The band has been honored with a star on the outside mural of the Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue,[3] recognizing performers that have played sold-out shows or have otherwise demonstrated a major contribution to the culture at the iconic venue.

[5] The band was formed in Harland's dormitory room in Dupre Hall at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1982,[6] and they performed avant-garde electronic music with flourishes of hip hop, dub, and electro.

The name was chosen partly after Ingsoc, the newspeak term for English socialism in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Two years later it released "Running", the group's first single, which became a hit popular in New York City Latin dance clubs and put them on the map.

The songs "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)" and "Walking Away" were used in a sampler disc bundled with the Sega CD to showcase the console's CD+G capability, using the same graphics as the album.

In January 1991 the band performed at the Rock In Rio II festival in front of 190,000 fans at the Maracanã Stadium.

The group's third release, Peace and Love, Inc. (1992), proved to be more powerful and critically acclaimed, although its label failed to do much to promote it despite featuring production by Karl Bartos of German electronic music band Kraftwerk.

The disc included a selection of digital samples used in the album's production, miscellaneous works of art by InSoc fans,[13] a program to generate the distinctive border graphics used on the album's cover, and the music video of "Peace & Love, Inc." There was also a carefully orchestrated digital scavenger hunt culminating in the discovery of a bonus track, "White Roses".

The album eventually went out of print, but it had a second release in a remastered version in 2008, this time with "White Roses" included as an audio track.

The release consisted of tracks from Don't Be Afraid and InSoc Recombinant, supplemented with a slightly altered mix of "Are Friends Electric?"

Harland, despite being credited as producer in the liner notes, had nothing to do with the release; and while declining to either "endorse or un-endorse" the album, he did take particular issue with the cover art, both for its low quality and for its portrayal of him holding a gun.

However, Kurt had declined to appear in the planned concert, for reasons he later detailed in a post on the band's official website.

The VH1 show was followed by a period of relative quiet, although Harland, Cassidy, and Robb gave two performances at a weekend music festival in New York City on August 20–21, 2005.

In 2006, it was announced that Paul Robb and James Cassidy had decided to reconvene Information Society without Kurt Harland's full participation in the recording process.

Christopher Anton performed live as the lead singer for Information Society throughout 2006–2008, including shows in California, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, and São Paulo, Brazil.

By mid-2007, the band began to return to its original lineup of Harland, Cassidy, and Robb, who performed on July 21, 2007, at the Freestyle Reunion 2 Concert at Madison Square Garden.

After the release of Synthesizer, the trio performed a series of concerts in Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco and Austin, Texas.

It includes remixes by the Brazilian duo Kain & Arvy for "I Like The Way You Werk It" (only on CD version) and "Back In The Day" (on both releases).

Modulator also included a live version of "Wrongful Death" and a brand new song, "Don't Touch The Devil" with Kurt on vocals.

[15] This album, with Harland back at Lead vocals, brings the band closer to its classic sound, yet with a modern edge.

In August 2021 the band released ODDfellows, their eighth album, in both a standard mix and in THX Spatial Audio, optimized for headphones.