Music Sound

The New Wave of New Wave (NWONW) was a term coined by music journalists to describe a sub-genre of the British alternative rock scene in the early 90s. NWONW bands typically consisted of young, white, working class males playing guitar-based rock music. The movement was short lived and several of the bands involved were later linked with the more popular and commercially successful Britpop.

The term "New Wave of New Wave" referred to the apparent parallels between the music scene emerging in the early 90s and that of the New Wave or punk scenes of the 1970s and 80s. NWONW bands were often politically outspoken and critical of the then British prime minister, John Major, but lacked any specific political ideology.

The NWONW movement was linked with use of the drug "speed" which led to the band members being characterized as skinny and pale.

Record label Fierce Panda's first release, Shagging in the Streets, was a tribute to the scene, featuring S*M*A*S*H, Blessed Ethel, Mantaray, Done Lying Down, These Animal Men and Action Painting!. Other bands associated with genre have included Elastica, Sleeper, Echobelly and Compulsion.