Depeche Mode Show Is Study In Youth Culture, Marketing
[L.A. Life, 6th August 1990. Words: Bruce Britt. Pictures: Uncredited.]
Banners bearing images of roses flanked the massive stage erected at Dodger Stadium on Saturday. As it turns out, the flowery graphics were symbolic of Depeche Mode’s music and performance – a thing of beauty with more than its share of thorns.
The show, the first of a two-night engagement, served as an intriguing study in marketing and youth culture. Though Depeche Mode has sold millions of albums worldwide, the band still enjoys an outlaw, “underground” reputation among many of its fans.
Maintaining such misconceptions is of utmost importance to “post-modernist” pop bands, since the snobby genre often frowns on anything too accessible. Well aware that appearing too successful could ruin its fortunes, Depeche Mode has, apparently, taken marketing precautions that border on genius.
Though the band’s new “Violator” album has sold nearly 2 million copies in the U.S. – not to mention the fact that the band sold out the Rose Bowl its last time in Los Angeles – some fans cried sellout when the two Dodger Stadium performances were announced. To help quell the complaints, the band hastily booked a performance at the more intimate Universal Amphitheatre on Wednesday “for fans”.
To further diminish the appearance of seeming too successful – and thus, implicitly, too complacent – the band invited a post-modernist trio named Nitzer Ebb along for the tour. For those of you unfamiliar with Nitzer Ebb, the band plays music so abrasive, listeners feel their skin is being vigorously scraped with sandpaper.
The Dodger Stadium show also marked the debut of Electronic, a techno-pop supergroup featuring members of the defunct-but-legendary Smiths, as well as personnel from New order and the Pet Shop Boys. Though the band’s music boasted a certain soothingness, its static performance left much to be desired.
Then came Depeche Mode’s set which, as always, was spotty. It’s immediately apparent why Depeche Mode is the most popular band of its ilk. The band’s music can be both appealing and horrifying in its desolate beauty and funkiness. One performance in particular Saturday, the eerily gorgeous “Waiting For The Night”, gave one goose flesh.
What’s more, singer Dave Gahan is one of rock’s most graceful performers, combining moves from celebrated rockers like Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, Prince and Axl Rose.
Yet after a while, the band’s Germanic music all washed together. Depeche Mode approaches nearly every song the same, and the lack of variation proved numbing.
The show was hampered by questionable ethical judgments as well, especially for a band that takes pride in its counter-culture repute. In a crass exhibition of greed, vendors passed out mail-order slips for Depeche Mode merchandise. This despite the fact that “DM” products were already being hawked on the Stadium premises.
The professed concern “for fans” displayed by staging the impromptu Amphitheatre show was missing Saturday. Gargantuan, closed-circuit television screens usually are provided at most stadium concerts nowadays, but none were supplied at Saturday’s show.
When fans in the upper balcony began pelting people below with toilet paper, food and drinks, no spokesperson for the band appeared to try and put a halt to the bizarre food fight. Some KROQ-FM DJs were assigned the unenviable task of calming the crowd.
[L.A. Life, 6th August 1990. Words: Bruce Britt. Pictures: Uncredited.]
Banners bearing images of roses flanked the massive stage erected at Dodger Stadium on Saturday. As it turns out, the flowery graphics were symbolic of Depeche Mode’s music and performance – a thing of beauty with more than its share of thorns.
The show, the first of a two-night engagement, served as an intriguing study in marketing and youth culture. Though Depeche Mode has sold millions of albums worldwide, the band still enjoys an outlaw, “underground” reputation among many of its fans.
Maintaining such misconceptions is of utmost importance to “post-modernist” pop bands, since the snobby genre often frowns on anything too accessible. Well aware that appearing too successful could ruin its fortunes, Depeche Mode has, apparently, taken marketing precautions that border on genius.
Though the band’s new “Violator” album has sold nearly 2 million copies in the U.S. – not to mention the fact that the band sold out the Rose Bowl its last time in Los Angeles – some fans cried sellout when the two Dodger Stadium performances were announced. To help quell the complaints, the band hastily booked a performance at the more intimate Universal Amphitheatre on Wednesday “for fans”.
To further diminish the appearance of seeming too successful – and thus, implicitly, too complacent – the band invited a post-modernist trio named Nitzer Ebb along for the tour. For those of you unfamiliar with Nitzer Ebb, the band plays music so abrasive, listeners feel their skin is being vigorously scraped with sandpaper.
The Dodger Stadium show also marked the debut of Electronic, a techno-pop supergroup featuring members of the defunct-but-legendary Smiths, as well as personnel from New order and the Pet Shop Boys. Though the band’s music boasted a certain soothingness, its static performance left much to be desired.
Then came Depeche Mode’s set which, as always, was spotty. It’s immediately apparent why Depeche Mode is the most popular band of its ilk. The band’s music can be both appealing and horrifying in its desolate beauty and funkiness. One performance in particular Saturday, the eerily gorgeous “Waiting For The Night”, gave one goose flesh.
What’s more, singer Dave Gahan is one of rock’s most graceful performers, combining moves from celebrated rockers like Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, Prince and Axl Rose.
Yet after a while, the band’s Germanic music all washed together. Depeche Mode approaches nearly every song the same, and the lack of variation proved numbing.
The show was hampered by questionable ethical judgments as well, especially for a band that takes pride in its counter-culture repute. In a crass exhibition of greed, vendors passed out mail-order slips for Depeche Mode merchandise. This despite the fact that “DM” products were already being hawked on the Stadium premises.
The professed concern “for fans” displayed by staging the impromptu Amphitheatre show was missing Saturday. Gargantuan, closed-circuit television screens usually are provided at most stadium concerts nowadays, but none were supplied at Saturday’s show.
When fans in the upper balcony began pelting people below with toilet paper, food and drinks, no spokesperson for the band appeared to try and put a halt to the bizarre food fight. Some KROQ-FM DJs were assigned the unenviable task of calming the crowd.