Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally formed by 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 in excess of 60,000 people.

In early 1990, they released their seventh album, Violator, an international mainstream success. 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 trio lineup of Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher, with the album Ultra being released in 1997. The band continued making albums and touring as a trio until Fletcher’s death in 2022, since which time Gahan and Gore have continued as a duo.

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. Q included the band in its list of the “50 Bands That Changed the World!” Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1’s “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”. In 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018, eventually being inducted in 2020.

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