Music for the Masses
Music for the Masses is the sixth studio album by the English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 28 September 1987 by Mute Records.[4] The album was supported by the Music for the Masses Tour, which launched their fame in the US when they performed at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The tour led to the creation and filming of the documentary/live album titled 101. This saw the band using heavy amounts of sampling,[5] much like they did in their previous studio album Black Celebration (1986).
For the quiz night titled Music for the Masses until 2008, see Music for the Mission.
Considered one of the band's best albums, Music for the Masses was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2006).[6] The album reached No. 10 in the UK Charts.
It was preceded by the singles "Strangelove", released on 13 April, "Never Let Me Down Again", released on 24 August. Two other singles followed the release of the album, one being "Behind the Wheel", released 28 December, and the other being "Little 15", which was released on 16 May the following year.
Background[edit]
Depeche Mode had released their album Black Celebration in early 1986,[7] followed up with a supporting tour which lasted through the middle of that year,[8] and contributed the song "But Not Tonight" to the soundtrack to the movie Modern Girls (1986).[9] Daniel Miller, citing growing tension in the studio during the recording of Black Celebration, stepped away from production duties.[10] With Miller's approval, the band approached David Bascombe to co-produce Music for the Masses, who had previously worked as a recording engineer with Tears for Fears and Peter Gabriel.[11]
Band members Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore both explained the album's title was conceived as a joke, after Gore found an old album called "Music for the Millions."[12] Fletcher said, "The title's ... a bit tongue-in-cheek, really. Everyone is telling us we should make more commercial music, so that's the reason we chose that title."[11] According to Gore, the title "was a joke on the uncommerciality of [the album]. It was anything but music for the masses!"[13]
Cover art[edit]
The megaphone (or its iconic representation) on the album's cover was used during the breadth of the album's release: at press events, on the covers of the album's singles, and during the tour. Alan Wilder gave credit to Martyn Atkins, who had been a longtime Depeche Mode collaborator, for the use of the megaphone. "[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."[11] The deserted natural setting in question was the Peak District.[14]
An early alternative cover was rejected for the album. The rejected cover was also designed by Atkins and a test pressing copy was auctioned off by Wilder in 2011. It features a white-and-orange stylised design of the megaphone emitting sound waves.[15] This alternate artwork was planned to be used for a budget series of albums, but the project was scrapped.[16]
Re-release[edit]
In 2006, Music for the Masses became one of the first Depeche Mode albums (along with Speak & Spell and Violator) to be released on a special two-disc SACD/CD Hybrid + DVD format, in the vein of their eleventh studio album Playing the Angel (2005), which had a limited edition SACD + DVD release. The format was the same as Playing the Angel's, the first disc had a special digitally remastered version of the album, while the DVD had the album on three formats (PCM Stereo, 5.1 surround sound and DTS 5.1) plus bonus tracks, and a documentary on the album. The re-release preserves the album as it was originally intended. Thus, the four bonus tracks do not appear on the SACD, but appear on the DVD. The DVD also features all B-sides from the Music for the Masses era, but unlike the album and the bonus tracks, the B-sides are only available in PCM Stereo.
The documentary, a 37-minute short film titled Depeche Mode: 1987–88 (Sometimes You Do Need Some New Jokes), is an extensive look at the album, featuring commentary from a wide variety of people, including the current Depeche Mode, former member Wilder, producer David Bascombe, Daniel Miller, Daryl Bamonte, Atkins, Anton Corbijn, and others. The documentary features new facts on the album, and also an extensive look at the film 101.
The re-release was released on 3 April 2006 in Europe. The US version was delayed to 2 June 2006 and is only available on a CD + DVD format, with no SACD. The DVD on all the versions are region independent, but differ in television formats: PAL or NTSC. The remastered album was released on vinyl on 2 March 2007 in Germany and 5 March 2007 internationally.