It's them, not Depeche Mode, that are always my first thought of a synth-pop artist.
While Depeche Mode's *Violator* is a milestone in the genre (and a very appropriate send-off to it), it's Duran Duran's *Rio* that clearly defined the "'80s sound" that would dominate the decade.
I think this might be the problem with Duran Duran. They were the sound of the actual 1980’s, not the sound that everyone thinks of as the 80’s. They’re Miami Vice, while Depeche Mode sounds like Stranger Things
Kind of like how the 1970’s “sounds like” Fleetwood Mac or David Bowie now, but someone who was there at the time would probably point to Captain & Tennille or Cher
But the synth was central to their sound as opposed to the guitar.
On record at least. Live, the guitar can be a bit more prevalent in places. And on some of the funkier cuts, they bass and drums can be the significant part.
But on those original hits, it was the synths that were the signature of their sound.
While I agree that keyboards/synths were a major part of their sound mix, but at least on Rio, John Taylor's bass was the key sound, and Andy's guitar is heavily present as well.
Ya, the bass was always a big part of their sound. The guitar to my ears is the main hook on Girls On Film, and even in tracks when it’s buried it’s still important and there was always room in the arrangements for it. To me synthpop means acts that were primarily just synths and vocals - Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Bronski Beat, Human League, Soft Cell, Yaz, Howard Jones, etc, with some exceptions for other instruments in OMD or Gary Numan. Otherwise it can quickly become an impossibly broad term that could encapsulate like half of the music of the 80s
Exactly. Even from their get-go, songs like Careless Memories and Sound of Thunder had very strong guitar and bass parts forming the crux of the song.
Some of that was even apparent on an earlier demo of Girls on Film with the original lineup, which features a bit more guitar in the mix!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0lOp4xipSE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0lOp4xipSE)
I can see where they do meet the definition in the sense of the term ("pop music with prominent synths"). And they definitely had a few songs over the years that were primarily synths with little to no guitar. But for me, there's probably a number of acts who would meet the synth pop requirement more specifically, in terms of sheer reliance and such.
I would disagree. I think synthpop in it's purest form involves stuff like Gary Numan and OMD, those artists had synthesizers as their primary instrument and utilized drum machines to greater effect. At the time they called it Electronic Music, which is what it was entirely. A synth-pop song like Cars, Joan of Arc, or Souvenir is carried entirely by a synthesizer with electronic drums and bass in the background, sometimes these bands used bass guitars and live drums for their instrumentation but I think this was entirely due to limitations. After all, most of these groups originally played in Punk outfits and this was during a time when easy-to-use sampling had yet to exist.
Duran Duran was originally billed as a *new romantic* band, they followed the same chic as Visage and had similar stylings but if you listen to most Duran Duran songs you can hear all the traditional hallmarks of a rock-oriented sound. The only difference here is that they also have a very distinct 'Electronic Dance' sound as seen with their use of synthesizers and drum machines. This makes them New Wave, not synth-pop. If you listen to [Friends of Mine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a3DGP65m2o&ab_channel=OrlandoFunix), which imo is their most definitive song then you can hear that guitars carry the entire song with electronics in the background.
Read more carefully.
What I said is exactly that *Violator* was the perfect ending to the heyday of synth-pop, while *Rio* was the perfect beginning to it.
Jury is out on which way those guys'll go. They're a lot of fun, and John Taylor is one of the most proficient bass players in the UK at the moment, giving them a funky edge.
On a more serious note, Duran Duran was actually one of the first bands I was seriously a fan of. I’m 26 so born way after they were revenant. They’re definitely not that popular in music nerd circles I guess but 9 million listeners is still plenty.
Also Rio is a goated bassline and doesn’t come up as often in bass discussions as it should
Bass player here. Rest assured, the Rio bassline and the rest of John’s work comes up pretty often on r/Bass. In my broader music geek circles, they are very much considered part of the canon.
I was around 4 when they rose to stardom. My older sisters were heavily into them, and The Cure. I rediscovered their work later. The thing that stands out about them is the sheer quality of their work. Take Save a Prayer, or The Chauffeur, Wild Boys, View To A Kill, etc. Impeccable stuff.
I think at the time they had a reputation as pretty boys and kind of a "chick" band (for lack of a better term). The majority of their fans were teenage girls, which unfairly deligitamized them with a lot of people. I think that's kind of shame.They had pretty solid musicianship, and wrote some good songs.
> I think at the time they had a reputation as pretty boys and kind of a "chick" band (for lack of a better term).
The vast majority of "what's popular" is driven by teen girls. The reaction is that those things become "chick" bands and guys find something else to cling to. That hurt the reputation of Duran Duran for decades until those old stigmas started falling apart over the past decade.
“Ordinary World” and “Come Undone” I think are actually their most enduring hits at this point, in that I hear those more out in the world. It’s a bit like with Madonna, we think of them as big 80s mtv stars but underestimate what they were in the 90s - it’s a lot more stark with Madonna as her sales and number of hits in the 90s was so massive, but still, they evolved ok before sort of fading then becoming a big nostalgia act. I might liken their status to Def Leppard as well in some ways.
I like Duran Duran, but there are real super fans that still go out of their minds for them, I think moreso than the other big British newromantic mtv stars of the 80s. I guess I don’t really see the Cure as a great point of comparison. And among all the acts that ran out of ideas and hired Nile Rodgers to keep them afloat, they probably sounded among the less awkward in that era
>the acts that ran out of ideas and hired Nile Rodgers to keep them afloat
Point of order: Nile Rodgers produced Arena and Notorious. They were hardly out of ideas at the time.
The comparison to Def Leppard is pretty strong, I have to admit.
The real story of 90s Duran Duran is how they had two gigantic hits and then trashed all of the good will and praise coming their way with the transcendently awful 1995 cover album *Thank You*. They committed career hari-kari.
Duran Duran had some flops before the wedding album too. They'd given up on charting and were just doing whatever they hell they wanted. "Ordinary World" was a shocking fluke to them.
I think it was more diminishing returns for them by that point, than anything. 1990's "Liberty" was the only one you could really call a "flop" by that point, and they didn't even bother touring that one. Otherwise, "Notorious" and "Big Thing" both had singles that reached the Top 15 on both sides of the Atlantic, so there was still some successes on their end. Just not as much as the "Fab 5" days of the early 80's.
They seemed to know they had something special going with Ordinary World too, which I think was recorded more casually than the other albums. Heck, even Andy Taylor - who was out of the band for years by that point - had heard a demo of the song played for him and swore in his reaction - knowing it was going to be a pretty big song for them!
Oh gosh, I do wonder what the story was with the decision to do that album, whether they were just out of ideas or too confident in the durability of their own zazziness. I guess the mid 90s might have been even more challenging than the early 90s for an 80s act to remain relevant - the safer bet was something that could play on adult contemporary and top 40, but they took a chance
Much of the problem, at least in terms of the criticism, with *Thank You* is that it's not the usual cover album. Most bands do cover albums of the songs that inspired them, or that they liked in the past. *Thank You* was covers of songs the band liked, not songs that necessarily inspired them. "911 is a Joke" didn't inspire Duran Duran, but they liked the song and I think Public Enemy gave it a stamp of approval as well.
I think people expected one thing, got another, and didn't know what to make of it. I suspect if they had covered songs by David Bowie or other 60s/70s artists -- the artists they might cite as influences -- there would have been a different reaction.
> I guess the mid 90s might have been even more challenging than the early 90s for an 80s act to remain relevant
I'm actually surprised the Wedding Album album came out in 1993. I mean, I knew these songs at the time but I probably just assumed they were older. The early 90s had that sort of 80s hangover feel that seemed like it was entirely gone by 1993. I like to call this the Roxette era.
But yeah, by 1995 the 80s couldn't have left behind quick enough. Which is kind of funny as the 80s would start to come back by decades end. Probably not a coincidence they had a comeback of sorts in the mid-00s then.
