Duran Duran

Duran Duran are an English new wave/synthpop band formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were a successful band of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the US. 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 sold over 70 million records.

While they were generally considered part of the New Romantic scene, along with bands such as Spandau Ballet, when they first emerged, the band later shed this image. The band worked with fashion designers to build a sharp and elegant image. The band has won a number of awards throughout their career: two Brit Awards including the 2004 award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, two Grammy Awards, and an MTV Video Music Award for Lifetime Achievement. They were also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The band's controversial videos, which included partial nudity and suggestions of sexuality, became popular in the early 1980s on the then-new music video channel, MTV. Duran Duran were among the first bands to have their videos shot by professional directors with 35 mm film movie cameras, which gave their videos a much more polished look than was standard at the time. In 1984, the band were early innovators with video technology in their live stadium shows.

Duran Duran (1983 video)

Officially titled simply Duran Duran (just like Duran Duran's 1981 debut album and their 1993 comeback album), this video compilation is sometimes unofficially referred to in print as the Duran Duran video album or Duran Duran: The First 11 Videos. This pioneering video album won a 1984 Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video.

Background

The planning for this "video album" had begun early in the band's career, as Duran Duran and their management realised the power of video as an artistic marketing tool. In a move that is rarely seen today, they filmed videos during this period (1981–1983) for songs that were never released as singles – videos for the album tracks "Lonely in your Nightmare", "Night Boat" and "The Chauffeur" were shot especially for this collection.

The release date, March 1983, was chosen to coincide with the promotion of the band's No. 1 single "Is There Something I Should Know?", and the American re-issue of their first album Duran Duran.

Future filmmaker Russell Mulcahy directed the majority of this "travelogue-style" collection of videos, featuring exotic locations and cinematic style that made Duran Duran's name as a video band. Videos for tracks like "Hungry Like The Wolf" and "Save a Prayer" were showpieces of this style.

Duran Duran (1981 album)

Duran Duran is the debut album by the English pop rock band Duran Duran, released worldwide on EMI Records on 15 June 1981.

The album reached No. 3 on the United Kingdom charts and remained in the UK Top 100 for 117 weeks, achieving platinum status by December 1982. The initial United States release was unsuccessful, but the album was reissued there in 1983 following the success of the band's second album, Rio. This time it reached No. 10 on the US Billboard 200, and remained on that chart for 87 weeks. Duran Duran was certified platinum (a shipment of one million units) by the RIAA in June 1985.

Production

The band wrote and recorded demos for the album at AIR Studios in 1980, while one of their main influences, the band Japan, was recording the Gentlemen Take Polaroids album just down the hall.

The album was formally recorded in December 1980 at various recording studios in London (as well as Chipping Norton Studios) with record producer Colin Thurston, shortly after Duran Duran signed their record deal with EMI. In interviews, the band has recalled the struggle to continue recording after hearing of the murder of John Lennon on 8 December.

Ordinary World

"Ordinary World" is the first single from Duran Duran's self-titled 1993 album, better known as The Wedding Album. The single reached number one on the U.S. Hot 100 Airplay, the Mainstream Top 40 and the Canadian Singles Chart. It also peaked at number three in the Billboard Hot 100, No. 2 on the U.S. Alternative rock chart and number six on the UK Singles Chart.

The song won an Ivor Novello Award in May 1994. Lead vocalist Simon Le Bon later sang the song with Luciano Pavarotti, to help children affected by war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Background

By the early 1990s, Duran Duran's popularity had faded. Their album Liberty had proved a commercial failure, its two singles failing to make a significant showing on British or American charts.

It was not until Capitol leaked "Ordinary World" to a radio station in Jacksonville, Florida in the second half of 1992 that it looked like Duran Duran mania might yet hit again. The single proved so popular that Capitol had to push the US release date up, ultimately releasing it in December.

Ordinary World (novel)

Ordinary World (Chinese: 平凡的世界; pinyin: Píng Fán de Shì Jiè) is a novel by Chinese author Lu Yao. It consists of three volumes with a total of 1.1 million Chinese characters. In 1991, it won the Mao Dun Literature Prize and was honored with the title "a bright pearl of the Mao Dun Literature Prize crown".

Plot

The first volume

The story begins in the autumn of 1975, a year before the end of the Cultural Revolution in an unknown province in China.. An ordinary teenager going into adulthood in a distant village in Western China, Shaoping Sun goes to the county of YuanXi to complete his high school. His humble descent makes him shy and diffident. He falls in love with his classmate Hongmei Hao, a girl of upper class descent, which is notorious during the Cultural Revolution. However, this relationship is revealed by their classmate Yuying Hou, and the abashed Hao have no choice but to end this relationship. Hao then quickly begins another relationship with her monitor, Yangmin Gu, a young man whose family is relatively much better than Sun's. After Sun's graduation from high school, he went back home and becomes a teacher in the local village school and then becomes friend with Xiaoxia Tian, daughter of Fujun Tian, the vice president of the county's revolutionary committee.