late 70s new wave classic rock

Oh man, Sniff'nThe Tears totally.

Doll by Doll were maybe too much their own thing, but I guess some of their music might fit here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSajH3ijMgQ

The Brains - Money Changes Everything

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLWbp3w2eqM

beat me to it!

'82, but may be what you're looking for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRI_02EOsyI

Also in searching for that I found an NJ cover band from 1983:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXKsIFLfB64

This is 80s, but it still fits. Translator--Everywhere That I'm Not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEwwc1Vovkk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XdaYYQZesY

Hawkwind had always been synth-y, but this was like they decided to be Sparks for 3 1/2 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFPLgGWMndc

Looking at that clip makes me wish Marc Bolan had lived long enough to have gone full New Wave.

I don't know how new wave Mad Love was in the long run, but Ronstadt absolutely nailed "Party Girl."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxJib9v0buk

Wait, "Never Been Any Reason" was number TWO FREAKING HUNDRED in the classic rock poll??? That's wrong by an order of magnitude.

(1981 technically)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-rEVVAw3-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVpSoj-kHEU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m17rt_xo9x0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0xwSp1HVRE

it's from the early 80s but what about greg kihn's break up song?

so was Trans the apex or nadir of this stuff?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om2Lt94Ltw4

Arlyn Gale. Kinda dumb song/video & maybe not classic rock enough, but look at this fuckin guy. Also Omar Hakim is on drums!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkVW-y1pbME

Gotta post some dB's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWN-adiDNtM

and the Mystery Dance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTS09Wo1xhI

Random Hold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRFKRHa9ky0

Wait, "Never Been Any Reason" was number TWO FREAKING HUNDRED in the classic rock poll???

I think that song only got played on FM in the midwest. It was never on NY
radio. Too bad, because it's a masterpiece.

The Plugz would fit I think, although it's been a while since I heard any records.

Loved the Plugz I could find, but did they use keyboards? Mostly remember stomping beats and Tito's wail. For crate digging, try 15-60-75 The Numbers Band's Among The Wandering, in there between Graham Parker & The Roumour and a really butch Huey Lewis and The News, esp. on tracks like "High Heels Are Dangerous."
But not to forget the obvious, overlooked since this thread's original references: Blondie.
Parallel Lines and Eat To The Beat were the ones I've played the hell out of; s/t debut is good too, in a tres-garage-y way, though they're better w bigger production; Best of Blondie is handy car disc and has some remixes;Essential Blondie: Picture This Live has shows from their prime; No Exit is an unusually strong come-back album, though I've neglected it.

"Rumour," that is (jeez)

I don't think I knew "Never Been Any Reason" before I moved to Europe in the late 90s. (was east coast US before then).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMNU7yR1Gp8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yRRqxJHQmA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pFdkkjGiEs

'The Yachts' fit right into the original descrip.

the Knack?

the Cars pwn this thread

is it just me or has every youtube link in this thread vanished into copious white space?

you can still access the links (though some of the videos have been deleted) if you view this thread with images turned off

i.e. if you go to Preferences and uncheck "show images"

donnie iris to the rescue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH5Arbm47IQ

^_^

seeing that video after having known the song from childhood was quite a shock
there was definitely a time when i thought this song was by the cars (i was a child, going by ears only bc radio)
for me it has that rock/new wave sound + fire/desire hilarious lyrics

wow, that is a good one - total sub-Cars and a hilariously shitty video too!

Donnie Iris was in the Jaggerz!

Canada represents pretty well in this category, The Kings, Aldo Nova, Max Webster/Kim Mitchell, Tom Cochrane ("Lunatic Fringe"), maybe even "Tom Sawyer"-era Rush.

remember seeing this in heavy rotation during very early MTV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMNU7yR1Gp8

(this is probably one of the white spaces upthread)

That Donnie Iris song is awesome.

My friend and I talk about this transition era a lot, when the fashions (musical and clothing alike) were sort of hovering between decades. He brings up "Freaks & Geeks" a lot, which he thinks nailed the era perfectly. He's a bit older than me so remembers that period pretty well, when Zeppelin and the Who were still around but people were also getting into new wave and stuff. I mean, Dave Edmunds hovered around in limbo for a long time because he was signed to Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label! (fwiw Rockpile's "Seconds of Pleasure" was released just a couple of weeks after the death of John Bonham.)

Anyway, I want to say just pre-MTV these little subgenres hadn't quite been codified yet. Black music was totally cordoned off, most anything with a guitar was "rock" music, corporate rock ruled but metal and punk and whatnot were coming in from the margins ...

Greg Kihn "The Breakup Song" and others belong in here too? I loved "Jeopardy" when I was a super little kid. IDK which youtubes survived this thread and which don't but that song popped into my mind with Donnie Iris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAJNwPWVmNc

Still can't believe Jeopardy was a big enough hit for Weird Al to parody it!

i want to say some foreigner stuff might fall in appropriately here. maybe somebody who's a bit more knowledgeable can chime in?

been thinking about this song a lot too -- quarterflash "harden my heart"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNFSED77-GM

Lots of nice chords in that one, and a good vocal performance. Def. peak AOR.

xhuxk's essay pertains:

https://accidentalevolution.wordpress.com/2021/06/11/150-best-albums-of-1979/

I have an obsession with this genre / period...and had forgotten all about this! Not an obscurity - I remember this from the radio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK4zm7SLvbk

That's great, sounds as if La Düsseldorf is his backing band!

It's most probably Midge Ure?

Yep, Midge Ure. Wikipedia also says this was used as the TOTP theme song for 5 years:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Pearl_(song)

1984, but...NEW WAVE RONNIE MILSAP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aiim9sVWWXA

Herve is that you?

Belated thanks for that Ronnie Milsap video, unbelievably, wonderfully, over-the-top 80s.

Yes, everything about it is deeply of its moment. If it was indeed the first country video played on MTV, they checked every single box for a veteran act’s makeover.

Good faux-Cars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVrILDo5CZg

Clocks: "She Looks Alot Like You", 1982

Not quite 1970s (1980) and never played on classic rock stations afaik, but I've always had a soft spot for Gary Myrick's "She Talks in Stereo." I saw him back then for like a dollar for some low-admission record label promotion night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKhmK_sD2uo