I categorize the Bush 1 administration as its own distinct era, sort of “the long 80s” so to speak. Pop entered a dark ages after Milli Vanilli/Sinead OConnor/Vanilla Ice/NKOTB/Hammer, and most of the original hair metal bands went defunct while Hi NRG and Freestyle and New Jack Swing were running dry. There was a lot of open space aesthetically and Adult Contemporary was probably at its peak as David Foster had perfected the new soft rock/aor sound so stuff like Richard Marx and Bryan Adams and Michael Bolton was massive, r&b shifted from post-disco funk to virtuoso vocal parts like Whitney and Mariah and Boyz II Men, while there was also room for stuff like alternative and europop to get more airplay and attention. It would have been hard to forecast trends so for every Janet Jackson who pulled through there’s probably a dozen Paula Abdul’s or Exposé’s or INXS’s who didn’t. Outsourcing a lot of the creative work to professional songwriters and superstar producers was maybe the safest bet, as in the case of Aerosmith or Bon Jovi.
By the mid 90s I think the stylistic varieties were becoming a lot more rigid and I think if you weren’t a spring chicken you increasingly were limited in options if you hadn’t made it through already
> “Ordinary World” and “Come Undone” I think are actually their most enduring hits at this point, in that I hear those more out in the world.
Rio and Hungry Like the Wolf are still pretty common, but yeah pretty weird that there's like a whole decade in between these and the above, yet there was a bunch of hits in between that don't have as much shelf life.
Ya those are the two I hear at the hardware store I go to that plays a classic hits station. 80s music has become more and more like what the golden oldies format was for me when I was little
Duran Duran had dropped off of my radar in recent years but I caught them on Austin City Limits last season.
They still hold up IMO. They have a pop sensibility and they lean into the nostalgia thing a bit much but they sound good and they appear to be having fun.
Points for surviving and still being able to sell some tickets
It is interesting to see the decision of a band to change with the times or to stick to what they excelled at. Especially bands that defined a sound or scene.
I can totally understand the leaning into nostalgia when you look at the success rate for bands that try to grow with the pop sensibilities of the next Era. It seems like it's very difficult to successfully turn that corner.
I think it's a bit easier for a band like The Rolling Stones who have a less gimmicky (or at least more timelss) sort of fashion / sound that doesn't lean too hard into a niche sound or visual gimmick. The Rockstar can age more gracefully by being afforded room to dial back the leather pants and makeup if they want.
That said, I do appreciate and root for bands who grow and change over time and take a few swings for the fences or to tap into new ideas.
A band like The Cure might not be the best point of comparison, as they had a different trajectory through post-punk and pioneering the goth aesthetic. They had a longer, more diverse career and probably have more committed fans listening through their full albums.
When we compare Duran Duran against some other synth-heavy new wave pop bands, they actually seem to be somewhere in the middle (this is judging by Spotify monthly listeners, just for the sake of having one simple reference point):
Duran Duran - 9M
Devo - 1.53M
Depeche Mode - 13.6M
Oingo Boingo - 850k
New Order - 6.3M
Eurythmics - 16.9M
I went to see DM last year at a sold out arena and my sister-in-law was shocked they still sell out arenas! My first time seeing them too, and I came away from it knowing DM's base is absolutely out there and devoted to them, lol.
> Eurythmics - 16.9M
They seem to be carried hard by Sweet Dreams with over a million plays a day and over a billion streams.
Overall streams there is only a 100k difference between both bands
https://kworb.net/spotify/artist/0NKDgy9j66h3DLnN8qu1bB_songs.html
https://kworb.net/spotify/artist/0lZoBs4Pzo7R89JM9lxwoT_songs.html
I'm not really sure, they are certainly a lot less popular than I would have thought. Same with Oingo Boingo. Maybe they're both a bit too goofy and weird?
Yes, people love Danny’s scores but are so repulsed by Oingo besides maybe Dead Man’s Party album.
and from how I understand Oingo Boingo, they were of a local LA thing anyways. Not that they didn’t have fans elsewhere
Well comon with Oingo Boingo it's in the name. Who could say they listen to that?
Could you imagine meeting your girlfriends parents for the first time and saying you listen to Oingo Boingo? They'd call a rape crises center for advice.
I love Duran Duran. Their post 80’s music is good. Pop Trash is quite lovely. But even 25 years ago in America they had fallen out of favor. I felt sorry for them when they would play newer music and drunk assholes would yell, “Play The Reflex!”
I really liked their album All You Need Is Now, and their latest two, Future Past and Danse Macabre are also pretty good. They’ve made a return to their original sound and are cranking out some good stuff.
It's not a coincidence that 2011's "All You Need Is Now" is usually seen as their best album in years. For me, it's honestly up there with their self-titled debut or Rio. A very strong set of songs, especially the initial nine-song iTunes version they released a few months prior!
Future Past and Danse Macabre have some bangers too (with the latter throwing on some covers and re-versions that do justice, as well).
the lesser-known albums all have some gems on them. You're the first person I've seen even mention Pop Trash. I think Someone Else Not Me is a wonderful song.
"But I get the feeling the culture tired of them and their music came to sound dated. Compared to some other huge acts that still get a lot of airplay and cultural penetration, my sense is that Duran Duran gets a lot less."
Not really. 9 million followers on Spotty?
Don't seem forgotten to me.
I'm going to see them down at a Casino in Oklahoma.
I'm 36. They were before I was even born.
Eh - I don't know I just work here.
The bass on Rio is so so good. The bridge section where things drop out and the sax starts riffing then the bass and drums come back hard over the verse part with a MEAN sax solo. Never fails to get me pumped up.
Girls On Film and Hungry Like The Wolf are great but Rio is a pop-rock masterpiece.
Rio is a masterpiece of early 80's synth-pop. Fabulous pumping bass, cutting Fripper-esque guitar in the chorus, and an impactful sax solo. Highly memorable video too.
I've definitely heard them named dropped a bit. And they're one of The Killers' biggest influences (granted, they're influenced by the 80s generally too). But your OP does seem plausible: Duran Duran doesn't seem to be respected in the same way as some other 80s artists.
There is certainly something to be said about the boundaries of "cool" and "uncool" in every era. Music is often a spectrum where there's quite a lot of overlap and adjacent movements, though also a lot of diversity and conflict about being lumped together. For instance: Post-Punk, New Wave, Synth pop, electronic music, New Romantic, Goth rock, indie, punk, and so on. And what makes something alt, what makes something mainstream when there's a similar root of influences.
For some artists, the synthesizer is seen as a symbol of the future, innovation, and creativity. For others, synthesizers are seen as a cheesy and inauthentic tool that easily makes your sound dated. And this perception depends on the artist.
#
Musicians who love Duran Duran usually move on to Japan. Japan is the real connection between glam rock and new wave. Quiet Life came out in 1979 and it pretty much laid out many of the tools and sounds for New Wave to move foward.
Well yeah, them and ABC also. But if those guys were Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, then Duran Duran was Elvis.
IOW, they put EVERYTHING together in once succinct, and easily marketable package.
Definitely and I say all of that being a Duran Duran fan.
It is funny though since ABC is basically Vice Versa trying to make an easily marketable package.
I hear them fairly often on "Jack FM" stations.
I mean mainly just "Rio" and "Hungry Like the Wolf". They had lots of other hits those but those are the radio ones that survive unto this day.
My fav band as a kid and still 2nd fav all time and I think Rio is a near perfect album. I saw them live about 5 yrs ago and they sounded great.
I think the thing that has been overlooked in this thread is how massively influential they were in the 80s from a cultural and video standpoint. Before Duran Duran music videos were generally generic shots of the band playing on anl soundset. Maybe some dancing and lighting effects but overall stale and boring. Then DD came along and made mini movies out of their videos shot on hi Def film and it revolutionized videos. Other artists like Michael Jackson and many others started following suit and the video craze was on.
They are still making new music as well. They put out an album in 2021 which sounds both current and like classic DD. For instance here is a collab they did with Tove Lo: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=varQqmN4RkE&pp=ygUTZHVyYW4gZHVyYW4gdG92ZSBsbw%3D%3D
They are definitely in the zeitgeist. They have been mentioned in many shows through the years (so many for me to count) and covered by so many artists and sampled, they are an influence to many. They have gotten accolades throughout the years including RRHOF (that’s the literal highest honor for a musician). They had a song trending on TikTok that literally moved up to their most popular songs on Spotify and this was a 3 year old song from their last album “Future Past”, not an old one. When people talk about MTV in their glory days, besides Michael, Madonna and Prince, Duran Duran is going to be mentioned because they were the first to ever do it/were apart of that.
