Depeche Mode is an English synthpop band, founded in 1980, originally from the town of Basildon, Essex, United Kingdom. They are one of the most enduring and successful bands to have emerged during the 80s, and particularly from the new wave/new romantic era. The band name is derived from a French fashion magazine, Dépêche mode, which means "fashion dispatch."

An incontrovertible influence within the electro-indie music realm, Depeche Mode went from being a cult, fringe act to stadium megastars, unusual for a band that has strived to maintain its own identity. Their musical trajectory is inexplicable even to them.

The members were drawn to the punk decadence of the ’70s, which was fizzling out by the time they came on to the scene in the very early ’80s. Their signature sound bridge the gap between the past and the future.

Depeche Mode have had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart and thirteen top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold over 100 million records worldwide, included the band in the list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!". Depeche Mode also rank number 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time"

The group consists of founders Dave Gahan (lead vocals, occasional songwriter since 2005), Martin Gore (guitar, keyboards, vocals, main songwriter since 1982), and Andy Fletcher (keyboards, bass guitar).

Depeche Mode released their debut album Speak & Spell in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Original band member Vince Clarke (keyboards, guitar, main songwriter from 1980 to 1981), left the band after the release of the album, leaving the band as a trio to record A Broken Frame, released the following year.

Gore took over the lead songwriting duties and, later in 1982, Alan Wilder (keyboards, drums, bass guitar, occasional songwriter) officially joined the band to fill Clarke's spot, establishing a line up that would continue for the next 13 years. Depeche Mode have been a trio again since 1995, when Wilder left.

The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force on the mainstream electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 70,000 people. In the new decade, Depeche Mode released Violator, a mainstream success. The subsequent album, Songs of Faith and Devotion, and the supporting Devotional Tour exacerbated tensions within the band to the point where Alan Wilder quit in 1995, leading to intense media and fan speculation that the band would split.

Now a trio once again, the band released Ultra in 1997, recorded at the height of Gahan's near-fatal drug abuse, Gore's alcoholism and seizures, and Fletcher's depression. The release of Exciter confirmed Depeche Mode's willingness to remain together, the subsequent, and very successful, Exciter Tour being their first tour in support of an original album in eight years since the Devotional Tour, although the band had toured in 1998 to support The Singles 86–98 compilation album.

Part of what makes for a great late-period album for an elder alternative band like Depeche Mode is a degree of resignation. Originality remains important but forced innovation sort of comes across like the musical equivalent of a fifty-something wearing tight leather pants.

For nearly four decades, Depeche Mode have majored in gloomy meditations on their own personal shortcomings. But their 14th LP offers a bitter, sorrowful elegy for the outside world.

Nearly every song on Spirit laments the death of human decency, often in disarmingly beautiful ways. They sometimes drift into heavy-handed polemics. But with a smart mix of techno-leaning keyboards and bluesy guitar, à la their 1990 high-water mark, Violator, it’s easy to get swept away in their gospel.