What happened when the rock stars from the 1960's and early 1970's ran out of good ideas and began releasing mediocre albums? New wave rock took its place. Some new wave took the form of punk. Other new wave artists took the hooks of the 1960's and made them all their own. The Pretenders took the latter route, recording Talk of The Town in 1981, their high point and one of the best-crafted pop songs of all time.