Pigg’s Playlist: a history of Duran Duran

Kayla Pigg
October 13, 2017

I remember the moment I fell in love with Duran Duran like it was yesterday: I was 11 and my mom was dropping me off for school. Buckets of rain poured as I flipped through radio stations. I got to the ‘80s radio and my mom told me to stop, “you’ll really like this song.” I looked at the screen skeptically; it was “Ordinary World by Duran Duran.”

“Trust me,” she said, and I was never the same after that.

Duran Duran was the first band I ever really loved. While other girls my age were fawning over Jesse McCartney and his “Beautiful Soul,” I was concerned about my age difference to Simon LeBon. This ultimately led to my being labeled as a “weird kid” in school, but in all honesty, I wouldn’t have changed anything about me then and I still wouldn’t today.

Duran Duran’s rise to fame can be marked by the second British Invasion and the creation of MTV. Want to know why we have such intriguing music videos today? You can thank Duran Duran for that. The band revolutionized the music industry and rose to fame with their cinematic and sometimes even scandalous music videos. These videos gave life to their already vibrant songs and helped them gain popularity in the United States.

Duran Duran was the first band to use supermodels in their music videos. Making them revolutionaries and complete geniuses. In the 80s, they caused a stir with their racy video for “Girls on Film,” which had been originally intended only to play in nightclubs or on the Playboy Channel. Though the video caused such a controversy, MTV had to heavily edit it for TV release and it kept the band in the limelight.

Duran Duran even collaborated with Justin Timberlake on a song, which is supposedly about former girlfriend, Britney Spears. The song and music video for “Falling Down” chronicles her troubles with substance and alcohol abuse while in rehab with, you guessed it, a bunch of super models.

Lately, Duran Duran has been getting attention for their “Girl Panic!” music video, where famous supermodels, such as Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford, play members of the band.