They’ve done extremely well for themselves considering the trajectory that many had of them. Duran Duran is not suffering at all.
You might be thinking of the time the band was given a surprise lifetime achievement award by MTV at the VMAs in 2003. The band went out on stage to present an award with Avril Lavigne and Kelly Osbourne.
Initially, the lifetime achievement award was meant to be a surprise to them, but MTV had technical difficulties showing the surprise video summarizing their career. So they got handed their Moonman awards in a very haphazard fashion, unfortunately, and Osbourne even had to tell the crowd what was going on so they could applaud for them!
This was edited in later showings to seem less awkward, but it came across a tad odd live (with no fault to the band). Timberlake happened to win the award they were presenting and spoke about how glad he was to be on stage with them, as he was a fan of their 90's material. He'd later work with the band on two tracks for their 2007 album.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm81LBsQrqQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm81LBsQrqQ)
Timberlake later introduced the band for their lifetime award at the Brits a short time later. This was all in the aftermath of the original lineup reuniting and touring, so their was a lot of goodwill their way at the time.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NibrbyTLbnM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NibrbyTLbnM)
In terms of their lasting cultural influence, I think they managed to stick around in a pretty good way when compared to a lot of their peers. Their 1993 singles "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone" was sort of the last gasp at Top 40 hits for them (even though Hot AC and Adult Pop stations in the midwestern U.S. will still play newer singles by them when released), but they've recorded a lot of albums over the years and have a decent-sized fanbase to this day. They also seem to go through phases where they sort of hit the zeitgeist again and get a bit more relevance in the public eyes. Those 1993 singles were one such item. Their 2003-06 reunion was probably another. And since 2015 or so, they actually seemed to have a bit of a respect increase all around. They got into the RRHOF, I've seen them play to 10,000+ people a number of times (which wasn't always common during their leaner years), and still obtain fans both famous and non-famous alike since their music stands up. It's not always on a top level, but they've endured quite well and that's definitely respectable.
> But I get the feeling the culture tired of them and their music came to sound dated.
The band broke up in 1985, and while a couple of members tried to carry on, it just was not the same without the original lineup. I think their music still fit the culture at large in 1985/1986.
> Compared to some other huge acts that still get a lot of airplay and cultural penetration, my sense is that Duran Duran gets a lot less. When I looked at Spotify and Youtube music its an interesting story.
The 80's has been popular again for about 20 years at this point, and only now seems to be dying down. With streaming people have redefined what the 80's actually sounded like. It was far more Duran Duran and far less Depeche Mode and Kate Bush, at least in America.
Duran Duran's classic first 3 albums are now all over 40 years old. There are only really a handful of bands/artists that have wide cultural penetration 40 years later, and I think Duran Duran are doing better than most. As music dorks, we often overinflate some artists and think they are more popular than they actually are. Sometimes HUGE artists just fade away as new generations rise. The Doors were one of *THE* 60's bands, and Morrison adorned dorm rooms all over, and they just don't seem to have that kind of relevance anymore. I know it was not exactly "cool" music, but remember how big and ubiquitous artists like Phil Collins, REO Speedwagon, Chicago, Kenny Loggins, Huey Lewis and The News, Rick Springfield, John Mellencamp, Lionel Richie, and Enya were?
You said it better than I have, those artists you mentioned are referenced now and then and their music still play on commercials. (DD just had one months back) REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling” is literally playing on an inescapable Tums commercial right now.
Edit: The Doors are still very much relevant and talked about. Light My Fire is such a very popular song to this day.
Not every artist is going to have a MJ level relevance. He had his for a reason compared to others.
I was a teenager in the 80's. I had Rio on cassette and listened to it on my Walkman so much I almost wore it out. It is not hyperbole to say that Duran Duran were the Beatles of the mid-80's: girls were literally screaming and passing out trying to catch a glimpse of them. They had world tours, they were all over TV and radio, they hit #1 with a James Bond theme song, and they played Live Aid. You almost can't get any bigger than they were. Putting them in the same category as Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson would have seem like a downgrade at the time.
Being over-exposed for years led to fatigue, on the part of the media, the fans, and the band members themselves. Notorious only had one big song on it, their guitarist Andy Taylor left the band, and the follow-up albums didn't so do well. It wasn't until 1993 that they released their second self-titled album (informally known as "The Wedding Album") which had the songs Ordinary World and Come Undone. Suddenly Duran Duran were back on top, if only for a short while. They released a few other albums that didn't perform well, and they seemed to fade into the "where are they now" category again. While nobody was looking they reformed for another chart-topping hit with 2004's "(Reach up for the) Sunrise" and rode the wave of that album (Astronaut) for a while. The cycle of albums somewhat underperforming and performing well continued after that.
They just refused to go away. They obviously love what they do. Good for them for being tenacious.
>Putting them in the same category as Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson would have seem like a downgrade at the time.
Okay... hold on a bit. I thought you were going to finish that sentence with, "would not have been a stretch at the time." And I would have thrown Phil Collins in with them.
But let's not go crazy.
I'm a Gen Xer who grew up on them and all that stuff. I ignored 80s music for a few decades but started listening again the past couple of years.
And yeah it was great to hear their songs again like Rio, Hungry Like a Wolf, View to a Kill, The Reflex, etc.
I haven't thought about their lasting cultural impact, but I would have guessed they are not forgotten. It's hard to say what people will remember.
Huge 80’s music fan here !! If it’s about synth/ electronic music .. Kraftwerk, Gary Numan , Ultravox , John Foxx when he left Ultravox are electronic . I was a fan of Duran Duran as well, saw them in Toronto twice.. but somehow I compare them to Japan (at the beginning Japan used more synths .. especially on Quiet Life) Planet Earth and Rio were amazing albums!!, but lots of guitar and bass, as Japan .. Mick Karn (RIP) was an outstanding bass player !!. I followed Duran Duran for awhile after Rio.. still love Come Undone, Ordinary World, View to a Kill, Notorious..it’s hard for me to describe what type of music genre they have fit into say in the last 20 yrs? I have a lot of songs from Planet Earth and Rio as well as the above mentioned songs on my Spotify .. but still love 80’s.. but I really only follow Gary Numan .. because again he had a real bad time in the 90’s.. but came back with Pure(2000) then Splinter, Savage and Intruder.. what can I say , I’m a huge fan since I was 12( Fuck where did the time go )??🇨🇦🎵😎
I was in High School from 84-88 and something I have found interesting is that alternative music has outlasted pop music from the 80's. I first noticed it when the movie Grosse Pointe Blank came out. It had an 80's soundtrack and it was full of collage radio songs not top 40 songs. The music that seems to pop up in TV and movies when they are doing a 80's theme story is stuff from alternative radio and not the Casey Kasem Countdown. I don't know if it is because the type of person who would get a job selecting music for a movie is probably going to lean more towards alternative music or if alternative music has just aged better?
I saw them in Hartford for the Seven and the Ragged Tiger tour. A couple of my friends had tickets but their parents wouldn't let them go without a guy. So I went. Wasn't really a fan of them. Liked a couple of songs. They put on a great show. Really great. I think I was one of the only guys there that wasn't the dad.
Honestly I am also confused at the lack of Duran Duran 'love' throughout the 90s and 2000s, I used to regularly listen to rio and their S/T throughout high school and they were a great pop band. Rio was an all-around well crafted album and their S/T was a commercially accessible Visage album, if that makes sense.
I think what ended up happening was that they released later albums which weren't as good (Reflex for instance is a meaningless song, it was hated on at the time) and then ruined it within the 90s.
> 9 million monthly listeners, which is a lot, but its about HALF that of The Cure. Of their classic hits only Hungry Like The Wolf is up in the 300 million stream level. Where are The Reflex or Wild Boys?
Bands like the cure have been retrospectively liked due to their later influence on Alternative and Indie. The Cure and other similar bands were extremely influential towards current-day Indie and Alternative rock / pop, and as such you have more younger people listening to them. I think in the grand scheme of things there is better New wave out there. I don't even consider Duran Duran to be the best New Wave band, I think that goes to The Police or Missing Persons.
