Originally Posted by Wikipedia

No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City.[1] The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre. The term originates from a 1981 show, "New York/New Wave", curated by artist Diego Cortez.[3]

Originally Posted by RYM

No Wave was a short-lived movement in NYC in the late 70's which took the ethics of punk but discarded melody and catchiness and replaced them with such features as extreme noise, distortion, feedback, angular rhythms, stream-of-conciousness lyrics, psychotic vocals, minimalism, abnormal tunings, dissonance and other unusual factors. The original movement essentially lasted from 1976-1979 and featured bands like Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, Mars, DNA and James Chance & The Contortions. The most well-known document of the era is the Brian Eno-produced No New York compilation.

While not part of the original movement, numerous bands have arisen which were influenced by the original movement and have themselves been labelled No Wave, such as Sonic Youth, The Birthday Party and Liars.