Remembering Duran Duran

I've just relived thru my 80s by sitting thru a BIO channel program documenting the musical journey of Duran Duran, and it was a decent trip down memory lane, right up until Powerhouse and Arcadia's formation, when their songs became "less-enjoyable" for me.



Their tunes were extremely catchy and recognizable when playing from a radio, and their music videos were pretty etched in my mind - although not exactly in a good way a whole lot of times! And while I enjoyed their exotic locales (ironically as they do seem familiar, being recognizable in the Peninsula-region hahahaha). But one thing needs be said, their music videos were pretty epic at the time, and always fueled with fantastical premises and locales!



I remember being more fascinated with their post-apocalyptical imagery of Wild Boys, Union of the Snake and The Reflex-era mores than their earlier offerings like Hungry Like a Wolf, Rio, Girls on Film (but I will always have a place in my heart for "Save A Prayer") - primarily because it was more visually-fun (ala Police's "Synchronicity") and less of pretty-boys-in-colored-suits or even their frilly "New Romantic" era (which did not work as well for me visually as say, "Depeche Mode" lol).


80s fashion as I'd like to remember it - seen in The Reflex music-vdieo posted above - not too much of the frills and fluorescent colors hahaha and admittedly, THIS was what I had "hoped" to look like, back in the good old days! But no, I never did scored me the duds to match (and as well I sweat buckets under a jacket, even when I was skinny) - although truth be told, I would have attempted more but for the group I was in, who decided they wanted to look like other bands - ("solo singers" were not the trend, in my instance lol) - the closest I ever got into, and was part of a group-look, was the breakdance phase. Don't ask, oh please do not ask! (No pictures exsist that I know of, so Im good ;p)

"While they were generally considered part of the New Romantic scene along with bands such as Spandau Ballet when they first emerged, they later shed this image. The band worked with fashion designers to build a sharp and elegant image that earned them the nickname "the prettiest boys in rock." [Wikipedia]

Regardless, whenever I hear Simon LeBond's voice and the electro-tunnage of Duran Duran, it will always remind me of the cheesy-80s, and I thank them for it :)

Duran Duran (pronounced dew-ran-dew-ran) are an English New Wave band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States, where they were first seen the 1981 film Listen to London. Since the 1980s, they have placed 14 singles in the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart and 21 in the Billboard Hot 100 and have, according to the Sunday Mercury, sold more than 100 million records." [Wikipedia]