This Depeche Mode song still brights today (maybe as never before)

This text reflects my own view about a song lyrics and it does not represent any official or definitive interpretation about it

I just love the 80s synth-pop style. It produces in me a strange kind of nostalgia (since I was born in the 90’s and all my knowledge about this music comes from the Internet age, in which styles and tastes have became more and more mixed and timeless) and appeal, with bands like Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, Naked Eyes, Human League and my favorite one, Depeche Mode, composing a soundtrack for my daily activities in a way that sometimes I even forget that these tunes were recorded decades ago and pop music has dramatically changed since then.

As I said, Depeche Mode has a special place in my musical lore, mainly because that is the band I consider to have best crossed the 90s barrier, with a prolific and profound work, of which albums as Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) and Spirit (2017) are just a sample. Nevertheless, I still worship the DM 80’s phase in a more passionate way and I consider they created their definitive masterpieces in that era.

When revisiting my Depeche Mode playlist, I have rediscovered a relatively obscure song called “New Dress”, from the album Black Celebration (1986), a little-remembered pearl of the initial years of the band, with an involving vocal melody from Dave Gahan and the always excellent lyrics by Martin Gore.

This tune starts by citing a set of terrible situations from the modern world, as if we are hearing news headlines:

Sex jibe husband murders wife
Bomb blast victim fights for life
Girl thirteen attacked with knife 

Just to after we hear:

Princess Di is wearing a new dress

Which gave us a glance at a possibly common leading page of any newspaper of those times (and even the news sites today), in which terrible events divide space with irrelevant facts, and they apparently have the same importance and weight for the editors and readers. This scheme is repeated others two times, mentioning different kinds of equally terrible situations of our unjust, unequal and unbalanced world, just to finish again with the headline about Diana’s dress. However, the most interesting excerpt is an intermediary octave:

You can't change the world
But you can change the facts
And when you change the facts
You change points of view
If you change points of view
You may change a vote
And when you change a vote
You may change the world

This lyrics makes me an interesting effect. It feels like a very dark room with a small (maybe tiny) window in which we can see a chink of light. Although it looks very pessimistic at the first sight, it opens a possibility of some (not very high) hope at the end, since although the powerful can is denied in the first line, it is at least replaced with a modest may in the end. That means, there is not easy way out, but at least the possibility of change comes to exist.

Notice that, in some languages, (as in my mother-tongue, Portuguese) modal verbs like can and may are usually replaced with a single equivalent wildcard and it is necessary to realize the difference by the context and intonation of the word. The beauty of this lyrics lies in its subtle usage of a characteristic of the English language, which gives it the effect of a disillusioned state in which you are looking for something to hold on and then find some remnant of hope. In the context of the song, it is represented by the lyrical self getting some comfort by considering it can transform this horrible system if it starts slowly modifying the people’s perception about the reality.

In our times, in which media (even the “official” one) is unprecedentedly abused to manipulate the public opinion by spreading misinformation, conspiracy and hate, this octave seems to say us that we have a role to play in this disheartening scenario. We always can influence the public opinion in some level. We can change a misinformed point of view by showing accurate and scientific-grounded facts. We can reveal the falsehood of the common sense about a controversial subject. We can even change a vote by debating with people and presenting them less biased elements.

I know that is not that much. I know that it is not motivating to think about the enormous work necessary to reduce the probabilities of a disgusting right-wing conservative politician be elected, or to convince people about the reality of climate change, or even to make them remember basic principles, as empathy for the suffering of others. However, if changing the world it is just a remote possibility, our only choice is to hold on it and try it out. The alternative is conformism and nihilism.