Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode performing in Portland, Oregon, November 2023
Depeche Mode performing in Portland, Oregon, November 2023
Background information
Also known asComposition of Sound (1980)
OriginBasildon, Essex, England
Genres
DiscographyDepeche Mode discography
Years active1980–present
Labels
Members
Past members
Websitedepechemode.com

Depeche Mode[a] are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally formed with the lineup of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, the band currently consists of Gahan and Gore.

With Clarke as their primary songwriter, Depeche Mode released their debut album Speak & Spell in 1981 amid the British new wave scene. Clarke left the band at the end of 1981, going on to form the groups Yazoo and later Erasure. The remaining trio recorded their second album, A Broken Frame (1982), with Martin Gore as chief songwriter. The band then recruited Alan Wilder, establishing a lineup that continued until 1995, beginning with the albums Construction Time Again (1983) and Some Great Reward (1984). The albums Black Celebration (1986) and Music for the Masses (1987) cemented them as a dominant force within the electronic and alternative music scenes, and their June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl drew a crowd of over 60,000 people.

In 1990, they released their seventh album, Violator, which reached number seven on the Billboard 200 and was certified triple platinum by the RIAA. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) was also a success, though the band's internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder's departure in 1995. The band returned to the lineup of Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher, and released the album Ultra in 1997. The band continued touring and recorded five more albums as a trio—Exciter (2001), Playing the Angel (2005), Sounds of the Universe (2009), Delta Machine (2013) and Spirit (2017)—until Fletcher's death in 2022. Gahan and Gore have since continued as a duo. Their latest album, Memento Mori, was released in 2023.

Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart, 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart, and have sold more than 100 million records worldwide.[2][3] Q included the band in its list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!"[4] Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".[5] In 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists.[6] They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.[7]

  1. ^ "Depeche Mode – the real origin of the band's name". Eighty-eightynine. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
  2. ^ "Depeche Mode mit Weltpremiere beim ECHO" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. 3 February 2009. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  3. ^ Mason, Kerri (23 March 2009). "Depeche Mode Prepares for Tour of the Universe". Billboard. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  4. ^ "Q – 50 Bands That Changed the World!". Q. No. 214. May 2004. Archived from the original on 29 June 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2012 – via Rocklist.net.
  5. ^ Stosuy, Brandon (13 April 2011). "VH1 100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Stereogum. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  6. ^ "Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists : Page 1". Billboard. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  7. ^ "Class of 2020". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved 15 January 2020.


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