Top 50 New Wave Songs from NPR

Markdown

NPR made a questionable list of New Wave¹ songs. Rather than having you search for each of them and playing them on youtube (what a pain it is to do that), you can play this playlist I made. Bonus, I linked to all the wikipedia pages for the songs (and where there are no song pages, I note and link to the page that talks about the song.

Don’t know what New Wave is? It’s a musical genre including rock, punk, and pop in the 80s. It included 80s bands like Duran Duran, Devo, INXS, and Pet Shop Boys.

Why do I consider this list questionable? I’m a pretty good judge of 80s music and this list is missing a lot. Having actually lived through this decade and having listened to the music through my life, I feel like the decisions on this list are made to give a greater variety and emphasis of innovation in New Wave. If you listen to Trent Von’s Save the Wave on a regular basis, you’ll see that New Wave is a powerful genre with 50 better songs than the below list. But there’s no harm in creating this list and then creating a better list.

Top 50 New Wave Songs Of All Time (NPR)

New Wave Youtube Music Playlist
New Wave Youtube Playlist

1. Joy Division - Love Will tear Us Apart
   Wikipedia
2. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Christine
   Wikipedia
3. The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
   Wikipedia
4. Ultravox - Vienna
   Wikipedia
5. Romeo Void - Never Say Never
   Wikipedia
6. The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again
   Wikipedia
7. Echo And The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon
   Wikipedia
8. Gary Numan - Cars
   Wikipedia
9. New Order - Blue Monday
   Wikipedia
10. The B-52’s - Rock Lobster
    Wikipedia
11. Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
    Wikipedia
12. Peter Godwin - Images Of Heaven
    Wikipedia (no song page)
13. New Order - Temptation
    Wikipedia
14. Icicle Works - Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)
    Wikipedia
15. Gang Of Four - To Hell With Poverty
    Wikipedia (no song page)
16. The Stranglers - Skin Deep
    Wikipedia
17. John Foxx - Underpass
    Wikipedia
18. Martha And The Muffins - Echo Beach
    Wikipedia
19. The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet
    Wikipedia
20. Yaz - Don’t Go
    Wikipedia
21. The Specials - Ghost Town
    Wikipedia
22. The Psychedelic Furs - Heaven
    Wikipedia
23. Split Enz - I Got You
    Wikipedia
24. The Chameleons U.K. - Swamp Thing
    Wikipedia (no song page)
25. Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood
    Wikipedia
26. Depeche Mode - Shake The Disease
    Wikipedia
27. Visage - Fade To Grey
    Wikipedia
28. Berlin - The Metro
    Wikipedia
29. Alphaville - Forever Young
    Wikipedia
30. Blondie - Heart Of Glass
    Wikipedia
31. The English Beat - Mirror In The Bathroom
    Wikipedia
32. Duran Duran - Rio
    Wikipedia
33. The Flying Lizards - Money
    Wikipedia (no song page)
34. XTC - Dear God
    Wikipedia
35. ABC - The Look Of Love (Part 1)
    Wikipedia
36. Q Feel - Dancing In Heaven (Orbital Bebop)
    Wikipedia (no song page)
37. Altered Images - I Could Be Happy
    Wikipedia
38. The Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap
    Wikipedia
39. B-Movie - Nowhere Girl
    Wikipedia
40. Squeeze - Cool For Cats
    Wikipedia
41. The Cure - In Between Days
    Wikipedia
42. Depeche Mode - Just Can’t Get Enough
    Wikipedia
43. Devo - Whip It
    Wikipedia
44. Public Image Ltd. - Public Image
    Wikipedia
45. Erasure - Oh Lamour
    Wikipedia
46. Freur - Doot Doot
    Wikipedia (no song page)
47. Lene Lovich - Lucky Number
    Wikipedia
48. Bow Wow Wow - Do You Wanna Hold Me?
    Wikipedia (no song page)
49. Heaven 17 - Let Me Go
    Wikipedia
50. China Crisis - Working With Fire And Steel
    Wikipedia