by Jean-Michel Desmeules

Created on: March 28, 2009   Last Updated: March 29, 2009

Depeche Mode - sounds familiar doesn't it?!

Most people in their late 20s to 40s will remember this trend setting band that was mostly active in them mid 80s to early 90s. It was an era of bad hair, non comical television sitcoms, unforgivably bad music and lots of other trends we can only wish to forget. But it was also the time of an emerging awareness to sexually transmitted diseases, notably HIV, a desire to express something real and the start of a cultural movement. The center stage for many artists of that cultural movement was deep introspection into the dark and ugly side within us, casting themselves into the outskirts of the artistic world rather than bear any resemblance to the low budget, talentless music being produced at the time. Sadly, there were also a host of new drugs hitting the market...Hard drugs, drugs you could lose yourself in, and as police across the world were creating special task forces to counter attack organised crime, theses drugs never ceased to flow, and flooded the systems of bands dear to us, bands like Depeche Mode.

Depeche Mode saw life in 1981, in Essex, England. They were originals in this New Wave era, keeping a spot in center stage and indeed participating in a big way to the movement with a sound very much their own. The unique suave, sad and yet vibrant voice of the band, Dave Gahan, is undoubtedly responsible for a big part of their success and peculiar sound. Anyone who ears his melodious voice understands the band didn't play with him not around him very often.

For us, it was a relief to hear songs that exposed our sadness, eagerness to be different, talked about our addictions and imperfect desires. They inspired us to truly express our own individuality in as many ways as possible, and even today you find the lyrics to be current and inspiring. Of course, the band didn't just put forth sadness and misery, "au contraire", they sang about life and love as well, but they explored those themes in such a realistic way, it was blissfully painful at times! Still now, as then, you can keep many of their songs in your romantic mix to play in the background when you're with the girl or boy that holds your flame

Of course, as with any music band, there were moments of "Stardom", when bad boys do bad things, take drugs, make scenes in clubs. Gahan carried a lot of that with a constant substance abuse, and it lead him in ever darker places, back and forth from rehab, bringing the band to the edge more than once. But would their

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