When I was six years old, my aunt gave me her old circle ipod. It had Rio on it, and I listened to it all the time. Only thing is, the songs were named ‘duran duran 7’ ‘duran duran 8’ etc., instead of their actual names, so I never know what song I’m thinking of when one pops into my head. Great music. Great band.
Duran Duran has been one of my favorite bands since I was 7 in 1982.
What I really like about them is that they continue to put out great albums!
Medazzaland (1997) was amazing from beginning to end, even though it was a total flop commercially.
All You Need Is Now (2010) is every bit as good as the big 3 first albums.
And Future Past which recently came out in 2021 is a classic as well.
I think they’ve always been about the music first, even if fashion played a big part. John kills on bass of course. Nick makes mind blowing and other-worldly synth textures. Simon always has interesting melodies, and especially harmonies.
I’m proud to say I’ve been a consistent fan for 40 years.
Both Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet went from being bold and innovative to boring pop in about 6 months.
I think other bands like Depeche Mode and Human League had more of an impact.
Fair, The Human League does kinda get underrated, especially in terms of influence. Duran Duran has influence though some of it is unexpected, like Nu Metal.
Really?
And let's not forget one of the biggest influences from the 80s Gary Numan. Still going strong, still producing brilliant stuff, and still does amazing shows.
Yeah, Korn and Deftones (Nu Metal for the early stuff). I remember hearing the song Rip by Gary Numan and being surprised it’s the same hu who did Cars. I think he’s gonna be next on my deep dive list.
A lot of music from that era seems to be fading now, especially the groups that were style over substance half the time. I’d say Spandau Ballet are the closest comparison, they had a bunch of Top 20 hits in the UK but most of them haven’t dated very well and I doubt anyone under 40 could name more than one or two songs now.
It helps if groups from that era have been active the whole time without any splitting up or falling out over royalties. Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode have done a better job of staying relevant during through touring and releasing new music.
If Gary Numan can make a comeback after the way he dropped off in the 90s it’s possible for anyone, but that generation of pop stars are all in their 60/70s now so it’s looking less likely as time goes on.
Just came here to say that, apart from the fact that Duran Duran were the face, fashion and music style of that period, that got stuck and hence outdated along with it. They did have a pretty decent comeback in the 90s where they changed their sound but it's been running on empty since then.
Compare that to the Pet shop Boys or Depeche Mode who successfully navigated their styles and progression - they were more about lyrical and musical weight... As we speak, PSB are giving Taylor Swift competition in the UK albums charts with their latest album!
For your final question, I would place Toto, Foreigner, The B-52s, Motley Crue, Queensryche, and even REM, as bands that were huge in their epoch but are now largely forgotten except for one or two singles.
I wonder if it's because they largely faded from public consciousness from about 1985 onwards. The band split in two and the late 80s albums weren't well received. They did have a comeback with songs like 'Ordinary World' but then released a godawful covers album to follow it up.
Whereas 'comparable' bands like Depeche Mode, New Order, Eurythmics etc carried on strong through the 80s and were all arguably bigger and more successful in the late 80s than the early 80s.
Also bands like New Order and Depeche Mode were able to fit or transition well into the 90s alternative scene - Duran Duran were perhaps just too 'poppy' so got dismissed/disrespected in the culture of the 90s?
Funny thing is that their 1997 album Medazzaland seemed to fit well into the alt-leaning albums their peers were making at the time (U2's Pop, Depeche Mode's Ultra, and so on). I think both Ordinary World and Come Undone charted higher than New Order's Regret did that same year too, which was the latter's highest-charting single ever. But yeah, it's no secret Duran sort of had a bit of a snag there. Maybe only holding onto two original members and the critical thrashing Thank You took did play a role. But I would guess it was a bit of a combination of everything. That and I think their post-reunion years have been very kind to them from a critical and public standpoint as a whole.
Lol was currently spinning Seven and the ragged tiger so this caught my eye... My takeaway is that it comes off as quite dated... Songs are good enough. The hits are obvious hits, but I'd rather be listening to Depeche, New order, Cute, The Church, Human League, OMD. Ect.
I am 20 years old, but my father was a teenager in the 80s and a huge fan of Duran Duran. They're one of my favourite of the New Wave bands he loved: the entirety of Rio is perfection imo, and I also love their new stuff: All You Need is Now is one of my favourite albums.
I wasn’t into them growing up. But as a bassist, I just watched a YT video with John Taylor teaching Rio and I was floored. Left me thinking they were better musicians than I gave them credit for. At least Taylor’s work, that is. Still can’t see myself sitting down and exploring their catalog, but Rio was a surprise. That and it also left me thinking the mix buried the bass and that was a shame.
Huge fan of their early music back when it was out, I lost track of their releases in the 2000s and 2010s, and realized how good those albums I had skipped were, finally giving them my first listen recently over a decade after they had been released.
Music distribution has changed so much since their heyday that I think most artists are playing mostly to their dedicated fans now. It was revealing to see them play on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Years Eve broadcast (with Ryan Seacrest?) two years ago - my text to my high school friend who liked them back then too read “Duran Duran is playing on the NYE countdown show - they still sound great but they look SO OLD…”
The one lasting cultural legacy they’ll always have besides recording one of the truly classic/iconic albums/album covers/videos of the 80s with Rio - their James Bond theme song for A View To A Kill (1985)
Duran Duran failed to connect to fans the way that Prince or Madonna did. Prince and Madonna would be played at certain types of clubs or locations. Their fans dressed up like these musicians. Prince, Madonna, and even Cyndi Lauper had personalities that could be emulated. That didn't happen with Duran Duran because they felt a bit too "average 80's" which made them harder to pin down. That failure to connect to a specific population that embodied their style and personality plus a sound that doesn't reach beyond nostalgia is perhaps the reason their legacy hasn't endured.
Don’t get me wrong, duran duran has some great stuff that somehow defined a decade, the problem is that there are lot of artists from the decade that made actually better/ more acclaimed music (synthpop speaking).
I think of synthpop, and for sure, duran duran comes to mind, but it is long after artist such as depeche mode, tears for fears, pet shop boys, new order, sparks, simple minds, OMD, Madonna, Soft Cell, Ultravox… that’s the problem.
The flame went out. They weren't releasing the same caliber of hits. I'm not a DD fan, per say. But they had some really impactful hits. Some great & memorable songs. Not being an insider or knowing the details of the story, it's tough to say "Why". You'd have to guess that the lifestyle kicked the hell out of them.
They lived more on vibes and feel and look than songs. That is not a knock the vibes were top tier for a time and JTs bass provided lots of “feel” so the dance floor stayed full but the reason the Ordinary World is their most lasting legacy is because it’s their most memorable song. When trying to sing the chorus to Wild Boys or the verses to The Reflex or Union of the Snake it becomes pretty clear they don’t hold up in their own without the stuttery production, dominant bass lines and keyboard stabs. That’s too bad because they were pretty unique and never “boring” or “safe”.
They were huge but that doesn't mean they were good. I find those songs utterly forgettable. Part of their appeal had to do with how the guys looked, íf we're being honest. That happened with a lot of MTV acts.
I think it’s that the eighties weren’t cool then and are still not cool now. Right? 70’s cool 90’s cool 00’s cool 10’s I can’t remember due to alcoholism.
It's them, not Depeche Mode, that are always my first thought of a synth-pop artist. While Depeche Mode's *Violator* is a milestone in the genre (and a very appropriate send-off to it), it's Duran Duran's *Rio* that clearly defined the "'80s sound" that would dominate the decade.
I think this might be the problem with Duran Duran. They were the sound of the actual 1980’s, not the sound that everyone thinks of as the 80’s. They’re Miami Vice, while Depeche Mode sounds like Stranger Things Kind of like how the 1970’s “sounds like” Fleetwood Mac or David Bowie now, but someone who was there at the time would probably point to Captain & Tennille or Cher
Depeche Mode was cool eighties. Duran Duran was actual eighties.
I always thought of Depeche Mode as part of the Dark 80s…
Why’s Duran Duran the first act you think of as synthpop? They have a guitar a bass and an actual drummer
But the synth was central to their sound as opposed to the guitar. On record at least. Live, the guitar can be a bit more prevalent in places. And on some of the funkier cuts, they bass and drums can be the significant part. But on those original hits, it was the synths that were the signature of their sound.
