How Rock Iconoclasts Devo Became Leaders Of The 1980s Nerd Nirvana

In an excerpt from her new book, Evie Nagy describes how the new wave pioneers fought corporate control with Freedom of Choice.Ohio art rockers Devo, cofounded by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale, gained national acclaim with their 1978 album debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! But it was their third album, 1980's Freedom of Choice, that broke them into the mainstream, thanks to a perfect union of pop sensibility and subversive appeal. Songs like "Whip It" and "Freedom of Choice" weren't just MTV hits—they advanced Devo's theory of de-evolution, which was that people would regress to conformist automatons, and corporate and literal machinery would consume free will. At the same time, they confronted capitalism by embracing it, maintaining as much creative and financial control as they could in a major label system, and building an undeniably strong, unique brand. This excerpt of staff writer Evie Nagy's book about Freedom of Choice, out today as part of Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 series on important albums (with a foreword by Portlandia's Fred Armisen), describes how Devo spoofed commerce for profit, and found an audience of outsiders that set them apart from equally theatrical—and commercially minded—contemporaries like Kiss.Read Full Story Continue reading at 'Fast Company'

[ Fast Company | 2015-05-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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