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Duran Duran
Duran Duran, formed in Birmingham, England in 1978, became one of the defining bands of MTV's early-1980s programming, and their elaborately produced, cinematically shot music videos, filmed in exotic international locations, helped establish the music video as a central commercial and artistic tool for breaking new artists. The band's synthesizer-driven, danceable sound combined new wave's electronic production with genuine pop songwriting craft, and hits like "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Rio" became defining sonic touchstones of early-1980s mainstream new wave. Duran Duran's teen-idol visual image, cultivated deliberately through their glossy videos and fashion-forward styling, made them one of the most commercially dominant "MTV bands" of the network's earliest years, reflecting the new, video-driven promotional model reshaping the music industry at the time. The band's continued commercial relevance across four decades, including a notable 1980s commercial peak and periodic later comebacks, has made Duran Duran one of the most enduringly successful acts associated with new wave's specific MTV-driven commercial breakthrough.
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Devo
Devo, formed in Akron, Ohio in the early 1970s, built an elaborate conceptual identity around the theory of "de-evolution," a satirical premise arguing that human society was regressing rather than progressing, and the band's deliberately robotic, jerky performance style and matching red "energy dome" hats became one of new wave's most instantly recognizable visual aesthetics. Their 1980 song "Whip It" became the band's biggest commercial hit, and its accompanying music video, one of the first to receive heavy rotation on the newly launched MTV, helped establish Devo's satirical, deliberately dehumanized visual style as a significant influence on the broader new wave aesthetic. The band's formation was directly influenced by the 1970 Kent State shootings, which several members witnessed firsthand as students at the nearby university, and that traumatic event shaped the band's broader satirical, dystopian worldview embedded throughout their music and visual presentation. Devo's combination of genuinely satirical conceptual ambition and their catchy, danceable synthesizer-driven songwriting made them one of the most intellectually distinctive bands associated with new wave, and their visual and conceptual influence on subsequent new wave and electronic acts remains substantial.
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