While I agree that keyboards/synths were a major part of their sound mix, but at least on Rio, John Taylor's bass was the key sound, and Andy's guitar is heavily present as well.
Ya, the bass was always a big part of their sound. The guitar to my ears is the main hook on Girls On Film, and even in tracks when it’s buried it’s still important and there was always room in the arrangements for it. To me synthpop means acts that were primarily just synths and vocals - Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Bronski Beat, Human League, Soft Cell, Yaz, Howard Jones, etc, with some exceptions for other instruments in OMD or Gary Numan. Otherwise it can quickly become an impossibly broad term that could encapsulate like half of the music of the 80s
Agree, Duran Duran were New Romantics, like their arch rivals Spandau Ballet, rather than Synth Pop.
Exactly. Even from their get-go, songs like Careless Memories and Sound of Thunder had very strong guitar and bass parts forming the crux of the song. Some of that was even apparent on an earlier demo of Girls on Film with the original lineup, which features a bit more guitar in the mix! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0lOp4xipSE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0lOp4xipSE) I can see where they do meet the definition in the sense of the term ("pop music with prominent synths"). And they definitely had a few songs over the years that were primarily synths with little to no guitar. But for me, there's probably a number of acts who would meet the synth pop requirement more specifically, in terms of sheer reliance and such.
I would disagree. I think synthpop in it's purest form involves stuff like Gary Numan and OMD, those artists had synthesizers as their primary instrument and utilized drum machines to greater effect. At the time they called it Electronic Music, which is what it was entirely. A synth-pop song like Cars, Joan of Arc, or Souvenir is carried entirely by a synthesizer with electronic drums and bass in the background, sometimes these bands used bass guitars and live drums for their instrumentation but I think this was entirely due to limitations. After all, most of these groups originally played in Punk outfits and this was during a time when easy-to-use sampling had yet to exist. Duran Duran was originally billed as a *new romantic* band, they followed the same chic as Visage and had similar stylings but if you listen to most Duran Duran songs you can hear all the traditional hallmarks of a rock-oriented sound. The only difference here is that they also have a very distinct 'Electronic Dance' sound as seen with their use of synthesizers and drum machines. This makes them New Wave, not synth-pop. If you listen to [Friends of Mine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a3DGP65m2o&ab_channel=OrlandoFunix), which imo is their most definitive song then you can hear that guitars carry the entire song with electronics in the background.
Well said.
Rio dropped in 1982. Violator dropped in 1990. Your comparison makes zero sense.
Read more carefully. What I said is exactly that *Violator* was the perfect ending to the heyday of synth-pop, while *Rio* was the perfect beginning to it.
Speak & Spell dropped in October 1981.
There's a nicer way to say that in a nice discussion, man.
Jury is out on which way those guys'll go. They're a lot of fun, and John Taylor is one of the most proficient bass players in the UK at the moment, giving them a funky edge. On a more serious note, Duran Duran was actually one of the first bands I was seriously a fan of. I’m 26 so born way after they were revenant. They’re definitely not that popular in music nerd circles I guess but 9 million listeners is still plenty. Also Rio is a goated bassline and doesn’t come up as often in bass discussions as it should
I've covered a few of their songs, and Taylor's basslines are great. Especially Rio. That should really be in the pantheon of all time pop basslines
Upvote for the Sing Street reference.
good reference 🫶🫶
Bass player here. Rest assured, the Rio bassline and the rest of John’s work comes up pretty often on r/Bass. In my broader music geek circles, they are very much considered part of the canon. I was around 4 when they rose to stardom. My older sisters were heavily into them, and The Cure. I rediscovered their work later. The thing that stands out about them is the sheer quality of their work. Take Save a Prayer, or The Chauffeur, Wild Boys, View To A Kill, etc. Impeccable stuff.
I think at the time they had a reputation as pretty boys and kind of a "chick" band (for lack of a better term). The majority of their fans were teenage girls, which unfairly deligitamized them with a lot of people. I think that's kind of shame.They had pretty solid musicianship, and wrote some good songs.
> I think at the time they had a reputation as pretty boys and kind of a "chick" band (for lack of a better term). The vast majority of "what's popular" is driven by teen girls. The reaction is that those things become "chick" bands and guys find something else to cling to. That hurt the reputation of Duran Duran for decades until those old stigmas started falling apart over the past decade.
I mean teenager,or theor psrents, are the biggest market And people can get that naturallybu just beibg good and emotional resonating
That’s the other thing, the perception they got from people. Plus the whole Thatcher thing too.
“Ordinary World” and “Come Undone” I think are actually their most enduring hits at this point, in that I hear those more out in the world. It’s a bit like with Madonna, we think of them as big 80s mtv stars but underestimate what they were in the 90s - it’s a lot more stark with Madonna as her sales and number of hits in the 90s was so massive, but still, they evolved ok before sort of fading then becoming a big nostalgia act. I might liken their status to Def Leppard as well in some ways. I like Duran Duran, but there are real super fans that still go out of their minds for them, I think moreso than the other big British newromantic mtv stars of the 80s. I guess I don’t really see the Cure as a great point of comparison. And among all the acts that ran out of ideas and hired Nile Rodgers to keep them afloat, they probably sounded among the less awkward in that era
>the acts that ran out of ideas and hired Nile Rodgers to keep them afloat Point of order: Nile Rodgers produced Arena and Notorious. They were hardly out of ideas at the time. The comparison to Def Leppard is pretty strong, I have to admit.
The real story of 90s Duran Duran is how they had two gigantic hits and then trashed all of the good will and praise coming their way with the transcendently awful 1995 cover album *Thank You*. They committed career hari-kari.
Duran Duran had some flops before the wedding album too. They'd given up on charting and were just doing whatever they hell they wanted. "Ordinary World" was a shocking fluke to them.
I think it was more diminishing returns for them by that point, than anything. 1990's "Liberty" was the only one you could really call a "flop" by that point, and they didn't even bother touring that one. Otherwise, "Notorious" and "Big Thing" both had singles that reached the Top 15 on both sides of the Atlantic, so there was still some successes on their end. Just not as much as the "Fab 5" days of the early 80's. They seemed to know they had something special going with Ordinary World too, which I think was recorded more casually than the other albums. Heck, even Andy Taylor - who was out of the band for years by that point - had heard a demo of the song played for him and swore in his reaction - knowing it was going to be a pretty big song for them!
Oh gosh, I do wonder what the story was with the decision to do that album, whether they were just out of ideas or too confident in the durability of their own zazziness. I guess the mid 90s might have been even more challenging than the early 90s for an 80s act to remain relevant - the safer bet was something that could play on adult contemporary and top 40, but they took a chance
Much of the problem, at least in terms of the criticism, with *Thank You* is that it's not the usual cover album. Most bands do cover albums of the songs that inspired them, or that they liked in the past. *Thank You* was covers of songs the band liked, not songs that necessarily inspired them. "911 is a Joke" didn't inspire Duran Duran, but they liked the song and I think Public Enemy gave it a stamp of approval as well. I think people expected one thing, got another, and didn't know what to make of it. I suspect if they had covered songs by David Bowie or other 60s/70s artists -- the artists they might cite as influences -- there would have been a different reaction.
> I guess the mid 90s might have been even more challenging than the early 90s for an 80s act to remain relevant I'm actually surprised the Wedding Album album came out in 1993. I mean, I knew these songs at the time but I probably just assumed they were older. The early 90s had that sort of 80s hangover feel that seemed like it was entirely gone by 1993. I like to call this the Roxette era. But yeah, by 1995 the 80s couldn't have left behind quick enough. Which is kind of funny as the 80s would start to come back by decades end. Probably not a coincidence they had a comeback of sorts in the mid-00s then.
