Synth and Swagger

Synth and Swagger

What Were They Thinking? New Wave’s Strangest Moments

(Free Preview) From The Police’s unhinged “Mother” to Devo’s unclassifiable “Speed Racer,” six songs that make you laugh, cringe, and scratch your head.

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Jason D'Orazio
Aug 15, 2025
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Intro

Some New Wave tracks are catchy, some are cool, and some… make you wonder if the studio air vents were pumping out something stronger than oxygen. In this roundup of the genre’s greatest “head-scratchers,” we revisit moments when big-name bands took a sharp left turn — into opera rap, pirate hip-hop, crying guitars, and mother issues. You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe, and you might even add a few to your playlist… just to prove you survived the ’80s.

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