High Five Dance party grudge match: Depeche Mode vs. New Order

Though it carries traces of dance music and DJ culture’s more competitive elements, the term “vs.” usually ends up having more to do with coming together than facing off, suggesting the collaborative spirit and sample-based synergy of remixes and mash-ups. And while we’re reasonably certain it’s that uplifting energy that will pervade this Saturday’s Depeche Mode vs. New Order Dance Party at Mad Planet (featuring local spinner Frank Straka and Chicago’s Minya on the wheels of steel), once a gauntlet like DM vs. NO is thrown down, fans are kind of forced to pick a side. Never afraid to leap into the fray (at least when it involves arguing the respective merits of synth-pop bands), The A.V. Club offers a point-by-point comparison.

Personnel
In any discussion involving New Order, the elephant in the room is always the band’s rise from the ashes of Joy Division following Ian Curtis’ suicide in 1980. And while they’re very different bands, it’s worth remembering that in the late ’70s, when core Depeche Mode members Andy Fletcher, Vince Clarke, and Martin Gore were still bouncing around the New Romantic scene in various Cure- and Ultravox-aping groups, three quarters of New Order (Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris) were part of one of the most groundbreaking bands in the history of popular music. That’s got to be worth something, right?
Point: New Order

’80s career
Both bands released their debut albums in 1981, New Order with Movement, and Depeche Mode with Speak And Spell. Those debuts kicked off an impressive string of recordings from both camps, which together would largely define the synth-driven sound of the entire decade. It was their mutual heyday, but while Depeche Mode certainly deserves credit for reconfiguring pop into something that sounded at once familiar and futuristic, New Order’s unlikely fusion of moody Anglo post-punk and deep underground dance music (an influence the band picked up sampling some New York nightlife and honed with the help of electro producer extraordinaire Arthur Baker) is considerably more daring. Oh, also “Blue Monday” becomes the U.K.’s biggest-selling 12-inch single of all time.
Point: New Order

’90s career
Grunge and other cultural shifts made the ’90s a confusing time for electronically oriented holdovers, leading many acts to do some serious, and at times ill-advised, tinkering. For its part, New Order sat most of the decade out; after unveiling its 1990 World Cup anthem “World In Motion,” the band went on an extended hiatus, then reconvened for 1993’s impressive Republic (its only studio album of the era and its first away from long-time home Factory Records), only to break up for another five years shortly thereafter. Depeche Mode, on the other hand, came into 1990 swinging with Violator, which introduced a darker, looser, and more textured production style that the group continued to mine on other well-received ’90s outings like Songs Of Faith And Devotion and Ultra.
Point: Depeche Mode

Recent career
Since the turn of the millennium, both bands have been relatively active—no small feat for any group that sticks around past the 20-year mark. But both also seem to have transitioned into that nebulous elder-statesman zone, where nobody really demands that much from them. New releases are announced, hotly anticipated, more or less liked by fans and critics, and maybe win a Grammy before promptly melting back into the ether. Whether they’re hailed as a return to form or a bold new direction, records like New Order’s 2001 comeback Get Ready or Depeche Mode’s Sounds Of The Universe from 2009 ultimately end up as respectable entries in already stuffed discographies. That being said, Depeche Mode tends to put a bit more elbow grease into slapping on that new coat of paint.
Point: Depeche Mode

Lasting influence
It’s always difficult to quantify a band’s influence, and especially challenging here, since fans of New Order are likely to also be Depeche Mode devotees. Still, though both can claim to have had an effect on techno, rave, and industrial music in addition to more mainstream rock and pop, it’s New Order’s artful navigation of different musical styles that’s arguably proved most inspiring to continuing generations of artists. Depeche Mode may have helped invent and perfect a particular genre in synth-pop, but New Order’s sound was never so tidily defined, and as the group freely went back and forth between guitars and synthesizers, album charts and club hits, it set the stage for an entire spectrum of acts that blur the line between dance and rock.
Point: New Order

Winner: New Order (3-2)
Now that that’s out of the way, dancing can commence.