Read time: 3 minutes. Devo was never just Whip It. They were a prophetic art movement disguised as a band. This is the first stand alone article in our BeToKnow series.
We’re not here to decode the meaning of their songs. Nor will we deconstruct their thesis of “de-evolution” — that humanity is regressing, not progressing.
We’re here to discuss something else: Devo’s ruthless commitment to the concept. Each note. Every video. Every stiff gesture. Even their interviews. All of it funneled into one body. No compromise.
That kind of devotion has power. Clear. Unrelenting. Total.
When Gerald Casale was asked, “Do they understand what you’re talking about?” he didn’t blink. “Well it’d be kind of foolish to answer that question.” Because like the Tao, the Devo that can be explained is not Devo.
They didn’t just say de-evolution. They became it. Domes. Hazmat suits. Broken rhythms. Plastic hairdos. Whether on stage or meeting with the press. No separation between art and life.
Funny. Absurd. Dead serious. Devo critiqued conformity by conforming. They showed how critique itself gets swallowed and sold. That tension is the art.
Casale put it simply: “Being self-aware puts you in a strange position.” Still, the band insisted: we’re not against trying.
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Here lies the paradox. To spread their message, they had to embrace the very machinery they were condemning. Their creation was also their downfall. The moment Devo began was the moment de-evolution began to eat itself alive.
And the members themselves were completely aware of this. They predicted it from the beginning.
So what, then, could possibly be the point of their project? What is its ultimate goal?
Here’s where Zen chimes in. The Tao, enlightenment, Devo — all the same problem. Ideas are as hollow as they are easy. Living them is another matter entirely. It is, ultimately, the only matter.
To be Devo is to become its demonstration in real time. To be Tao is the same. Devo critiqued by embodying the critique. Tao teaches not-doing through words that undo themselves.
And you? From birth, whether you realize it or not, you have been living a performance. Devo chose to perform their idea until they were the idea.
So let’s cut to the chase. Our lives have always been a sort of conceptual art. The only question is: what happens when Zen becomes the lived thesis of that expression? When it inhabits every act, every motive, without exception?
A doorway opens. Tao. Transformation. Absolute Freedom.
If Tao is the uncarved block, Devo is the uncut vinyl.
And to understand Devo is to understand: we’re all Devo.
(Give the past a slip.)
Explore More:
This line between life and lived art is not an exclusive idea. “I think all human lives are performances,” says artist Terence Koh. “We’re conditioned, starting from when we first say the word ‘mommy,’ to get a reaction.”
Speaking of his life’s work thus far, he concluded it’s all part of “one continuous thing, an ongoing storytelling journey” that’s indistinguishable from his life. This keeps him almost always performing in character.
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