Late 20th Century Music Video Classics: Devo "Whip It"

"Whip It" is built on a motorik* beat, similar to tracks by Neu!. The lead instrument is a Minimoog synthesizer. The bass is performed with a custom synthesizer made by Moog Music for Devo, known as the Devobox, and is built from two Minimoogs. The whip sound was made with an EML ElectroComp 500 synthesizer. On an episode of the VH1 show TrueSpin, Gerald V. Casale revealed that the lead guitar riff from "Whip It" is based on the riff from "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison with the beat moved to the back.

Devo funded the music video for "Whip It" with $15,000 USD of their own money. The main visual of the video, Mark Mothersbaugh whipping the clothes off a woman (Annerose Bücklers), was inspired by an article in a 1962 issue of "Dude" magazine. In an interview for Song Facts, Casale explains "There was a feature article on a guy who had been an actor and fell on hard times, he wasn't getting parts anymore. He moved with his wife to Arizona, opened a dude ranch and charged people money to come hang out at the ranch. Every day at noon in the corral, for entertainment, he'd whip his wife's clothes off with a 12-foot bullwhip. She sewed the costumes and put them together with Velcro. The story was in the magazine about how good he was and how he never hurt her. We had such a big laugh about it, we said, 'OK, that's the basis for the video. We'll have these cowboys drinking beer and cheering Mark on as he's in the barnyard whipping this pioneer woman's clothes off while the band plays in the corral.'"

In the video, Devo wears black, sleeveless turtlenecks, and their famous Energy Dome headgear. When the video begins, all the members, except for Mark Mothersbaugh, wear the turtlenecks pulled over their faces. During the performance, each member lowers the turtleneck. Robert Casale (Bob 2) plays a red Rheem Key Bass, and Alan Myers plays a set of Synare electronic drum pads.

Unsurprisingly, the S&M overtones of the video caused controversy. Devo was forced to abandon a television appearance after the host deemed the video offensive to women. Despite this, "Whip It" received heavy rotation on MTV.

*Motorik is a term coined by music journalists to describe the 4/4 beat often used by some so-called "Krautrock" bands such as Neu! and Kraftwerk (promoting the official CD release of Neu!'s back-catalogue, Klaus Dinger stated he called it the "Apache beat"). The word "Motorik" means "motor skill" in German.

The name perhaps derives from the repetitive yet forward-flowing feel of the rhythm, which has been compared to the experience of motorway driving -- indeed, the motorik beat is utilized in one section of Kraftwerk's "Autobahn", a song designed to celebrate exactly this experience. While The Velvet Underground's influence on Krautrock is often mentioned, Mo Tucker's drumming has specifically been characterized as "proto-motorik."

The motorik beat is in 4/4 time and of moderate pace. The pattern is repeated each bar throughout the song. A splash or crash cymbal is often hit at the beginning bar of a verse or chorus.

-- Wikipedia