New Romantic

New Romantic, a cheeky little concoction of synthesizers and flamboyant fashion, sprang forth from the UK in the early 1980s, primarily fuelled by the desire to outshine the drabness of post-punk. It sounds like a glittering disco ball colliding with a futuristic spaceship, blending catchy melodies with androgynous aesthetics, all whilst the musicians sported enough eye makeup to put a kabuki theatre to shame. The genre somehow managed to make style more memorable than substance, leaving us with delightful earworms and the lingering suspicion that shoulder pads may have been a mistake.