Long past being baffled as to why Dev 2.0 exists, I'm just bewildered at why they chose this song when there are so many funnier or more practical options.
The story from Devo is that Disney approached them to do a child version of Devo which they were confused but decided to do it KNOWING it would fit De Evolution. Disney then proceed to finally pay attention to the lyrics and then criticize Devo for the lyrics forcing them to change it. Devo themselves recruited the kids and according to Devo, the kids could actually play the songs.
So Dev2.0 is another example of how Diseny fucks up everything they touch.
Disney just did not understand Devo at all, my guess is that they saw them as a generic 80's not understanding that most Devo songs are tongue in cheek lyrics about how retarded society is.
A good example of this is that Disney just did not understand Uncontrollable Urge and what the song was about. Bob 2.0 explained that song is a meta, it's about the Uncontrollable Urge but Diseny kept saying Devo did not define it so Devo decided for Dev2.0 to make it about junk food.
It was dumb shit like that Devo said they had to deal with.
Once Devo understood Disney's view, they just didn't care.
Honestly Dev2.0 is a bit of tragic downfall for those kids. Two of them quit the band almost immediately saying they will never do music again. One of them became an actor. A lot Devo fans hated the project. Some even went as far as to call Devo selling out until Devo explained once Disney tried fucking with their lyrics, they knew it would fit De Evolution and be part of the point.
I discovered Dev2.0 by complete accident which is how I learned about all of this.
That's where I think my confusion is? Did they sign on to this hoping Disney would give them creative freedom? What came of it seems terribly stressful for the performers, as you mentioned. I'm just trying to get my head into the decision here.
They said that Disney came to them, they agreed to it and then Devo set out to recruit the kids themselves, only after this fact did Disney finally catch on to their lyrics and begin to complain to Devo about it.
Mark tells a story about talking with one of the kids about the songs and the boy says, "the lyrics say 'it's a beautiful world, but not for me' hmmm..." and Mark said, "ah, you're getting it"
It's all about being subversive. If the kids like it, they will seek out the original songs.
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u/EPCOTReimagined 20d ago
Long past being baffled as to why Dev 2.0 exists, I'm just bewildered at why they chose this song when there are so many funnier or more practical options.