Duran Duran consists of Andy Taylor (guitar), John Taylor (bass), Nick Rhodes (keyboards), Roger Taylor (drums), Simon Lebon (vocals).
Duran Duran are an electronic pop-rock band, often classified into the aggregate "80s rock" genre and notable for a long series of catchy, synthesizer-driven hit singles and vivid music videos. They were part of the New Wave music movement in the early 1980s (the most commercially successful of the New Romantic bands), as well as a leading band in the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the United States. They are still often identified as an Eighties band despite continuous recording over their twenty-plus year history.
The band have sold over 70 million records, and have had eighteen singles in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and thirty in the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart, including "Rio", "Hungry Like the Wolf", "Save a Prayer", "Is There Something I Should Know", "The Reflex" and the James Bond theme " A View to a Kill" in the 1980s, "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone" in the early 1990s, and "Sunrise" and "What Happens Tomorrow" in the 2000s.
Duran Duran was created by Nick Rhodes (keyboards) and John Taylor (bass), with the later addition of Roger Taylor (drums), Andy Taylor (guitar), and Simon Le Bon (lead vocals); none of the Taylors are related. Guitarist Warren Cuccurullo was also a member of the band from 1989 to 2001, and drummer Sterling Campbell was a member from 1989 to 1991.
Although the group never disbanded, it went through several line-up changes over the years. The reunion of the original five members in the early 2000s created a stir among music media and the band's fans. Duran Duran released the first album from the reunited line-up, Astronaut, in 2004, and the next new album is expected in mid- 2006.
John Taylor and Nick Rhodes formed the band in Birmingham, England in 1978, envisioning a group with the raw do-it-yourself energy of the Sex Pistols, the dance grooves of Chic, and the elegant style of David Bowie and Roxy Music. Other influences the band have mentioned include Mick Ronson, The Clash, Japan, New York Dolls, Velvet Underground, Visage and Blondie. Inspired by one of their favourite Birmingham clubs, Barbarella's, the band took their name from the evil character "Dr. Durand Durand", played by Milo O'Shea in Roger Vadim's sexy science-fiction cult film Barbarella. Their first singer was Stephen Duffy, who went on to lead Tin Tin, The Lilac Time and more recently has been co-authoring songs with Robbie Williams, and the original bassist was Simon Colley. Several drummers and guitarists were subsequently tried, as well as a handful of vocalists after Duffy left Duran Duran early in 1979.