80's Music Junkies: Duran Duran

Duran Duran is a British pop/rock band notable for a long series of popular, synthesiser-driven hit singles and vivid music videos. They were the most commercially successful of the New Romantic bands, and a leading band in the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the United States.

John Taylor and Nick Rhodes formed Duran Duran in Birmingham, England in 1978, envisioning a group with the raw do-it-yourself energy of the Sex Pistols, the dance grooves of CHIC, and the elegant style of David Bowie and Roxy Music. Other influences the band have mentioned include Mick Ronson, The Clash, Kraftwerk, Japan, New York Dolls, Velvet Underground, Blondie and Visage. The band took their name from the evil character "Dr. Durand Durand", played by Milo O'Shea in Roger Vadim's cult science-fiction film Barbarella. Their first singer was Stephen Duffy, who went on to lead Tin Tin, The Lilac Time, enjoy solo success, and write songs with Barenaked Ladies, Steven Page, and Robbie Williams. Several drummers and guitarists were subsequently tried, as well as a handful of vocalists after Duffy left Duran Duran early in 1979.

In 1981, Duran Duran consisted of Nick Rhodes and Simon Le Bon (rear), and the unrelated Taylors: Roger, Andy, and John (front).Finally, drummer Roger Taylor fell in with them at a party (after which John Taylor, originally on lead guitar, switched to bass). Guitarist Andy Taylor came south from Newcastle to audition after responding to a magazine advertisement, and London vocalist Simon Le Bon was recommended to the band by ex-girlfriend Fiona Kemp who worked at the Rum Runner nightclub where the band rehearsed. The owners of the club, brothers Paul and Michael Berrow, became the band's management, and paid them to work as doormen, disc jockeys and glass collectors when they weren't rehearsing.

The up-and-coming group were considered part of the New Romantic scene, along with other style-and-dance bands such as Spandau Ballet, Japan (band) and ABC. Over the course of 1980, they recorded two demo tapes and performed tirelessly in clubs around Birmingham and London. Touring in late 1980 as an opening act for Hazel O'Connor, the band attracted critical attention that escalated into a bidding war between the record companies EMI and PolyGram. "A certain patriotism" toward the label of The Beatles led them to sign with EMI in December.

Like Depeche Mode, Duran Duran were among the earliest bands to work on their own remixes. Before the days of digital synthesizers and easy audio sampling, they created complex, multilayered arrangements of their singles, sometimes recording entirely different extended performances of the songs in studio.

From the very beginning, the band had a keen sense of style, and worked with stylist Perry Haines and fashion designers such as Kahn & Bell and Antony Price to build a sharp and elegant image, soon growing beyond the ruffles and sashes of the pirate-flavoured New Romantic look. They may have suffered from the typical hair spray and mullet excesses of the 1980s, but have maintained a focus on presenting fashion as part of the package throughout their career.

The band was relatively unusual in that all five members were pin-up pretty. Teen and music magazines in the UK latched onto their good looks quickly, and the U.S. soon followed. It was a rare month in the early eighties when there was not at least one picture of the band members in teen magazines such as Smash Hits or Tiger Beat, even if the sugary coverage was sometimes at odds with the band's titillating videos and occasionally dark lyrics. It helped that each member had a distinctive look and personality. John Taylor once remarked that the band was "like a box of Quality Street chocolates; everyone is somebody's favourite" – an effect that is now strategically planned in more recent boy bands. Duran Duran would later come to regret this early pin-up exposure, but at the time it helped gain them the national attention they sought.

The band has sold well over 75 million records worldwide. They have had eighteen singles in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and thirty in the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart, including "Rio", "Hungry Like the Wolf", "Is There Something I Should Know?", "The Reflex" and the James Bond theme "A View to a Kill" in the 1980s. They have won two Grammy Awards for their music videos. Although the group never disbanded, it went through several line-up changes over the years.

Duran Duran Top Hits

Duran Duran

Duran Duran is an album by Duran Duran, originally released worldwide in 1981, and reissued to greater success in 1983. The album reached #3 on the United Kingdom charts on 27 June 1981, and remained in the chart for 118 weeks, although the initial release was largely ignored in America. The 1983 reissue reached at #10 on the US charts, and remained on that chart for 87 weeks (although it was overshadowed by the ongoing American success of the Rio album from 1982). Duran Duran was certified platinum (a shipment of one million units) by the RIAA on 4 June 1985.