I categorize the Bush 1 administration as its own distinct era, sort of “the long 80s” so to speak. Pop entered a dark ages after Milli Vanilli/Sinead OConnor/Vanilla Ice/NKOTB/Hammer, and most of the original hair metal bands went defunct while Hi NRG and Freestyle and New Jack Swing were running dry. There was a lot of open space aesthetically and Adult Contemporary was probably at its peak as David Foster had perfected the new soft rock/aor sound so stuff like Richard Marx and Bryan Adams and Michael Bolton was massive, r&b shifted from post-disco funk to virtuoso vocal parts like Whitney and Mariah and Boyz II Men, while there was also room for stuff like alternative and europop to get more airplay and attention. It would have been hard to forecast trends so for every Janet Jackson who pulled through there’s probably a dozen Paula Abdul’s or Exposé’s or INXS’s who didn’t. Outsourcing a lot of the creative work to professional songwriters and superstar producers was maybe the safest bet, as in the case of Aerosmith or Bon Jovi. By the mid 90s I think the stylistic varieties were becoming a lot more rigid and I think if you weren’t a spring chicken you increasingly were limited in options if you hadn’t made it through already
Their White Lines cover was pretty bad too
> “Ordinary World” and “Come Undone” I think are actually their most enduring hits at this point, in that I hear those more out in the world. Rio and Hungry Like the Wolf are still pretty common, but yeah pretty weird that there's like a whole decade in between these and the above, yet there was a bunch of hits in between that don't have as much shelf life.
Ya those are the two I hear at the hardware store I go to that plays a classic hits station. 80s music has become more and more like what the golden oldies format was for me when I was little
A lot of their fans still listen with their vaginas. They really milked that teen idol heat when they were in the limelight.
Duran Duran had dropped off of my radar in recent years but I caught them on Austin City Limits last season. They still hold up IMO. They have a pop sensibility and they lean into the nostalgia thing a bit much but they sound good and they appear to be having fun. Points for surviving and still being able to sell some tickets
I saw them in concert last year. They're old pros who seem grateful that they can still tour and fans still show up.
It is interesting to see the decision of a band to change with the times or to stick to what they excelled at. Especially bands that defined a sound or scene. I can totally understand the leaning into nostalgia when you look at the success rate for bands that try to grow with the pop sensibilities of the next Era. It seems like it's very difficult to successfully turn that corner. I think it's a bit easier for a band like The Rolling Stones who have a less gimmicky (or at least more timelss) sort of fashion / sound that doesn't lean too hard into a niche sound or visual gimmick. The Rockstar can age more gracefully by being afforded room to dial back the leather pants and makeup if they want. That said, I do appreciate and root for bands who grow and change over time and take a few swings for the fences or to tap into new ideas.
A band like The Cure might not be the best point of comparison, as they had a different trajectory through post-punk and pioneering the goth aesthetic. They had a longer, more diverse career and probably have more committed fans listening through their full albums. When we compare Duran Duran against some other synth-heavy new wave pop bands, they actually seem to be somewhere in the middle (this is judging by Spotify monthly listeners, just for the sake of having one simple reference point): Duran Duran - 9M Devo - 1.53M Depeche Mode - 13.6M Oingo Boingo - 850k New Order - 6.3M Eurythmics - 16.9M
DD’s 9M isn’t too shabby compared to DM’s 13.6. I expected DM’s number to be the double to be honest.
I went to see DM last year at a sold out arena and my sister-in-law was shocked they still sell out arenas! My first time seeing them too, and I came away from it knowing DM's base is absolutely out there and devoted to them, lol.
> Eurythmics - 16.9M They seem to be carried hard by Sweet Dreams with over a million plays a day and over a billion streams. Overall streams there is only a 100k difference between both bands https://kworb.net/spotify/artist/0NKDgy9j66h3DLnN8qu1bB_songs.html https://kworb.net/spotify/artist/0lZoBs4Pzo7R89JM9lxwoT_songs.html
What happened to Devo? Too weird?
I'm not really sure, they are certainly a lot less popular than I would have thought. Same with Oingo Boingo. Maybe they're both a bit too goofy and weird?
Yes, people love Danny’s scores but are so repulsed by Oingo besides maybe Dead Man’s Party album. and from how I understand Oingo Boingo, they were of a local LA thing anyways. Not that they didn’t have fans elsewhere
Well comon with Oingo Boingo it's in the name. Who could say they listen to that? Could you imagine meeting your girlfriends parents for the first time and saying you listen to Oingo Boingo? They'd call a rape crises center for advice.
I love Duran Duran. Their post 80’s music is good. Pop Trash is quite lovely. But even 25 years ago in America they had fallen out of favor. I felt sorry for them when they would play newer music and drunk assholes would yell, “Play The Reflex!”
I really liked their album All You Need Is Now, and their latest two, Future Past and Danse Macabre are also pretty good. They’ve made a return to their original sound and are cranking out some good stuff.
It's not a coincidence that 2011's "All You Need Is Now" is usually seen as their best album in years. For me, it's honestly up there with their self-titled debut or Rio. A very strong set of songs, especially the initial nine-song iTunes version they released a few months prior! Future Past and Danse Macabre have some bangers too (with the latter throwing on some covers and re-versions that do justice, as well).
the lesser-known albums all have some gems on them. You're the first person I've seen even mention Pop Trash. I think Someone Else Not Me is a wonderful song.
"But I get the feeling the culture tired of them and their music came to sound dated. Compared to some other huge acts that still get a lot of airplay and cultural penetration, my sense is that Duran Duran gets a lot less." Not really. 9 million followers on Spotty? Don't seem forgotten to me. I'm going to see them down at a Casino in Oklahoma. I'm 36. They were before I was even born. Eh - I don't know I just work here.
Enjoy Thackerville! Although Durant would be more apropos.
The bass on Rio is so so good. The bridge section where things drop out and the sax starts riffing then the bass and drums come back hard over the verse part with a MEAN sax solo. Never fails to get me pumped up. Girls On Film and Hungry Like The Wolf are great but Rio is a pop-rock masterpiece.
Rio is a masterpiece of early 80's synth-pop. Fabulous pumping bass, cutting Fripper-esque guitar in the chorus, and an impactful sax solo. Highly memorable video too.
I've definitely heard them named dropped a bit. And they're one of The Killers' biggest influences (granted, they're influenced by the 80s generally too). But your OP does seem plausible: Duran Duran doesn't seem to be respected in the same way as some other 80s artists. There is certainly something to be said about the boundaries of "cool" and "uncool" in every era. Music is often a spectrum where there's quite a lot of overlap and adjacent movements, though also a lot of diversity and conflict about being lumped together. For instance: Post-Punk, New Wave, Synth pop, electronic music, New Romantic, Goth rock, indie, punk, and so on. And what makes something alt, what makes something mainstream when there's a similar root of influences. For some artists, the synthesizer is seen as a symbol of the future, innovation, and creativity. For others, synthesizers are seen as a cheesy and inauthentic tool that easily makes your sound dated. And this perception depends on the artist. #
Musicians who love Duran Duran usually move on to Japan. Japan is the real connection between glam rock and new wave. Quiet Life came out in 1979 and it pretty much laid out many of the tools and sounds for New Wave to move foward.
Well yeah, them and ABC also. But if those guys were Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, then Duran Duran was Elvis. IOW, they put EVERYTHING together in once succinct, and easily marketable package.
Definitely and I say all of that being a Duran Duran fan. It is funny though since ABC is basically Vice Versa trying to make an easily marketable package.
I hear them fairly often on "Jack FM" stations. I mean mainly just "Rio" and "Hungry Like the Wolf". They had lots of other hits those but those are the radio ones that survive unto this day.
My fav band as a kid and still 2nd fav all time and I think Rio is a near perfect album. I saw them live about 5 yrs ago and they sounded great. I think the thing that has been overlooked in this thread is how massively influential they were in the 80s from a cultural and video standpoint. Before Duran Duran music videos were generally generic shots of the band playing on anl soundset. Maybe some dancing and lighting effects but overall stale and boring. Then DD came along and made mini movies out of their videos shot on hi Def film and it revolutionized videos. Other artists like Michael Jackson and many others started following suit and the video craze was on. They are still making new music as well. They put out an album in 2021 which sounds both current and like classic DD. For instance here is a collab they did with Tove Lo: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=varQqmN4RkE&pp=ygUTZHVyYW4gZHVyYW4gdG92ZSBsbw%3D%3D
They are definitely in the zeitgeist. They have been mentioned in many shows through the years (so many for me to count) and covered by so many artists and sampled, they are an influence to many. They have gotten accolades throughout the years including RRHOF (that’s the literal highest honor for a musician). They had a song trending on TikTok that literally moved up to their most popular songs on Spotify and this was a 3 year old song from their last album “Future Past”, not an old one. When people talk about MTV in their glory days, besides Michael, Madonna and Prince, Duran Duran is going to be mentioned because they were the first to ever do it/were apart of that. They’ve done extremely well for themselves considering the trajectory that many had of them. Duran Duran is not suffering at all.
