It was the 40th-anniversary last week of a landmark event at Seattle Center, marking the rise of so-called “New Wave” music in the Northwest.
“New Wave” is a kind of music that dates from roughly the late 1970s to the early or mid-80s. It was a more commercially viable, more mainstream, and more palatable version of punk and something of a precursor to 1990s “Alternative.”
There’s no hard and fast definition or litmus test, but bands like the B-52s, Talking Heads, REM, and The Cars fit into New Wave’s big tent – along with one-hit wonders like Big Country and Dexy’s Midnight Runners.
The event was the “Wave Spectacular,”
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