It’s a face of life that there are periods where everything old is new again. There may be no better example of this in the arts than Broadway.

Old productions are always being brought back. Take West Side Story, for example. After first premiering in 1957, it was brought back in 1960, 1964, 1980, 2009, and 2020. The Gershwin musical Porgy and Bess has been revived at least seven times.

Movies are always being rebooted: Ghostbusters, Planet of the Apes, King Kong (enough, already!), Robocop, Willy Wonka, Halloween, Spider-Man. A Star is Born first appeared in 1937 and was remade in 1954, 1976 and 2018.

Then there are all the TV remakes: MacGyver, 90210, Dynasty, Lost in Space, Roseanne, Twin Peaks, Star Trek.

This brings us to musical reboots, scenes and sounds that are brought back by people who are sometimes generations removed from when this style of music first appeared.

Maybe it starts with people who stumble on some old records. O maybe they independently discovered sounds and styles that they thought were brand new.

Whatever the cause or source, music is constantly being recycled and renewed, which is what we’re looking at with this series of show. This is the Alt-Rock Revivals, Part 5: New Wave

Songs heard on this show

The Killers, Somebody Told Me

Elvis Costello, Pump It Up

XTC, Making Plans for NIgel

Talking Heads, Life During Wartime

Depeche Mode, Dreaming of Me

Duran Duran, Hungry Like the WOlf

Elastica, Stutter

Franz Ferdinand, Take Me Out

The Bravery, An Honest Mistake

Middle of Nowhere, Hot Hot Heat

As usual, Eric Wilhite provides the playlist for your listening pleasure.

Don’t forget that you can get the podcast version of this podcast through iTunes or wherever you get your on-demand audio.

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:

We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor, Montreal, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.