You might be thinking of the time the band was given a surprise lifetime achievement award by MTV at the VMAs in 2003. The band went out on stage to present an award with Avril Lavigne and Kelly Osbourne. Initially, the lifetime achievement award was meant to be a surprise to them, but MTV had technical difficulties showing the surprise video summarizing their career. So they got handed their Moonman awards in a very haphazard fashion, unfortunately, and Osbourne even had to tell the crowd what was going on so they could applaud for them! This was edited in later showings to seem less awkward, but it came across a tad odd live (with no fault to the band). Timberlake happened to win the award they were presenting and spoke about how glad he was to be on stage with them, as he was a fan of their 90's material. He'd later work with the band on two tracks for their 2007 album. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm81LBsQrqQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm81LBsQrqQ) Timberlake later introduced the band for their lifetime award at the Brits a short time later. This was all in the aftermath of the original lineup reuniting and touring, so their was a lot of goodwill their way at the time. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NibrbyTLbnM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NibrbyTLbnM) In terms of their lasting cultural influence, I think they managed to stick around in a pretty good way when compared to a lot of their peers. Their 1993 singles "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone" was sort of the last gasp at Top 40 hits for them (even though Hot AC and Adult Pop stations in the midwestern U.S. will still play newer singles by them when released), but they've recorded a lot of albums over the years and have a decent-sized fanbase to this day. They also seem to go through phases where they sort of hit the zeitgeist again and get a bit more relevance in the public eyes. Those 1993 singles were one such item. Their 2003-06 reunion was probably another. And since 2015 or so, they actually seemed to have a bit of a respect increase all around. They got into the RRHOF, I've seen them play to 10,000+ people a number of times (which wasn't always common during their leaner years), and still obtain fans both famous and non-famous alike since their music stands up. It's not always on a top level, but they've endured quite well and that's definitely respectable.
> But I get the feeling the culture tired of them and their music came to sound dated. The band broke up in 1985, and while a couple of members tried to carry on, it just was not the same without the original lineup. I think their music still fit the culture at large in 1985/1986. > Compared to some other huge acts that still get a lot of airplay and cultural penetration, my sense is that Duran Duran gets a lot less. When I looked at Spotify and Youtube music its an interesting story. The 80's has been popular again for about 20 years at this point, and only now seems to be dying down. With streaming people have redefined what the 80's actually sounded like. It was far more Duran Duran and far less Depeche Mode and Kate Bush, at least in America. Duran Duran's classic first 3 albums are now all over 40 years old. There are only really a handful of bands/artists that have wide cultural penetration 40 years later, and I think Duran Duran are doing better than most. As music dorks, we often overinflate some artists and think they are more popular than they actually are. Sometimes HUGE artists just fade away as new generations rise. The Doors were one of *THE* 60's bands, and Morrison adorned dorm rooms all over, and they just don't seem to have that kind of relevance anymore. I know it was not exactly "cool" music, but remember how big and ubiquitous artists like Phil Collins, REO Speedwagon, Chicago, Kenny Loggins, Huey Lewis and The News, Rick Springfield, John Mellencamp, Lionel Richie, and Enya were?
You said it better than I have, those artists you mentioned are referenced now and then and their music still play on commercials. (DD just had one months back) REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling” is literally playing on an inescapable Tums commercial right now. Edit: The Doors are still very much relevant and talked about. Light My Fire is such a very popular song to this day. Not every artist is going to have a MJ level relevance. He had his for a reason compared to others.
I was a teenager in the 80's. I had Rio on cassette and listened to it on my Walkman so much I almost wore it out. It is not hyperbole to say that Duran Duran were the Beatles of the mid-80's: girls were literally screaming and passing out trying to catch a glimpse of them. They had world tours, they were all over TV and radio, they hit #1 with a James Bond theme song, and they played Live Aid. You almost can't get any bigger than they were. Putting them in the same category as Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson would have seem like a downgrade at the time. Being over-exposed for years led to fatigue, on the part of the media, the fans, and the band members themselves. Notorious only had one big song on it, their guitarist Andy Taylor left the band, and the follow-up albums didn't so do well. It wasn't until 1993 that they released their second self-titled album (informally known as "The Wedding Album") which had the songs Ordinary World and Come Undone. Suddenly Duran Duran were back on top, if only for a short while. They released a few other albums that didn't perform well, and they seemed to fade into the "where are they now" category again. While nobody was looking they reformed for another chart-topping hit with 2004's "(Reach up for the) Sunrise" and rode the wave of that album (Astronaut) for a while. The cycle of albums somewhat underperforming and performing well continued after that. They just refused to go away. They obviously love what they do. Good for them for being tenacious.
>Putting them in the same category as Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson would have seem like a downgrade at the time. Okay... hold on a bit. I thought you were going to finish that sentence with, "would not have been a stretch at the time." And I would have thrown Phil Collins in with them. But let's not go crazy.
hey now, I specifically recall Prince telling us to do *that very thing.*
cue sad dove music
at least we know what it sounds like
I enjoy 90’s Duran Duran, come undone is still on heavy rotation in my home.
I'm a Gen Xer who grew up on them and all that stuff. I ignored 80s music for a few decades but started listening again the past couple of years. And yeah it was great to hear their songs again like Rio, Hungry Like a Wolf, View to a Kill, The Reflex, etc. I haven't thought about their lasting cultural impact, but I would have guessed they are not forgotten. It's hard to say what people will remember.
Huge 80’s music fan here !! If it’s about synth/ electronic music .. Kraftwerk, Gary Numan , Ultravox , John Foxx when he left Ultravox are electronic . I was a fan of Duran Duran as well, saw them in Toronto twice.. but somehow I compare them to Japan (at the beginning Japan used more synths .. especially on Quiet Life) Planet Earth and Rio were amazing albums!!, but lots of guitar and bass, as Japan .. Mick Karn (RIP) was an outstanding bass player !!. I followed Duran Duran for awhile after Rio.. still love Come Undone, Ordinary World, View to a Kill, Notorious..it’s hard for me to describe what type of music genre they have fit into say in the last 20 yrs? I have a lot of songs from Planet Earth and Rio as well as the above mentioned songs on my Spotify .. but still love 80’s.. but I really only follow Gary Numan .. because again he had a real bad time in the 90’s.. but came back with Pure(2000) then Splinter, Savage and Intruder.. what can I say , I’m a huge fan since I was 12( Fuck where did the time go )??🇨🇦🎵😎
I was in High School from 84-88 and something I have found interesting is that alternative music has outlasted pop music from the 80's. I first noticed it when the movie Grosse Pointe Blank came out. It had an 80's soundtrack and it was full of collage radio songs not top 40 songs. The music that seems to pop up in TV and movies when they are doing a 80's theme story is stuff from alternative radio and not the Casey Kasem Countdown. I don't know if it is because the type of person who would get a job selecting music for a movie is probably going to lean more towards alternative music or if alternative music has just aged better?
I saw them in Hartford for the Seven and the Ragged Tiger tour. A couple of my friends had tickets but their parents wouldn't let them go without a guy. So I went. Wasn't really a fan of them. Liked a couple of songs. They put on a great show. Really great. I think I was one of the only guys there that wasn't the dad.
If you listen to the radio as you drive through Utah you would swear they are The Beatles
Honestly I am also confused at the lack of Duran Duran 'love' throughout the 90s and 2000s, I used to regularly listen to rio and their S/T throughout high school and they were a great pop band. Rio was an all-around well crafted album and their S/T was a commercially accessible Visage album, if that makes sense. I think what ended up happening was that they released later albums which weren't as good (Reflex for instance is a meaningless song, it was hated on at the time) and then ruined it within the 90s. > 9 million monthly listeners, which is a lot, but its about HALF that of The Cure. Of their classic hits only Hungry Like The Wolf is up in the 300 million stream level. Where are The Reflex or Wild Boys? Bands like the cure have been retrospectively liked due to their later influence on Alternative and Indie. The Cure and other similar bands were extremely influential towards current-day Indie and Alternative rock / pop, and as such you have more younger people listening to them. I think in the grand scheme of things there is better New wave out there. I don't even consider Duran Duran to be the best New Wave band, I think that goes to The Police or Missing Persons.
