Music for the Masses is the sixth studio album by the English electronic band Depeche Mode, released on 28 September 1987 by Mute Records in the United Kingdom and Sire Records in the United States. The follow-up to their successful album Black Celebration (1986), it was co-produced by Depeche Mode and David Bascombe. Recorded in Paris and London and mixed in Denmark, it was the first Depeche Mode album to see band member Alan Wilder take control of the production.
The album marked a turning point in the band's sound, blending dark, introspective themes with expansive production. Its release also marked a shift in visual identity, with Anton Corbijn's involvement in music videos and promotional materials helping to redefine the band's aesthetic. Music for the Masses was considered instrumental in helping the band achieve chart success and popularity in the US, which up until then had eluded them. It reached number 10 in the UK, number 35 in the US and number 2 in West Germany. Certified platinum in the US in 1991, it was estimated in 2023 that it had sold over 5.5 million copies globally.
Music for the Masses was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2006) and Slant Magazine list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s. The title and songs inspired the tribute album For the Masses (1998), which itself had chart success in both the US and Germany.
The album spawned four successful singles, "Strangelove", "Never Let Me Down Again", "Behind the Wheel", and "Little 15", all of which charted in the top 10 in charts in various regions around the world. It was supported by the 1987–1988 Music for the Masses Tour, which helped to further launch their fame in the United States when they performed at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to over 70,000 fans, captured in the live album and video documentary 101 (1989).
Background Depeche Mode had released their fifth album Black Celebration in early 1986, followed up with a supporting tour which lasted through the middle of that year, and contributed the song "But Not Tonight" to the soundtrack to the film Modern Girls (1986). While the album and tour were the band's most successful to date, they were still considered outsiders to mainstream music.
By the time the group entered the studio in late 1986 to record Music for the Masses, singer Dave Gahan and his wife Jo Fox Gahan were expecting their first child, and songwriter Martin Gore had moved back to London from West Berlin after ending his relationship with his girlfriend of four years, Christina Friedrich.
Recording Production
Following the end of their Black Celebration Tour, Depeche Mode reconvened in the second half of 1986 to begin production of their new album. During previous recording sessions in 1985 for the single "Shake the Disease" and early 1986 for the album Black Celebration, tensions had grown between Daniel Miller, their long-time producer and label manager, and the band, due to interpersonal conflicts and the claustrophobic nature of the sessions. Citing those tensions and his own increased workload with Mute Records, Miller stepped away from the studio, and as such was not involved in the production of a Depeche Mode album for the first time since the Speak & Spell sessions in 1981. Similarly, Gareth Jones, who had worked with Depeche Mode as a producer on their previous two albums — and another source of tension over the previous two years — was also not involved in production for Music for the Masses. Band member Alan Wilder was effectively the third music producer for Black Celebration, alongside Miller and Jones; his role grew naturally out of his own interests in production and recording, and none of the other members of Depeche Mode had shown any interest in that aspect of creating albums. Despite this, collectively the band elected to find a new outside producer to aid in recording the album, and after talking to a few candidates, they offered the role to David Bascombe, who had previously worked as a recording engineer with Peter Gabriel on his song "Sledgehammer" (1986) and with Tears for Fears on their album Songs from the Big Chair (1985).
Demos Songwriter Gore had written his demos at his London home on an Akai synthesiser. Bascombe, after accepting the band's offer, met with them at Wilder's home studio around August 1986 to listen to demos that Gore had prepared, which were played through a Yamaha synthesiser, according to an interview with Bascombe in 2020. Band member Andy Fletcher commended the quality of Gore's demos, saying:
Bascombe later described the demos as "very glam", although most of the songs did not retain the glam style in their final recorded forms. After listening to the demos as a group, some of the demos were accepted as they were, some were rejected, and some, such as "Strangelove", spawned lengthy discussions. The single version of "Strangelove" was programmed at Wilder's home studio using his Allen & Heath mixing desk and a Fostex 16-track recorder before the band moved on to a proper recording studio.
Recording and mixing sessions To force themselves to try new things, they decided to find a recording studio they had not yet recorded at, and chose Studio Guillaume Tell just outside of Paris, which they rented starting around September 1986.
