“Devo’s ideas grew out of anger, political disillusionment, visual instincts, sonic ambitions, skepticism about rock and an absurdist sense of humor”

https://clubdevo.com/ – for updated information on what Devo is doing now.

The Early Days

The band Devo, founded by 2 sets of brothers: Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, and Gerald and Bob Casale, following the devastating events that happened at their school, Kent State, on May 4th, 1970.

That was the day that the US National Guard opened fire on unarmed protestors following a string of fires and rock throwing.

In addition to the Mothersbaugh and Casale brothers, another future rock star was there and witnessed the shootings:

“Chrissie Hynde, who was just eighteen-years-old at the time, recalls from that fateful day: “The grassy, rolling common was teeming with students, I’d never seen it so packed… Then I heard the ‘tatatatatatatatatat’ sound. I thought it was fireworks.” 

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/kent-state-shootings-story-rock-music-history/

“Statistics: It is mind numbing that the average distance from shooter to victim was 345 feet, when shooters claimed self defense. Four people were shot dead and nine more were injured, one paralysed from the neck down. It is believed that twenty-eight guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, although eyewitnesses have claimed that it seemed like well over a minute of gun fire. No one was ever held accountable for the shootings at Kent State.”

The creation of the band Devo

The name “Devo” is based on Devolution and the idea that “instead of continuing to evolve, mankind had begun to regress, as evidenced by the dysfunction and herd mentality of American Society” (from Devo Bio)

“We learned from Kent State that rebellion is obsolete,” (Mark) Mothersbaugh said. “If the government doesn’t agree with you, and you become too big of a pain in the butt for them, they just push you back down and shoot.” “And I was thinking, well, who does change things in this world?” he continued. “Look at TV. It’s Madison Avenue. It’s commercials. It’s subversion. You get people to eat sugar that’s not good for them. You get them to buy cars that are stupid and not well-designed. And they’re happy when they do it. And we thought, what if you use those techniques for something else? What if you use those techniques to talk about de-evolution?”

In the New York Times article, “Devo’s Future Came True” written by John Pareles, he had this to say about the band: “Devo’s ideas grew out of anger, political disillusionment, visual instincts, sonic ambitions, skepticism about rock and an absurdist sense of humor.” He also explains how the band was concerned about the “dumbing down” of America, and the loss of individuality.

Their 80s New Wave antics seemed like a juvenile art-school prank. Behind it lay theoretical sophistication and serious political intent. “When we first started Devo,” says Mark Mothersbaugh in the “California Inspires Me” video above, “we were artists who were working in a number of different media. We were around for the shootings at Kent State. And it affected us. We were thinking, like, ‘What are we observing?’ And we decided we weren’t observing evolution, we were observing de-evolution.”

Devo = Dove

Devo continued to speak (sing) out against greed and corruption, and in 1980 created a parody band called “Dove” (an anagram of Devo), which they used to call out the “puritanical, self righteous, money-hungry, and censorious strain of Christian Evangelicalism that was beginning its pernicious spread through American political and cultural life”

In response to Ronald Regan’s presidency, they wrote the song “Jerkin’ Bank n’ Forth”, to express their dissatisfaction with the government’s focus on money. The first verse seems to sum up their opinion pretty well:

“I know I let you tell me what to do
You were confident you knew best
Now things aren’t working like you want them to
Your confidence is what I detest“

The creative forces behind Devo are such a great example of the power of music and parody to get strong messages across, in a non-threatening way.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/arts/music/devo-mothersbaugh-casale.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/devo en.wikipedia.org/wiki/devo/freedom_of_choice_(album)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrissie_Hynde

openculture.com/2017/10/the-philosophy-music-of-devo-the-avant-garde-art-project-dedicated-to-revealing-the-truth-about-de-evolution.html

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/dove_the_band_of_love_devos_christian_alter_ego