Rock Band: New Wave

[army_of_me]

Yes, it was a sweeter, more innocent time. One filled with leg warmers, skinny ties, terrible hair, and many other lazy cliches. People were selling their guitars for synthesizers, drum machines were permanently tuned to the "disco beat" setting, and your song just wasn't complete until it had a skronking sax solo. "That music is stupid" you may hear yourself saying, until you realize upon closer inspection that it is actually you who are stupid, because these songs are awesome:

a-ha - The Sun Always Shines On TV
Adam and the Ants - Strip
Afrika Bambaataa - Looking For the Perfect Beat
After the Fire - Der Kommissar
The B-52's - Ain't It a Shame
The Bangles – Hero Takes a Fall
Berlin - The Metro
Billy Idol - Eyes Without a Face
Blondie - Union City Blue
Bow Wow Wow - I Want Candy
The Buggles - Video Killed the Radio Star (alt: Clean, Clean)
The Call - The Walls Came Down
The Cars - Let's Go
The Church - Under the Milky Way
Cocteau Twins - Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops
Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over
The Cult – Fire Woman
The Cure - Lovesong (alt: Lullaby)
Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time
The Damned – Alone Again, Or
David Bowie – China Girl
Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence
Devo - Freedom of Choice
Dexys Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
Dramarama - Anything, Anything
Duran Duran - A View To A Kill
Echo and the Bunnymen - Bedbugs & Ballyhoo (alt: Lips Like Sugar)
Elvis Costello - (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
The English Beat - Tears of a Clown (alt: Save It For Later)
Eurythmics - Would I Lie To You?
Fine Young Cannibals - Good Thing
The Fixx - One Thing Leads to Another (alt: Saved By Zero)
Gary Numan - Cars
Gene Loves Jezebel - Desire
The Icicle Works - Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)
INXS – Never Tear Us Apart (alt: New Sensation)
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - Crimson and Clover
Joe Jackson- Look Sharp!
Joy Division - Shadowplay
Love and Rockets - Kundalini Express
Madonna - Holiday
Men Without Hats - Safety Dance
Midnight Oil - Beds Are Burning
Ministry - I Wanted to Tell Her
Missing Persons - Words
Nena - 99 Luftballoons
New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
Nick Lowe - (I Love The Sound Of) Breaking Glass
Oingo Boingo - Only a Lad (alt: Who Do You Want To Be)
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - If You Leave
Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al
Peter Schilling - Major Tom (Coming Home)
Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight
The Power Station - Some Like It Hot
The Pretenders - Middle Of The Road
Public Image Ltd - Rise
R.E.M. - Begin the Begin (alt: The One I Love)
The Replacements - I Will Dare
Robert Palmer - Addicted to Love
The Romantics - What I Like About You
Romeo Void - Never Say Never
Roxy Music - Love Is The Drug
Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me)
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Happy House
The Smithereens - Blood and Roses
The Smiths - I Started Something I Couldn't Finish (alt: Bigmouth Strikes Again)
Squeeze - Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)
The Style Council - My Ever-Changing Moods
Suzanne Vega - Left Of Center
The Sugarcubes - Birthday
Talking Heads - Stay Up Late
Tears For Fears - Sowing The Seeds Of Love (alt: Pale Shelter)
Television - Marquee Moon
Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science (alt: Hyperactive!)
The Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now
Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love
Toni Basil - Mickey
Violent Femmes - Kiss Off
The Waitresses - I Know What Boys Like
Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio
XTC - Dear God (alt: Senses Working Overtime)

• 80 songs
• All with guitars (or an approximate sound that could be charted to guitar), many with solos
• All with bass, vocals, and drums
• 20+ female lead (or co-lead) vocals
• 20+ with harmonies - probably much more than that
• 60+ with keyboards, or tracks that can be mapped to keyboards (horns, orchestral strings, etc)

Behind the Scenes

• I used the mid-70's up to 1989 as my general cut-off
• I obviously used the looser definition of New Wave - so not just synthpop, but artists who were labeled at the time as "New Wave" to differentiate their new aesthetic and outlook from what came before (which includes post-punk and straight-up rock outfits like Television, Elvis Costello, The Romantics, and The Pretenders). I also included New Wavey songs from non-New Wave artists (David Bowie, The Replacements).
• I excluded genres that I love, but feel did not fit the label: pop, rap, punk, soul, r&b, prog, metal (including hair metal), country, reggae, etc.
• I did try to balance gameplay elements and other factors, such as the difficulty range and including a variety of sub-genres, tempos, playing techniques, etc.
• I excluded some classics that unfortunately had no way to integrate guitar, such as Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams", Pet Shop Boys "West End Girl", When In Rome "The Promise", Yaz "Situation", to name a few. An example of an exception is Afrika Bambaataa, included as a nod to an incredibly influential and prescient artist who bridged new wave, techno, & hip-hop while each genre was still in its infancy; the song has some tracks that could conceivably be mapped to guitar. Plus, he's awesome.
• I aimed for songs that have aged well and have some degree of rockin'-ness; examples that didn't fit the bill: ABC "The Look of Love", Howard Jones "No One Is To Blame", The Human League "Human", Spandau Ballet "True", Wang Chung "Everybody Have Fun Tonight". Also, I opted for more rocking songs over an artist's more well-known (non-rocking) songs - The Bangles "Hero Takes a Fall" over "Eternal Flame" and "Manic Monday", for example. But mostly - "how awesome would it be at a party?" trumped all (Phil Collins "In the Air Tonight").
• There are some iconic (cliche?) songs that are alright, but just don't ring my bell - Culture Club "Karma Chameleon", Dead Or Alive "You Spin Me Round", Kajagoogoo "Too Shy", etc. They are not in.
• Yes, I put too much thought into this pointless list.

