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Devo
Devo, formed in Akron, Ohio in the early 1970s, built an elaborate conceptual identity around the theory of "de-evolution," a satirical premise arguing that human society was regressing rather than progressing, and the band's deliberately robotic, jerky performance style and matching red "energy dome" hats became one of new wave's most instantly recognizable visual aesthetics. Their 1980 song "Whip It" became the band's biggest commercial hit, and its accompanying music video, one of the first to receive heavy rotation on the newly launched MTV, helped establish Devo's satirical, deliberately dehumanized visual style as a significant influence on the broader new wave aesthetic. The band's formation was directly influenced by the 1970 Kent State shootings, which several members witnessed firsthand as students at the nearby university, and that traumatic event shaped the band's broader satirical, dystopian worldview embedded throughout their music and visual presentation. Devo's combination of genuinely satirical conceptual ambition and their catchy, danceable synthesizer-driven songwriting made them one of the most intellectually distinctive bands associated with new wave, and their visual and conceptual influence on subsequent new wave and electronic acts remains substantial.
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Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode, formed in Basildon, England in 1980, built their sound almost entirely around electronic synthesizers rather than traditional guitar-based rock instrumentation, becoming one of the most commercially significant and influential purely electronic bands to emerge from new wave's broader early-1980s movement. The band's evolution from relatively lighthearted synth-pop on their earliest albums toward darker, more industrial and BDSM-influenced imagery on mid-1980s releases like Black Celebration and Music for the Masses reflected a deliberate artistic maturation that distinguished their later catalog from more straightforwardly upbeat synth-pop contemporaries. Depeche Mode's 1990 album Violator, featuring the hit single "Personal Jesus," became a massive commercial breakthrough in the United States specifically, and the band's Los Angeles concert during that album's tour drew a riot when far more fans showed up for a promotional in-store appearance than the venue could safely accommodate. The band's sustained commercial and critical relevance across more than four decades, continuing to release new material and tour arenas well into the 2020s, has made Depeche Mode one of the most enduringly significant purely electronic bands in the history of popular music.
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