The Talking Heads’ unique brand of music was considered a more artistic form of rock than that of other punk bands at the time. The band was comprised of “former visual arts students” whose music sought to make an artistic statement both audibly and visually. Music critic John Rockwell praises their music as “the paradigm of a rock ‘art form,’” While some complain that David Byrne’s jerky, robotic movements make their performances seem too calculated, Bernard Gendron argues that “the explicit overturning of rock performance styles and the obviously ironic use of the clichés of middle-class life…established the Talking Heads as a premier art-rock band,” (Gendron). The unique style of art-rock for which the Talking Heads were known came to be known as new wave music.
New wave music rose to prominence in the late 1970’s and has been labeled “an offspring of punk” with a more artistic flare (Delio and Woods 166). Phil Delio and Scott Woods consider new wave a combination of other popular genres at the time, with elements of Punk, Glam, Art Rock, and others seen in both the production and presentation of the music. They point to the genre’s use of “synth aerobics from disco, puppy lust anthems from the teen riot squad, a ‘back to basics’ stance derived from HRS, eyeliner and space gear from glam, [and] complicated electronic circuits from art rock,” as some of its defining characteristics (Delio and Woods, 166).
While new wave was distinguished mostly by its unique combination of musical styles, it had a degree of cultural distinction as well. Rock and Punk in the 1970s had a blue-collar, working-class identity, which rejected the mundane routine of everyday suburban life and encouraged youth rebellion. New wave bands like Talking Heads and Devo were comprised mostly of “graduated (or dropouts) of art schools, universities, and colleges, traditionally white middle class institutions”. The culture that formed around these bands reflected their non-traditional rock roots, and new wave was “often characterized as ‘intellectual’ or ‘progressive,’ possessed of a substance and depth that distinguished it from the standard blue-collar AOR rock fare with which it shared the airwaves” (Cateforis 73).
Many members of this new wave culture were attracted to the Talking Heads by the awkward mannerisms and personality of frontman David Byrne. Tired of seeing much of the same faces and personalities in pop culture, “fans that identified with a performer like Byrne latched onto new wave because it also presented them with a smart, misfit persona, one whose quirky mannerisms signified a rupture with the middle class’s increasingly faceless anonymity,” (Cateforis 73). Byrne achieved star status not by putting on the rebellious alpha male persona that had become so prevalent in rock music, but by giving his audience a frontman they could relate to: a nervous middle-class college dropout.
Brian Eno’s collaboration with Talking Heads also associates “Once in a Lifetime” with the historical and artistic aspects of the new wave genre. Also an art student, Eno developed a reputation as a “technophile” through his avant-garde experimentations with the synthesizer in his work with Roxy Music throughout the 1970s (Gregory 181). Rockwell also claims that Eno had an “intense cult following” prior to his association with Talking Heads. Eno’s dealt with that fame with practiced indifference and a commitment to artistic integrity, stating: “If you know that people have been absolutely overwhelmed by something you did, you are inclined to repeat it, even if you have doubts about it. That restricts your experimental freedom” (Rockwell 240). This attitude is reflected in his involvement in the creation of “Once in a Lifetime”: he encouraged the group’s new working method of building a song by tying together musical elements and fitting vocals to it later.