No, this isn’t one of those dreadful quizzes like “Which Depeche Mode member are you?” In celebrating DM this week, I came across an old interview that was done around 1989. Former keyboard player Alan Wilder said this about the group that was just starting to explode (and have now sold over 100 million albums):
“I think it’s very difficult for our record company to take what we do and really know exactly where to place it . . . They don’t quite know what bag to put us in and how to market us. I think it’s difficult for them.”
Publishers of any sort–music, book–need to put artists into boxes. That’s just part of the business. You can fight it (as I’ve tried) but it’s difficult to do. It makes it even more difficult to make a name for yourself when people can’t easily say who you are and where you fit.
But sometimes, as DM and other artists have shown, you can just be YOURSELF and find success. I wouldn’t advise it, but then again, I hate boxes and always will.