As they had done on their previous several albums, the band immediately set out to find and record new sounds for use as samples on the album, which took three days. Wilder noted that, as they had on their previous albums, the band was always looking to make the album differently from their last, and did not want to repeat a formula. For Construction Time Again (1983), Some Great Reward (1984) and Black Celebration (1986), they had gathered most of their samples outside of the studio, so to avoid repetition, they created most of their new samples in the studio, although they did end up recording a few on the streets of Paris. Studio Guillaume Tell was converted from an old theater, and as such there were old instruments left there that the band used to sample and record with, including a grand piano and old orchestral bass drums and timpanis. In this way, the band built a library of new samples to be used on the album. While Music for the Masses saw the band using heavy amounts of sampling, they also decided to use more guitar in the production of their songs. Despite their all-synth reputation, Depeche Mode had used guitars in their songs as early as 1982, starting with the single "Get the Balance Right!". Gore's guitar style on the record was described in a retrospective review by ClassicPopMag as "never flashy", rather, "his simple, repetitive riffs just sit on a groove, adding another textural element and human grit into the mix."
Bascombe, although hired as a producer, fell more into an audio engineer role in the studio. Instead, Wilder was described as the person "steering the ship", as he was the one most interested in the process of recording and producing the music. Wilder, as the one with the vision for how the album should sound, said that "It was very important to have a focus for each track. ... Each song, let's have an idea, a theme for how we're going to try and approach this. As a result of Bascombe's engineering influence, Wilder's production style and the use of reverb in the songs, Bascombe and later reviews described the sound of the songs and album overall as "epic" and "orchestral". The recording process was described as 3-step: Gore would write the basic song, then Wilder would perform and arrange the songs on his own at his home studio, and then the band would meet at the studio to record the final versions together. Gore, if he was unhappy with the way an arrangement was made would work through Fletcher to avoid confrontation, as he had done since Wilder joined the band in 1982.
Overall, compared to the tense production of Black Celebration, the atmosphere within the studio for these sessions was described as "relaxed", although the band did work seven days a week while in the studio, usually mid-day to midnight. Wilder played most of the piano parts on the grand piano that was found at the studio, with Gahan later saying "[Wilder] is a fantastic piano player, and I don't think we appreciated it at the time." In talking to the press around the time of the album's release, Gahan said that, in creating the album, the band were "conscious of building up atmospheres, heightening the songs to an absolutely massive feeling and then bringing them down again. We had discovered dynamics. It was our first truly arranged album", calling the sound "electronic metal".
In later interviews, Bascombe remembered that the band had a set of rules about what they did or didn't want to do when recording their album, which he had to figure out as they went along. For example, the band had a "no chords" rule — where if they wanted to play a chord, they had to assemble one from separate monophonic parts. Other rules the band followed included "no presets" and "no hi-hats", and for samples, "all samples must be original", and "no sample could be used twice". Generally, they stuck to these rules, although almost every rule was broken at least once. Said Bascombe, "you might think you're giving yourself a hard time for the sake of it, it did certainly give them a unique sound and a unique approach."
After six weeks at Studio Guillaume Tell the band took a brief holiday and shot the video for "Strangelove" before moving on to Konk studio in London. Wilder explained the break and change of venue, saying "Every time you go in the studio, the first couple of weeks are the most enthusiastic – by the end of a longish period, everyone's edgy, and you get less done. Last week in Paris, everyone was fed up and wanted to get home." Wilder was also unimpressed with the facilities at Studio Guillaume Tell, saying, "From the point of view of facilities, it was just about adequate. But the control room was ." Bascombe said that the vibe of recording changed after the move to London, since the band could go back to their homes at the end of the night, and noted that some of the samples used on the album were recorded in an old stairwell at Konk because it had such great acoustics. Most of the album's vocals were recorded at Konk, and in a contemporary interview, Fletcher said that "about half the album" was recorded there. Both Gore and Gahan tended to get their vocal takes completed quickly, and neither needed much coaching for the songs.
After recording was complete at Konk, they moved to Puk Recording Studios in Denmark to mix the album. They moved to Puk for a change of scenery, which gave them a chance to focus on the task of mixing the album; Puk was "in the middle of nowhere", so they weren't distracted by going out to clubs. Miller joined the band at Puk to help with the final mix of Music for the Masses and also mixed the single for "Strangelove", which was released five months before the album.
Equipment Besides the instruments found at Studio Guillaume Tell, equipment used to record the album included an ARP 2600, Mini Moog, RSF Kobol, Emulator II, Synclavier, and Gore's Gretsch guitar. They also used a Fairlight CMI Series 3 synthesiser and an old EMS Synthi AKS, which Wilder described as "really old, and it comes in a briefcase, like a businessman's case. It looks amazing, really James Bond. It's a noise machine, really." Of the use of the synthesisers on the record, Wilder said: Music for the Masses was Depeche Mode's first album recorded entirely digitally.
Songs