Depeche Mode

Springing forth from England in 1980, Depeche Mode helped pioneer the original new wave movement that merged electronic music elements with rock and roll song structures. After releasing its debut album, Speak & Spell, in 1981, the band captured a broad audience throughout the UK with infectious dance-inducing tunes. Though the rigorous touring and promotional work that followed caused primary songwriter Vince Clarke to depart from the project, Depeche Mode continued full-speed ahead with Martin Gore taking on the position as creative leader and taking the band's music to new heights with political and social issues at the core of his lyrics. As the burgeoning new wave movement continued to grow, the band began to adopt new methods of creating its industrial pop sound, such as using samples of everyday noises, and had earned an international fan base by the time it released its fourth studio album Some Great Reward, in 1984. Often described as the quintessential techno-pop band of the 1980s, Depeche Mode survived the grunge and alt-rock movements of the 1990s and rode the new wave revival of the 2000s to continue on as one of the most influential electronic pop bands to emerge out of the UK, with albums such as 2013's Delta Machine.