and Alan W. Moore created a short film in 1978 (finished in 2009) of a New York City no wave concert to benefit Colab called "X Magazine Benefit", documenting performances by DNA, James Chance and the Contortions, and Boris Policeband. Shot in black and white Super 8 and edited on video, the film captured the gritty look and sound of the music scene during that era. In 2013, it was exhibited at Salon 94, an art gallery in New York City.[22]

Music compilations

Documentary films

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Romanowski, P., ed. (1995) [1983]. The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. H. George-Warren & J. Pareles (Revised ed.). New York: Fireside. p. 717. ISBN 0-684-81044-1.
  2. ↑ Masters 2007, p. 5
  3. 1 2 3 "NO!: The Origins of No Wave".
  4. ↑ "No Wave - Music Highlights - AllMusic". AllMusic.
  5. ↑ Alison Pearlman, Unpackaging art of the 1980s, p. 188
  6. ↑ O'Brien, Glenn (October 1999). "Style Makes the Band". Artforum International.
  7. ↑ Kalat, David. "Ch 20 The Story of Chabrol." The Strange Case of Dr. Mabuse: A Study of the Twelve Films and Five Novels. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2005. N. pag. Print.
  8. 1 2 Masters 2007, p. 200
  9. 1 2 3 No Wave, with a foreword by Weasel Walter (London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007), ISBN 978-1-906155-02-5.
  10. ↑ James Chance interview | Pitchfork
  11. ↑ Simon Reynolds, Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-punk 1978–1984 (2006) Penguin
  12. ↑ Masters 2007, p. 168
  13. ↑ "Rip It Up and Start Again," by Stephen Metcalf and Simon Reynolds, Slate Magazine
  14. 1 2 Carlo McCormick, The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984, Princeton University Press, 2006
  15. ↑ Walter, Weasel. "New York No Wave Archive". New York No Wave Archive. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  16. ↑ "No Wavelength: The Para-Punk Underground".
  17. ↑ Masters 2007, p. 19
  18. ↑ "Times Square Show Revisited".
  19. ↑ Masters 2007
  20. ↑ Soul Jazz Records — New York Noise — Art and Music from the New York Underground 1978–88
  21. ↑ Harry N. Abrams, Inc. No Wave
  22. ↑ "Pulse Generator Pastry, NY Mix—Salon 94". Salon94.

Sources

External links

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