No Wave

A short-lived avant-garde scene in late-1970s New York that rejected the commercial direction of new wave and punk alike. No wave groups worked with extreme dissonance, atonality, abrasive guitar and saxophone textures, unstable rhythms and deliberately limited technique, treating the rock band as a vehicle for provocation rather than entertainment. Performances were confrontational and often brief, lyrics nihilistic or deadpan, and the scene's output was documented more by singles, cassettes and the compilation "No New York" than by conventional albums. Despite its small size and rapid dissolution by the early 1980s, the scene proved highly influential on noise rock, art rock and later underground practice.