If you dug this, check out my 90's grunge/alternative tracklist!

[GLaDOS]

I kinda skimmed the list, but I did notice that we already have "Fire Woman" by The Cult... which by the way, "Love Removal Machine" would be the bomb.

Also, guitar or not, no "Tainted Love" makes me a sad panda.

And finally, If we ever, EVER get more R.E.M. songs then it must be "The One I Love." Why you ask? Because I said so and therefore it must.

As a whole, I find the list kind of weak, but really I wouldn't expect any better from a list comprised entirely of New Wave. The thing is, all the New Wave bands we have we already have all the best songs for. Of course I would still buy it (Probably only for "Enjoy The Silence" by Depeche Mode, actually), but it wouldn't sell well AT ALL, which is the main dealbreaker.

[Mileycyrussoulja]

Oh mah gawd, I would definitely buy this in an instant. Nice job!

Although I would love to play Tainted Love for those keys. Too bad it's not in there.

By the way, "Cars" doesn't have guitar either. Did you decide to include that for its' awesomeness as well?

[Witticus]

I kinda skimmed the list, but I did notice that we already have "Fire Woman" by The Cult... which by the way, "Love Removal Machine" would be the bomb.

We have She Sells Sanctuary and not Fire Woman.

[Meat-Popsicle]

You could select just about any 3 of these songs, make it a pack, and it would likely become Pack of the Year for me.

[army_of_me]

Cool, glad most of y'all dig it.

And finally, If we ever, EVER get more R.E.M. songs then it must be "The One I Love." Why you ask? Because I said so and therefore it must.

As a whole, I find the list kind of weak, but really I wouldn't expect any better from a list comprised entirely of New Wave. The thing is, all the New Wave bands we have we already have all the best songs for. Of course I would still buy it (Probably only for "Enjoy The Silence" by Depeche Mode, actually), but it wouldn't sell well AT ALL, which is the main dealbreaker.

Can't argue with "The One I Love"; there's so many great R.E.M. tracks it's hard to go wrong.

Yeah, if New Wave's not your thing, what can you do? Obviously I disagree that we already have the best songs for these groups. Salability didn't factor into this list at all (although pretty much each artist/track were quite popular at the time), but I do believe most of these would be irresistible at parties nonetheless.

By the way, "Cars" doesn't have guitar either. Did you decide to include that for its' awesomeness as well?

By Jove, you're right! I mistook that fuzzy bass for guitar. If it had any other instrumental tracks that could be mapped to guitar (like with the Afrika Bambaataa song), I'd leave it in... Too bad, by my own logic I must exclude it.

[Mileycyrussoulja]

By Jove, you're right! I mistook that fuzzy bass for guitar. If it had any other instrumental tracks that could be mapped to guitar (like with the Afrika Bambaataa song), I'd leave it in... Too bad, by my own logic I must exclude it.

DAMMIT! One of my favorite New Wave songs gone ;~;

But yeah it's said on Wikipedia that Numan didn't use guitars at all for the Pleasure Principle album. He used guitars in some of his other works though, but Cars doesn't have any guitar in it.

[FlyGuyLXI]

Unusual Eurythmics and B-52s choice. Plus I don't see The Buggles

I wouldn't necessarily stop at the 80s either. I would include a couple of modern-day tracks that would be considered in a new wave fashion.

Also, the absence of a few iconic new wave/new wave related artists like ABC, Thomas Dolby and Oingo Boingo.

[Mileycyrussoulja]

Oh yes, how in the world did I not point out the lack of Thomas Dolby and the Buggles? They both have guitar and were great new wave tunes.

[army_of_me]

Unusual Eurythmics and B-52s choice.

I have to admit "Would I Lie To You?" is not necessarily a favorite of mine - I knew bits of the chorus from movies and whatnot, but I never gave it much thought until I listened to it the other day and realized it would be pretty darn great to play on all instruments (only the drums are slightly repetitive, and even then...) I didn't go with "Sweet Dreams" for reasons described in my original post. I'm open to other suggestions!

The B-52's choice is obscure, for sure; I did debate it, but left it in because 1) my list could use another slower song, 2) I thought it would be interesting for people not familiar with the B-52's to hear a good song totally dissimilar from their singles, 3) I really really really like it. But again, open to other suggestions!

I wouldn't necessarily stop at the 80s either. I would include a couple of modern-day tracks that would be considered in a new wave fashion.

I did consider newer songs, but for me "New Wave" is really rooted in a certain time and place... plus my list is already pretty bloated. I would totally support a list of newer "New Wave"-ish tracks, though.

Also, the absence of a few iconic new wave/new wave related artists like ABC, Thomas Dolby and Oingo Boingo.

Oh yes, how in the world did I not point out the lack of Thomas Dolby and the Buggles? They both have guitar and were great new wave tunes.

I actually wanted to include some of these artists, especially the Buggles and Oingo Boingo, but I didn't know enough about them beyond "Video Killed the Radio Star" (which I thought didn't have guitar, but maybe I need to re-listen) and "Only a Lad"/"Weird Science" (but wasn't sure if those were the best representative tracks of theirs). Any suggestions? The same with Thomas Dolby and ABC - I do like "The Look of Love", even if it sounds more disco than New Wave to my uneducated ears.