I think PursuitofLife's post comes closest to my opinion on what this song is about. Devo - which is short for DE-EVolution - believed that humanity had stopped evolving and had starter de-volving. This was reflected in a lot of their songs at the time - "Freedom of choice; is what you got. Freedom FROM choice; is what you want." They made a lot of comments about society and the herd mentality.
If you read the song lyrics and didn't see the video then I think it would be a bit of a big leap to conclude that this song was about masturbation and/or S&M. And the reasons for the video theme are documented elsewhere.
With Whip-It I think Devo are having a playful, ironic stab at the whole American self improvement mindset in which people read books and go to seminars etc. in an attempt to be different, to stand out, to be successful. But in the end this just produces a herd of sheep all following an Anthony Robbins type Guru who's the only one of them who is actually original and successful! All the 'followers' – following the Guru’s mantras like “shape it up, get it straight, move forward” are just sheep. See what I mean? And that's why PursuitofLife is right I think; if you don't think about Devo’s songs you miss the point and don't see the underlying ironic humour.
As for some of the other posts, I was around when Devo first started out and they were unbelievable at the time; they truly were unique and original. They were helping music – and therefore humanity – to evolve! They inspired a whole bunch of people in music and other fields. People today don't realise that in those days hardly any songs had video-clips and those that did usually had pretty lame ones. Devo were one of the bands who lead the way towards the MTV generation; the irony of the whole is delicious!
I think PursuitofLife's post comes closest to my opinion on what this song is about. Devo - which is short for DE-EVolution - believed that humanity had stopped evolving and had starter de-volving. This was reflected in a lot of their songs at the time - "Freedom of choice; is what you got. Freedom FROM choice; is what you want." They made a lot of comments about society and the herd mentality. If you read the song lyrics and didn't see the video then I think it would be a bit of a big leap to conclude that this song was about masturbation and/or S&M. And the reasons for the video theme are documented elsewhere. With Whip-It I think Devo are having a playful, ironic stab at the whole American self improvement mindset in which people read books and go to seminars etc. in an attempt to be different, to stand out, to be successful. But in the end this just produces a herd of sheep all following an Anthony Robbins type Guru who's the only one of them who is actually original and successful! All the 'followers' – following the Guru’s mantras like “shape it up, get it straight, move forward” are just sheep. See what I mean? And that's why PursuitofLife is right I think; if you don't think about Devo’s songs you miss the point and don't see the underlying ironic humour. As for some of the other posts, I was around when Devo first started out and they were unbelievable at the time; they truly were unique and original. They were helping music – and therefore humanity – to evolve! They inspired a whole bunch of people in music and other fields. People today don't realise that in those days hardly any songs had video-clips and those that did usually had pretty lame ones. Devo were one of the bands who lead the way towards the MTV generation; the irony of the whole is delicious!