Whenever I think of music that ended up being seen as uncool in the era after, I think of disco, hairmetal, and the boy band/Britney era. However, I'm not sure if New Wave was lumped together in the hairmetal backlash or if it just died down and never got rejected in the 90's. I know it was popular in the 90's to ridicule stuff that was big in the 80's, but that seemed more directed to stuff like Winger and Paula Abdul rather than A Flock of Seaguls or Michael Jackson. If that era did have a backlash though, when was it and how lame were the "core 80's" seen?

Personally I think the 'New Wave' label ended in about '81 or '82 at the latest
when all the pedantic boors known as music critics determined labels and
categories for all the different stuff that was out then.
I dont recall any backlash against anything. You liked some stuff, some stuff
you didnt, but thats normal. I think the 80's is the most under-appreciated
decade for culture. For music you had everything from hair metal, art school
synth, top40 pop, disco, rap and more.....there is not that type of diversity now.
Thats why Ive never met a music person who lived the 80's who doesnt really , really
miss it and have fond remembrances :)

I don't really recall New Wave being mocked around here in the '90s, it was basically dead by the time the '90s started anyway. It seems to me that most '80s music that was ridiculed in the '90s was centered around music that came out in the late '80s.

All music or genres, once they reach that certain popularity plateau are going to face some kind of backlash or wanting of change by the listening public.

As to New Wave, I believe we had a answer in the first revival of Rockabilly (i.e. The Stray Cats, The Cramps) and the second generation of Ska/Two Tone (the Specials, English Beat in the UK, Fishbone in the US) and there were quite a few bands emerging with a punk/funk sound too (i.e. Red Hot Chili Peppers) in the early 80's.

And I wouldn't of called it a backlash as Rockabilly, Ska and whatever type of funk you want to call what RHCP was playing, had a more soulful genuine gritty sound that New Wave and synth-pop didn't have. If any of these was a "backlash" against anything, it was Rockabilly and the backlash was against punk in general but the punk it was railing against had already faded in popularity at the time...

New wave had always been called cold and uninviting to some (and it was, thats what made it popular), and not that these other revivals styles were very popular (at least not in the US or on US radio), its just that there were some bands that wanted to play something a bit warmer and different and some of us wanted to hear something different too.

You could say that there were some that listening to this stuff were looking around for "alternative" music, long before that term got overused and too derivative to describe anything.

I don't think any one of these other styles or any particular one band tore down New Wave or 80's music as it were, just the opposite, it gave them a shadow to step out from behind. Music doesn't develop in a vacuum and its a good thing Ska and Rockabilly came around when it did.

It started with more of a frontlash, if you will.  The hippies spat on it as vacuous bubblegum.  They did so in league with many proto-New Wavers/No Wavers who believed bands like Depeche Mode and OMD turned an edgy new music into just more vacuous bubblegum.  I mean guys like Arto Lindsay, Essential Logic, Robert Rental, and early Devo. 

The Grunge sound was widely touted to be in part a reaction against the sterile, cold, synthetics of '80s pop.

The pop music scene '81--'86 was the most diverse ever!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/05/flash.gif

Yes there was a backlash against New Wave but it didnt get the same widespread attention as the 'Disco Sucks' controversy. By the mid to late 70s New Wave was just beginning, then by the 80s MTV helped popularized it. I do believe when New Wave reached its peak by '86 that's when pop-rock or heavy metal bands gain momentum and it kind of morphed into synth/dance music. New Wave helped inspired the 80s generation remember the hairstyles and the fashion besides alot of heavy metal bands hated New Wave artists. 

See nowadays you can sing "Affair of the Heart" in your underwear and upload it to YouTube.  Not so convenient in cassette culture.  Actually, cassette culture had its own aesthetics.

Wow I was thinking of this exact same thing the other day - no need to post it now, lol.

I agree with the replies so far. I don't think it was ever collectively hated or made fun of, even if some individual stuff probably was (i.e. "Wake Me Up Before You GoGo"), just because it had such a lasting impact. From personal memories, there were kids about my age in the early-mid '90s who openly liked the "prime 80s music" from the early MTV years.

   Don't remember if there was.  No overt backlash like Comiskey Park.  New Wave was the backlash.  If there was a backlash to the backlash it was from your parents.  I mean who in their right mind could trash rawness and intensity..?

   It just disappeared.  Who even noticed..?