Duran Duran

Duran Duran's success in America largely coincided with the launch and warp-speed growth of MTV. Knowing early on they had to embrace the concept of music videos and high fashion to be successful, these five musicians from Birmingham, England learned how to sing and act to the TV cameras, keeping millions of young teenage girls extremely excited as they watched from their living rooms across the world.

Due primarily to the fact that the band so easily embraced the world of music videos (theirs often modeled hit movies of the time), Duran Duran went from a trendy London club band to international superstars in less than eighteen months.

Musically, Duran Duran was always several notches above many of their new wave contemporaries. The rhythm section of John, Andy and Roger Taylor was tight and powerful; keyboardist Nick Rhodes often brought innovative sequenced sounds to the songs; and lead vocalist Simon LeBon was simply the first major charismatic pop star of the 1980s.