New Romantic Essentials

Though it’s a term that’s often erroneously applied to all ‘80s synth-pop, New Romantic was born of a specific, fashion-fetishist ideology. Spurred by punk’s transgressive spirit but dismayed by its anti-glamour ethos, the original New Romantics congregated at club nights in the UK to parade wild attire inspired equally by ’70s glitter rock and its 19th-century spiritual ancestor, Romantic art. (Hello, frilly pirate shirts!) It was only a matter of time before the scene’s figureheads pursued a musical vision as flamboyant and sophisticated as their sartorial one, with Steve Strange’s Visage updating the debonair art rock of Roxy Music for the post-Kraftwerk era. New Romantic’s rise was fortuitously timed to capitalize on the emergence of MTV, and by the early ‘80s, its outlandish androgynous aesthetic had infiltrated the upper reaches of the charts through the cosmopolitan pop of Duran Duran and Culture Club.