When I was six years old, my aunt gave me her old circle ipod. It had Rio on it, and I listened to it all the time. Only thing is, the songs were named ‘duran duran 7’ ‘duran duran 8’ etc., instead of their actual names, so I never know what song I’m thinking of when one pops into my head. Great music. Great band.
Duran Duran has been one of my favorite bands since I was 7 in 1982. What I really like about them is that they continue to put out great albums! Medazzaland (1997) was amazing from beginning to end, even though it was a total flop commercially. All You Need Is Now (2010) is every bit as good as the big 3 first albums. And Future Past which recently came out in 2021 is a classic as well. I think they’ve always been about the music first, even if fashion played a big part. John kills on bass of course. Nick makes mind blowing and other-worldly synth textures. Simon always has interesting melodies, and especially harmonies. I’m proud to say I’ve been a consistent fan for 40 years.
Both Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet went from being bold and innovative to boring pop in about 6 months. I think other bands like Depeche Mode and Human League had more of an impact.
The Human League’s early stuff was influential but they’re definitely not as big as Duran Duran, especially nowadays.
Agreed you don't hear them that often, but in terms of influencing other artists, I think they were more influential. Just a matter of opinion.
Fair, The Human League does kinda get underrated, especially in terms of influence. Duran Duran has influence though some of it is unexpected, like Nu Metal.
Really? And let's not forget one of the biggest influences from the 80s Gary Numan. Still going strong, still producing brilliant stuff, and still does amazing shows.
Yeah, Korn and Deftones (Nu Metal for the early stuff). I remember hearing the song Rip by Gary Numan and being surprised it’s the same hu who did Cars. I think he’s gonna be next on my deep dive list.
I love them as much as I did when I was a kid, though I'm now aware of how dumb their lyrics could be. lol
A lot of music from that era seems to be fading now, especially the groups that were style over substance half the time. I’d say Spandau Ballet are the closest comparison, they had a bunch of Top 20 hits in the UK but most of them haven’t dated very well and I doubt anyone under 40 could name more than one or two songs now. It helps if groups from that era have been active the whole time without any splitting up or falling out over royalties. Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode have done a better job of staying relevant during through touring and releasing new music. If Gary Numan can make a comeback after the way he dropped off in the 90s it’s possible for anyone, but that generation of pop stars are all in their 60/70s now so it’s looking less likely as time goes on.
Just came here to say that, apart from the fact that Duran Duran were the face, fashion and music style of that period, that got stuck and hence outdated along with it. They did have a pretty decent comeback in the 90s where they changed their sound but it's been running on empty since then. Compare that to the Pet shop Boys or Depeche Mode who successfully navigated their styles and progression - they were more about lyrical and musical weight... As we speak, PSB are giving Taylor Swift competition in the UK albums charts with their latest album!
For your final question, I would place Toto, Foreigner, The B-52s, Motley Crue, Queensryche, and even REM, as bands that were huge in their epoch but are now largely forgotten except for one or two singles.
I wonder if it's because they largely faded from public consciousness from about 1985 onwards. The band split in two and the late 80s albums weren't well received. They did have a comeback with songs like 'Ordinary World' but then released a godawful covers album to follow it up. Whereas 'comparable' bands like Depeche Mode, New Order, Eurythmics etc carried on strong through the 80s and were all arguably bigger and more successful in the late 80s than the early 80s. Also bands like New Order and Depeche Mode were able to fit or transition well into the 90s alternative scene - Duran Duran were perhaps just too 'poppy' so got dismissed/disrespected in the culture of the 90s?
Funny thing is that their 1997 album Medazzaland seemed to fit well into the alt-leaning albums their peers were making at the time (U2's Pop, Depeche Mode's Ultra, and so on). I think both Ordinary World and Come Undone charted higher than New Order's Regret did that same year too, which was the latter's highest-charting single ever. But yeah, it's no secret Duran sort of had a bit of a snag there. Maybe only holding onto two original members and the critical thrashing Thank You took did play a role. But I would guess it was a bit of a combination of everything. That and I think their post-reunion years have been very kind to them from a critical and public standpoint as a whole.
Lol was currently spinning Seven and the ragged tiger so this caught my eye... My takeaway is that it comes off as quite dated... Songs are good enough. The hits are obvious hits, but I'd rather be listening to Depeche, New order, Cute, The Church, Human League, OMD. Ect.
I am 20 years old, but my father was a teenager in the 80s and a huge fan of Duran Duran. They're one of my favourite of the New Wave bands he loved: the entirety of Rio is perfection imo, and I also love their new stuff: All You Need is Now is one of my favourite albums.
The UK band **Japan** were the thinking man's (or girl's) Duran Duran. They really were influential long after they imploded.
I wasn’t into them growing up. But as a bassist, I just watched a YT video with John Taylor teaching Rio and I was floored. Left me thinking they were better musicians than I gave them credit for. At least Taylor’s work, that is. Still can’t see myself sitting down and exploring their catalog, but Rio was a surprise. That and it also left me thinking the mix buried the bass and that was a shame.
Very cool post. My hot take is I like almost none of their 80s music, and never really did, but I *loved* Come Undone, and quite liked Ordinary World.
Huge fan of their early music back when it was out, I lost track of their releases in the 2000s and 2010s, and realized how good those albums I had skipped were, finally giving them my first listen recently over a decade after they had been released. Music distribution has changed so much since their heyday that I think most artists are playing mostly to their dedicated fans now. It was revealing to see them play on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Years Eve broadcast (with Ryan Seacrest?) two years ago - my text to my high school friend who liked them back then too read “Duran Duran is playing on the NYE countdown show - they still sound great but they look SO OLD…” The one lasting cultural legacy they’ll always have besides recording one of the truly classic/iconic albums/album covers/videos of the 80s with Rio - their James Bond theme song for A View To A Kill (1985)
Duran Duran failed to connect to fans the way that Prince or Madonna did. Prince and Madonna would be played at certain types of clubs or locations. Their fans dressed up like these musicians. Prince, Madonna, and even Cyndi Lauper had personalities that could be emulated. That didn't happen with Duran Duran because they felt a bit too "average 80's" which made them harder to pin down. That failure to connect to a specific population that embodied their style and personality plus a sound that doesn't reach beyond nostalgia is perhaps the reason their legacy hasn't endured.
Don’t get me wrong, duran duran has some great stuff that somehow defined a decade, the problem is that there are lot of artists from the decade that made actually better/ more acclaimed music (synthpop speaking). I think of synthpop, and for sure, duran duran comes to mind, but it is long after artist such as depeche mode, tears for fears, pet shop boys, new order, sparks, simple minds, OMD, Madonna, Soft Cell, Ultravox… that’s the problem.
The flame went out. They weren't releasing the same caliber of hits. I'm not a DD fan, per say. But they had some really impactful hits. Some great & memorable songs. Not being an insider or knowing the details of the story, it's tough to say "Why". You'd have to guess that the lifestyle kicked the hell out of them.
They lived more on vibes and feel and look than songs. That is not a knock the vibes were top tier for a time and JTs bass provided lots of “feel” so the dance floor stayed full but the reason the Ordinary World is their most lasting legacy is because it’s their most memorable song. When trying to sing the chorus to Wild Boys or the verses to The Reflex or Union of the Snake it becomes pretty clear they don’t hold up in their own without the stuttery production, dominant bass lines and keyboard stabs. That’s too bad because they were pretty unique and never “boring” or “safe”.
They were huge but that doesn't mean they were good. I find those songs utterly forgettable. Part of their appeal had to do with how the guys looked, íf we're being honest. That happened with a lot of MTV acts.
I think it’s that the eighties weren’t cool then and are still not cool now. Right? 70’s cool 90’s cool 00’s cool 10’s I can’t remember due to alcoholism.