DURAN DURAN

Duran Duran are an English alternative dance band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, and guitarist/bassist John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger Taylor the following year, the band went through numerous personnel changes before May 1980, when they settled on their most famous line-up by adding guitarist Andy Taylor and lead vocalist Simon Le Bon. When Duran Duran emerged they were generally considered part of the New Romantic scene. Innovators of the music video, Duran Duran were catapulted into the mainstream with the introduction of the 24-hour music channel MTV. The group was a leading band in the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US in the 1980s. Photographer Denis O'Regan, who captured the band during their 1984 tour, commented "Duran Duran in America was like Beatlemania." The band's first major hit was "Girls on Film" (1981), from their self-titled debut album, the popularity of which was enhanced by a controversial music video. A heavily edited form played in rotation on MTV. The band's breakthrough second album was Rio (1982), which peaked at number six in the US, number two in the United Kingdom, and number one in Australia and Canada. The songs "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Rio" featured cinematic music videos directed by Australian film maker Russel Mulcahy and became two of their biggest hits. "Hungry Like the Wolf" won the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Music Video in 1984. Their follow-up third album, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, became their only UK number one album and featured the US and UK number one single "The Reflex". In 1985, the band topped the US charts with the single "A View to a Kill" from the soundtrack of the James Bond film of the same name.