 New wave was a term adopted in the aftermath of punk rock to describe a generation of bands who generally pursued a more commercially successful punk @-@ influenced sound . Major acts included Talking Heads , Devo , the Cars , the Go @-@ Go 's , the Pretenders , Elvis Costello and " skinny tie " bands like Blondie and the Knack . The term post @-@ punk was originally coined to describe groups of this era who took punk and experimented with more challenging musical structures , lyrical themes , and a self @-@ consciously art @-@ based image , while retaining punk 's initial iconoclastic stance . AllMusic argued that rather than a revival , the history of post @-@ punk was more of a continuum from the mid @-@ 1980s , with scattered bands that included Big Flame , World Domination Enterprises , and Minimal Compact extending the genre . In the mid @-@ 1990s , notable bands in this vein included Six Finger Satellite , Brainiac and Elastica . American band Satisfact was also considered as an early example of the new wave revival sound . 
