Devo Energy Dome, c. 1980

This red plastic “energy dome” style hat was previously worn by members of the American rock band Devo. The five members of Devo wore matching energy domes on their 1980 award-winning album Freedom of Choice. “Whip It,” the album’s most successful hit and one of MTV’s earliest featured videos, also showed the band wearing the headgear. Due to the video’s popularity, the unique, red hats soon became associated with the band, although Devo had performed with other strange props, including masks, goggles and plastic wigs, for several years. Devo often chose their uniform gimmicks to satirize modern technological culture and its intolerance of difference. 

Although the red energy dome is most famous, other colors of the hat have been used by the band or created for promotional purposes. For the 2002 Boom Boom HuckJam Tour, Devo sported silver metallic colored energy domes, and in the band’s music video for “Go Monkey Go,” band co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh can be seen wearing a white and purple dome. 

Devo, which comes from De-evolution, was formed in 1973 by Gerald Casale, Bob Lewis and Mark Mothersbaugh and has had various member lineups over the years. In 1980 the band included Mark Mothersbaugh (vocals; keyboards; guitar), Gerald Casale (vocals; bass guitar; keyboards), Bob Casale (guitar; keyboards), Bob Mothersbaugh (guitar) and Alan Myers (drums). Known for their unique, punk and new wave sounds and performance art style, the band used electronic instrumentation, motoric rhythms and vocalizations and spoken word.