Such rapid success, overwhelming attention and exhausting tour and recording schedules took its toll on the band members. They were among the first bands to make their own remixes, at times recording completely new and multi-layered extended versions of their songs, dubbed “night versions.” They were also among the first to provide video screens above the stage during live performances, which was utilized in the video for “The Reflex.” In 1984, Duran Duran won the inaugural Grammy Awards for Best Short Form Music Video, for both “Hungry Like the Wolf” and the controversial “Girls on Film,” and for Best Long Form Music Video, for the pioneering compilation video album “Duran Duran.”ĭuran Duran was everywhere, plastered on the covers of all the teen magazines, and created mass hysteria wherever they went. The band’s innovative ideas didn’t stop with the videos. Before long, the young performers – just in their early twenties – were dubbed the “Fab Five” as the hysteria surrounding them was every bit as huge as “Beatlemania” had been 20 years before. Duran Duran had received little air play on the radio up to that time the video created a huge demand for their music.
They saw the “Hungry Like the Wolf” production impressed, they began to play it multiple times a day. MTV executives were looking for new talent in 1982 and more visually captivating videos. Instead of simply standing on a stage playing their instruments, the band members created stories to their music, influenced by such popular films as “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “The Road Warrior,” and used 35 film instead of videotape for a more polished look.
DURAN DURAN BEST SONGS SERIES
However, Duran Duran, with the help of future film director Russell Mulcahy, filmed a series of innovative music videos on location in exotic locations Sri Lanka and Antigua. Most of those early videos were low-budget, with the performers standing on a stage singing. Music videos had been around for a few years in the U.K., but not in the U.S., when MTV debuted in 1981. However, they were still relatively unknown in America – until a new cable channel changed the course of music history. Their inaugural, self-titled album did well in their native country. Heavily influenced by artists such as David Bowie, The Beatles, Sex Pistols and Chic, the young band rode the wave of popularity of the New Romantic movement in the U.K., complete with ruffle shirts and heavy makeup. By May of 1980, they had formed the lineup that would soon become part of the “Second British Invasion,” with the additions of Roger Taylor on drums, Andy Taylor on guitar (none of the Taylors are related) and, lastly, Simon Le Bon on vocals.
DURAN DURAN BEST SONGS MOVIE
“New Moon on Monday” was the first song that garnered my attention, and I joined millions of other screaming girls across the globe to become a “Durannie.” And now after a lengthy, undeserved wait, the band enjoys induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.įormed in 1978 in Birmingham, England, by guitarist John Taylor and keyboardist Nick Rhodes, along with another friend, Duran Duran named themselves after the villain in the 1968 sci-fi movie “Barbarella.” Band members changed over the next couple of years, and Taylor eventually switched to bass, teaching himself to play. My friends and I were captivated by “music TV,” and never more so than when British band Duran Duran, which was composed of five good-looking men, captivated Americans with their exotic videos.
I was 13 years old in 1984, and MTV was less than two years old.
0 kommentar(er)
