Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode (sometimes styled DM) is a British electronic music and alternative rock group, associated with new wave, from Basildon, Essex (England). Formed in 1980, they emerged within the synth-pop movement and quickly became influential and popular on the international scene. Their name comes from the French magazine Dépêche Mode.

Spotted by Soft Cell's manager before being taken under the wing of Daniel Miller, who signed them to his Mute Records label in 1981, DM found their first success in Europe in the autumn of that same year with Just Can't Get Enough, and in the United States in 1984–1985 with the single People Are People.

The success of their synth-pop, heavily imbued with an industrial music style, continued steadily until 1990 with the album Violator, which included the tracks Personal Jesus, Policy of Truth and, above all, Enjoy the Silence. The 1990s were marked by drug dependency, an overdose and a suicide attempt by lead singer Dave Gahan, who did not get clean until 1996, and by the departure of Alan Wilder in 1995. DM, now reduced to three members, continued to release records (Ultra in 1997, Exciter in 2001, Playing the Angel in 2005, Sounds of the Universe in 2009, Delta Machine in 2013 and Spirit in 2017). The year 2022 was marked by the sudden death of Andrew Fletcher, leaving Depeche Mode to continue as a duo. In March 2023, DM released Memento Mori, their fifteenth studio album.

Almost all of their songs are written by Martin L. Gore, except for those on the debut album (Speak and Spell), which are mostly the work of Vince Clarke, who soon left to found Yazoo and then Erasure. Since 2005, singer Dave Gahan has taken part in writing some of the tracks. Martin L. Gore has worked hard to ensure DM is not seen solely as a "synth" band, notably by making use of guitar.

Depeche Mode has charted fifty times on the UK Singles Chart, and several albums have reached number one in the United Kingdom, the United States and other European countries. According to Mute Records, as of 2008 DM had sold 75 million albums worldwide, and more than 100 million records including singles. In November 2020, their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame crowned a career spanning four decades.