Abstract
Music groups and artists depend on music media platforms to provide exposure to their work and supply entertainment to the public. Emerging from the 1970s underground New York City punk scene, the Talking Heads was an art-rock band often approached with apprehension due to their idiosyncratic angle towards pop and rock music. Media outlets initially issued uncertain commentary on the group and described them as “outlandish” and “provocative.” Toward the end of the decade, a feud between rock and disco developed, which is partially credited for “new wave” music’s emergence. The Talking Heads was deemed a typical example of a new wave band that challenged the music industry to question what constitutes a band as a new wave artist. While the group contended with the media’s standards for mass media exposure, they achieved commercial success and substantial media exposure despite their abnormal nature. This study examines entertainment media trends of the 1970s and 1980s parallel to the Talking Heads’ unanticipated fame and the media’s response to the changes they brought to popular music.
The 1970s was a culturally vulnerable decade. New York City was a haven for musical artists with profound approaches to their predecessors’ work. Surrounded by the tension between the popularity of disco and the revolt of punk music, underground artists faced the importance of originality. Societies’ definition of “rock and roll” became threatened and questioned the future of popular music. Radio stations flourished with high-tempo, accessible dance music, while the less populated clubs were cycling through punk bands that sparked cult followings, such as the Ramones. The stark contrast between the two genres consisted of their musical qualities and the attitudes supporting them. Disco’s tightly knit grooves and catchy melodies promoted joy, freedom, and black celebration. In contrast, punk music’s raw and loose aggression resembled rock music in its ragged form and focused on its rebellious messages.
Disco’s emergence deterred popular music’s focus from idealistic “rock and roll.” Simultaneously, punk music contributed the same but with different intentions. Punk music was definitive and claimed a distinct role in the music industry, typically composed of anti-patriarchal lyrical themes and bold behavior, accompanied by blistering guitars and rapid drum patterns. Though not as commercially successful or accepted in the same fashion as disco, the punk movement was antithetical to the latter and assisted in the division between the two communities.
The most notable component of the New York punk scene included a sub-genre called “new wave.” Though the label referred to various musical styles adjacent to those possessing distinct definitions, it most commonly referred to compositions partially derived from standard punk influences. New wave typically deviated from the nonconformist intensity that characterized the genre. British punk groups, such as Sex Pistols, portrayed themselves with ferocity in music composition and social identity. New wave bands associated with the punk scene, such as Blondie, the Ramones, or Talking Heads, adopted similar music fundamentals but excluded the alarming attitudes that deprived punk rockers of societal traction. New York City became an expansive refuge for these groups to blur the lines of rock and pop music for the decade to come.
Record labels and radio stations recognized musicians’ worth by discerning their distinguishing qualities. Particularly in New York City, the punk scene morphed into variations of both British bands like Sex Pistols and the works of 1960s New York avant-garde legends, such as the Velvet Underground. Bands such as Television and Blondie resorted to the barebones of garage-rock music but served as a reduction of punk’s intensity. The new wave sub-culture thrived in New York’s iconic club, CBGB, whose notoriety was the home of multiple legendary musicians. Most artists who frequented CBGB were not known for being conventional but by-products of their artistic community and the state of music.
Talking Heads, alongside groups contiguous with their musical classification, achieved commercial success despite their abnormal and atypical approach to the punk scene. At first glance, audiences and media outlets were off-put by the band’s disjointed and nervous energy. Throughout their career, Talking Heads, despite their quirks and irregularities, were awarded cultural infamy amid their more approachable pop and rock contemporaries.
This study aims to understand the media’s priorities in covering artists considered unconventional or obscure, using the Talking Heads as the focal point, between 1976 and 1992, the duration of the group’s career as a collective. Various media outlets such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, the New York Times, and MTV represented eminent music coverage within the designated period. This study attempts to understand the correlation between the band’s success and how their popularity reflects the media’s cultural circumstances.
cole manasco 