Why were Asian-Americans so Depeche Mode nuts?

Kamala accuses her husband of being a Depeche Mode fan.

British celebrities are nowadays required to declare which soccer clubs they support (see countless Wikipedia articles about aging English big shots in which the last sentence is something like: “Nigel Farthingbone is a Tottenham Forest Hotspur supporter,” even if Nigel probably hasn’t cared about a sporting event since The Ashes cricket match between England and Australia in 1992), while American celebrities are supposed to declare their allegiance to pop acts of their youth, even if they don’t appear to have paid much attention to music.

Kamala Harris was born in October 1964 (as was her husband Doug Emhoff) and Tim Walz was born in April 1964. Tim dutifully claims that he’s really into working class heroes Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger, but Kamala doltishly replies:

“My husband Doug and I, I’m more of a hip-hop girl, he’s more Depeche Mode. [Cackles] I’m sure you and he like the same music…”

Granted, the last 4 words are imputed from the subtitles because Kamala is cackling again …

Kamala’s accusation that her husband (Agoura High School class of 1983 in posh northwest Los Angeles County) is really into Depeche Mode raises the question of why Depeche Mode was so popular among Asian-Americans in the 1980s.

Doug Emhoff likely listened to KROQ in Pasadena when he graduated from Agoura HS in 1983. Depeche Mode was so huge in SoCal, especially among Asians, that they'd play the Rose Bowl in 1988:

I guess Depeche Mode's lead singer is half-Malaysian Indian, so maybe that helps explain why they were huge among Asian-Americans.

The songwriter is supposedly half-black but he didn't know that until he was 30.

The look like 4 white Englishmen to me.

Why did Asian-Americans love Depeche Mode so much?

It's kind of like the more-discussed question of why did Mexican-Americans love The Smiths/Morrissey so much?

I can recall Depeche Mode's catchy single "I Just Can't Get Enough" on KROQ-Pasadena in 1982.

But then I moved to Chicago where nobody cared about Depeche Mode. So I was startled to see in 1988 that they were playing the vast Rose Bowl.

My guess is that the Asian-American love of Depeche Mode had something to do with the Pasadena, CA area, home to KROQ, America's top new wave radio station four decade ago, with the San Gabriel Valley becoming the Promised Land of Chinese-Americans in the 1980s. KROQ played a lot of Depeche Mode.

Chinese started pouring into the suburban San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles's Chinatown in the 1970s-80s because it was cheap because the smog was so bad. Then, suddenly, the smog cleared up and ... it was paradise, these forgotten WASP-laid out old suburbs like San Marino.