Duran Duran

Formed in 1978 in Birmingham, England Duran Duran personified New Wave for much of the mainstream audience. Duran Duran’s reputation was built through music videos, which accentuated their fashion-model looks and glamorous sense of style. “Planet Earth,” the band’s first single, quickly rose to #12 upon its spring 1981 release. Immediately, Duran Duran became the leaders of the new Romantic Movement and media sensations in the British music and mainstream press. The group’s popularity increased through its cutting-edge music videos and the single, “Girls on Film” became the group’s first Top Ten hit, setting the stage for the release of its eponymous debut album. Duran Duran reached #3 upon its release and stayed in the charts for 118 weeks. The band quickly followed the album with Rio in the spring of 1982. Rio entered the charts at #2, and its singles, “Hungry Like the Wolf” and “Save a Prayer”, became Top Ten hits which solidified the band members’ status as superstars in Europe. Their exposure in the U.S. was helped greatly by the emergence of MTV, which put the group’s stylish videos into heavy rotation. For the next several decades, Duran Duran continued to release wildly popular radio hits including “Union of the Snake,” “The Reflex,” “Wild Boys,” “Ordinary World,” and “Come Undone.” In 2013, Duran Duran began recording their 14th album, Paper Gods, and worked on it over the next two years. Paper Gods was released worldwide on September 11 and bowed at No. 10 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album chart, earning Duran Duran its highest-charting album in 22 years.