Fact #165688
When:
Short story:
Duran Duran release a new single, Girls On Film, worldwide.
Full article:
John Taylor (Duran Duran) : We knew exactly what we were doing with the Girls on Film video. Or if we didn't, our manager did. Before MTV came along, the only way you could see videos was in the rock clubs. Our videos for Planet Earth and Careless Memories were doing well. So we created Girls on Film, which was Playboy meets Hustler. It was a horrible thing to shoot, no fun at all. We just weren't those kinds of guys, you know? But it came out and caused a stir, and … thanks very much!
Simon Le Bon (vocals, Duran Duran) : Girls On Film is a song about models, actually a song about exploitation of the girls in the industry. But that didn’t show. That’s not the image that people remember. Uhmm, but we had… we uhh… uhh… our management, Paul and Michael Berrow, they wanted to have something really raunchy because it’s was this thing happening in America called ‘Video Jukebox’ and they wanted something which was get played again, again and again. And we made this really soft, soft, soft, cool kind of video, with, you know, slippery poles, and pillow fights, ice cubes, nipples and things.
And I think in a way, it completely overshadowed the song, but then the song was breaking at radio and it gave us a massive, massive leg-up in America, because people it did work. The video got played again, again and again. For years it was number one. The number one ‘Video Jukebox’.
Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran) : You know, I remember the inspiration for the ‘Girls On Film’ video being very much the clubs in America. When we gone there for the first time in 1980, we done this little tour of these real underground dance clubs and things. Ahmm… some of them had these gigantic screens over the dance floor. It’s the first time we’d ever seen anything like that. I mean now everybody takes it for granted that in almost every party you go to there’s some kind of screen or television. Ahmm… but then, it was quite interesting and they were playing abstract visuals to accompany these cool songs they’re playing. Because there weren’t any videos to go with them.
So it occurred to us, you know, it’ll be nice to make a long form video too, so that they could play them in the clubs. I mean, you didn’t have any sense of shoot problems. And ahh… that was the purpose of the long form one to get it played with the 12" mix in America. And it worked. I think a little bit of controversy never did the music industry any harm, uhmm… I mean, for us, it was pretty… uhmm I mean some kind of video you’d make now it’s completely politically incorrect, but uhh… but at that time it was you know uhh… the decadent 1980s.
Tweet this Fact
Simon Le Bon (vocals, Duran Duran) : Girls On Film is a song about models, actually a song about exploitation of the girls in the industry. But that didn’t show. That’s not the image that people remember. Uhmm, but we had… we uhh… uhh… our management, Paul and Michael Berrow, they wanted to have something really raunchy because it’s was this thing happening in America called ‘Video Jukebox’ and they wanted something which was get played again, again and again. And we made this really soft, soft, soft, cool kind of video, with, you know, slippery poles, and pillow fights, ice cubes, nipples and things.
And I think in a way, it completely overshadowed the song, but then the song was breaking at radio and it gave us a massive, massive leg-up in America, because people it did work. The video got played again, again and again. For years it was number one. The number one ‘Video Jukebox’.
Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran) : You know, I remember the inspiration for the ‘Girls On Film’ video being very much the clubs in America. When we gone there for the first time in 1980, we done this little tour of these real underground dance clubs and things. Ahmm… some of them had these gigantic screens over the dance floor. It’s the first time we’d ever seen anything like that. I mean now everybody takes it for granted that in almost every party you go to there’s some kind of screen or television. Ahmm… but then, it was quite interesting and they were playing abstract visuals to accompany these cool songs they’re playing. Because there weren’t any videos to go with them.
So it occurred to us, you know, it’ll be nice to make a long form video too, so that they could play them in the clubs. I mean, you didn’t have any sense of shoot problems. And ahh… that was the purpose of the long form one to get it played with the 12" mix in America. And it worked. I think a little bit of controversy never did the music industry any harm, uhmm… I mean, for us, it was pretty… uhmm I mean some kind of video you’d make now it’s completely politically incorrect, but uhh… but at that time it was you know uhh… the decadent 1980s.