Few bands have stayed artistically and commercially relevant over forty years into their career, but with the release of their new album Memento Mori in March 2023, Depeche Mode continue to defy the odds. In the 80s the band built a fanbase in Europe over their first few releases before entering the global stage with "People Are People" in 1984. By the end of the decade, they were regularly a top ten album charting band in the UK while making serious inroads in North America. They entered the 90s with an album primed by the infectious single "Personal Jesus" that would launch them into the stratosphere. With Violator and its many singles, like R.E.M. and other alternative acts, mainstream radio and MTV formerly dominated by pop and hair metal were beginning to shift direction before the dam burst in 1991. But lurking beneath the surface was inter-band tensions and various addictions that would threaten to derail the band at the height of their global success.
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