History Music / DEVO

** Double Take: Jerry does one during this show, when he sees a fan on stage dancing to "Peek-a-Boo".

** "I Desire" from ''Oh, No! It's Devo''. The lyrics come from a love poem written by John Hinckley, Jr. for Creator/JodieFoster ([[TooSoon this just a year after Hinckley's assassination attempt on]] [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan President Reagan]]).

** Case in point: the music video for their cover of Music/JimiHendrix's "Are You Experienced". A Jimi lookalike jumps out of a coffin to play the guitar onstage with Devo, and then goes back in and down. Hendrix's estate's [[DudeNotFunny reaction]] made this video [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes hard to find]].

* {{Instrumental Instrumentals}}: Devo has the E-Z Listening versions of select songs from their catalog as well as "Corporate Anthem" and "Timing X."

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: The Enigma Records years, i.e. ''Total Devo'' and ''Smooth Noodle Maps'' (from 1987 and 1990 respectively). The lyrics still had a quirkiness to them, but they had a ''much'' more mainstream polish to the music, by Devo standards. "Plain Truth" from ''Total Devo'' takes a dissonant melody from the ''Hardcore Devo'' years, and turns it into a catchy, plink-plonking pop hook. [[CreatorBacklash The band don't think much of their music from this period.]]

* OffTheShelfFX: In some of their early videos. And then there's their "mascot" character [[http://www.devo-obsesso.com/images/photos/candid/jlens-booji-slash77.jpg Booji Boy]], who is effectively unnerving specifically ''because'' he's clearly a grown man in a [[UncannyValley creepily disproportionate]] store-bought rubber little boy mask speaking in a high pitched voice.

* WhipItGood: {{Trope Namer|s}}.

The band went through a couple of incarnations as time passed by; Bob Lewis was edged out of the band shortly before the recording of their first album, and a couple of temporary members was loosely attached to the group in the early days, but in 1976 a consistent core group was established, consisting of Mark Mothersbaugh, Jerry Casale, their respective brothers Bob Mothersbaugh and Bob Casale (Bob 1 and Bob 2) and a drummer, most prominently the late Alan Myers (1976-1985) and more recently Josh Freese (1996-present).

Mothersbaugh was also responsible for the score of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'' and produced the film's EarWorm "Everything Is Awesome", which was nominated in 2014 for an Academy Award.

* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle: Most people pronounce the band's name "DEE-voh," but the band members themselves insist it's "dee-VOH." The latter pronunciation appears in "Jocko Homo", where it can be considered a case of accentuating the wrong syllable to keep the rhythm (we ARE de-VO), and "Time Out for Fun", and is also used by Booji Boy in "We're All Devo!", Nu-Tra in "Nu-Tra Speaks (New Traditionalist Man)" and General Boy in "General Boy Visits Apocalypse Now" and "Duty Now for the Future!", from the ''Pioneers Who Got Scalped'' anthology.

* ''Bob "Bob 1" Mothersbaugh'' – guitar, vocals (1974–1991, 1996–present)

* BandOfRelatives: For the majority of the band's history, it contained two families; the Mothersbaugh brothers Mark and Bob 1 (and also briefly their younger brother Jim) and the Casale brothers Jerry and Bob 2. With Bob 2's death in 2014 this is sadly no longer the case.

-->--'''Music/MarkMothersbaugh'''

* FiveManBand: Current lineup
** TheLeader: Jerry
** TheLancer: Mark
** TheSmartGuy: Bob
** TheHeart: Josh 1
** TheBigGuy: Josh 2

** TheSmartGuy: Bob 1
** TheHeart: Freese
** TheBigGuy: Hager

* PeopleInRubberSuits: Or more specifically, huge rubbers. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hardcore_Devo_Volume_One.jpg Old photos]] show band members covered in what looks to be human-body-sized condoms.

* ChristianRock: Parodied with Devo's alter-ego band, [[SignificantAnagram Dove]] (The Band of Love).

* OneSteveLimit: Averted with the inclusion of both Bob Mothersbaugh and Bob Casale, who as mentioned above, are referred to as Bob 1 and Bob 2 respectively.

** TheBigGuy: Josh Hager

Their sound, practically from the start, was based on energetic NewWaveMusic guitar work (largely divorced from BluesRock tradition) but largely brought the synthesizer to the forefront, often in jarring and dissonant ways. Their vocals are of the nasal "geek" variety, and one of the key things holding the entire concoction together was the precise rhythms played by drummer Alan Myers. Onstage, they make use of visuals and costumes that were and still are outlandish. The band's aesthetic blends futuristic, sci-fi themes with primitive ones, emphasizing the role of modern humans as, in their words, "technologically sophisticated cavemen."

In recent years, Devo has been very active. Other side projects include a de-evolved surf album as "The Wipeouters", a country single as "The Big Dirty Farmers", and a Jerry Casale solo effort as "Jihad Jerry and the Evildoers", playing up the blues influence and rendering a video for "Army Girls Gone Wild." In 2010, Devo made a series of Website/YouTube videos, satirizing the entertainment industry's use of focus groups, in order to promote their ninth studio album. That album, ''Something for Everybody'', was released on June 15, 2010 (after a couple years in DevelopmentHell) and it garnered good reception from fans and critics. In 2013, Devo released a remastered version of ''Devo Hardcore'', which included a couple of previously unreleased demos from their earliest days, as well as ''Something Else for Everybody'', which consisted of the cut songs from ''Something for Everybody''.