Depeche Mode | Music for the Masses

On September 28th, 1987, Depeche Mode released their sixth studio album Music For The Masses—an album whose title was a tongue in cheek joke that was also reflected on the cover art which displays megaphones in the desert.

The megaphone on the album’s cover was used in promotion of the album at press events, on the covers of the album’s singles, and during the tour. Alan Wilder credits the iconic use of the megaphone to Martyn Atkins, who had been a longtime Depeche Mode collaborator:

“[Martyn came] up with this idea of a speaker, but, to give the kind of ironic element which the title has, to put this speaker in a setting which wasn’t really to do with the masses at all. It was, in fact, the opposite. So you end up with this kind of eerie thing where you get these speakers or megaphones in the middle of a setting that doesn’t suit it at all, like a desert or whatever.”

The album’s themes were a further step in a darker direction for the post-punk synth-pop band; with subject matter that included eroticism, drugs, and, once again the overt sadomasochism and metaphors returned once again.

The album features the singles:

Strangelove

The music video for “Strangelove” was directed by Anton Corbijn and was shot on Super 8 and monochrome, with the band filmed in various locations in Paris, hotel rooms, and in a studio posing in front of a rolling backdrop. The live-action footage is combined with short stop-frame animation sequences. The video also features two models in their underwear (one was in fact Anton Corbijn’s partner), as well as passing pedestrians.

Anton Corbijn would direct all of the following videos for the album singles, (as well as “Pimpf”), save for “Little 15”, which was directed by Martyn Atkins.

Never Let Me Down Again

Behind the Wheel

Little 15

Tracklisting:

1. Never Let Me Down Again
2. The Things You Said
3. Strangelove
4. Sacred
5. Little 15
6. Behind The Wheel
7. I Want You Now
8. To Have And To Hold
9. Nothing
10. Pimpf