Devo-Not just a Band

When most people talk about new media artists, they tend to think in the time frame of the twenty-first century. Fortunately for the world, DEVO, the 1970's and 1980's band can be said to be one of the earliest examples of media artists. Not only has the band been controversial in its lyrics and themes, but they were on the cutting edge of technology when people couldn't even fathom that technology ever existing, especially in the music industry. According to the article, DEVO reveals a "morbid obsession with the decay of technology and an uncanny aptitude for the graphic dissection of pop culture." How did they achieve this? Through video and other modes of media technology. DEVO was one of the first bands to create a movie and project that movie behind them while performing onstage. As well as movies for tours, DEVO was way ahead of the MTV music video age. While MTV was just starting, DEVO had already completed nine music videos. In those videos they started using techniques such as Chroma Key (like a green screen) and 3D graphics. Along with enhancing their music videos, former members of the band worked on MIDI technology, where a computer can regulate and sync other computer based musical instruments. Not only did they stretch the boundary when it came to music, they even created their own "point and click" adventure game years ahead of other bands signing on their music to video games, let alone create one.

First off, combining media art and music can only result in good things. Having grown up with atari, I can vividly remember how pixilated and how "high tech" the graphics were for the 1980's. What DEVO achieved was ground breaking. Not only were they ahead of the music video trend, but they weren't afraid to try new things, especially with all the new technology that was emerging in that time period. It might be hard to agree that they are new media artists but they did use computers in their music as well as using them to construct the various movies and videos they created. Back then, using the computer was very rare and they made it work, quite successfully. Unfortunately like their music, the technology they used didn't catch on right away, but nevertheless, they were pioneers both in the music industry and in the media arts.