Modern talking
| Modern talking | |
|---|---|
 logo |
|
 Modern Talking (2003) |
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| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Euro disco |
| founding | 1984, 1998 |
| resolution | 1987, 2003 |
| Founding members | |
| Dieter Bohlen | |
| Thomas Anders | |
Modern Talking was a German pop music - duo consisting of Thomas Anders and Dieter Bohlen . The musical style was characterized by catchy melodies and rhythms with lyrics in English. The group sold over 5.7 million records in their home country alone and is one of the performers with the highest number of records sold in Germany . Internationally, they had sold a total of around 120 million records by the time they were dissolved in 2003.
history
1983 to 1987
In 1983 the composer and music producer Dieter Bohlen and singer Thomas Anders met for the first time. Bohlen produced and wrote hits for Anders that were not very successful. A second attempt, in the hope of a successful career, should be undertaken by founding a duo together. Bohlen presented the project of the record company BMG . The latter agreed, but invested little money in the project. The duo's first music videos were produced with little effort and spartan equipment. The record cover for the first album also got by without any major photo production. All that could be seen were two patent leather and gym shoes leaning against each other. The duo's appearance in the 1980s was noticeable. Anders wore loose, brightly colored suits, had black, curly, shoulder-length hair and wore pink lip gloss. Bohlen had a mullet hairstyle typical of the time and also wore tracksuits.
As a debut - Single released Modern Talking in October 1984 the song You're My Heart, You're My Soul . On January 28, 1985, it reached the top 10 of the German single charts, rose to the six-week No. 1 hit and stayed in the top ten for a total of 15 weeks. You're My Heart, You're My Soul became not only a national but also an international hit. The music video that was shot in the studios of the then newly launched RTL Plus channel in Luxembourg and its broadcast on Formula One also contributed to the success . The first album The 1st Album , released in spring 1985, was just as successful as the single You Can Win If You Want and Cheri, Cheri Lady , the first and only release from the album Let's Talk About Love, which was released in the fall of the same year .
In spring 1986 the third album Ready for Romance followed , from which the songs Brother Louie and Atlantis Is Calling (SOS for Love) were released as a single. Like the previous singles, these two reached number one on the charts in Germany. After the announcement of Glasnost in early 1986, Modern Talking was the first western band to officially sell their albums in the Soviet Union . In the autumn of 1986 the album In the Middle of Nowhere was released . It contained the song Geronimo's Cadillac , which reached number three in the German charts. The second release, Give Me Peace on Earth , reached the top 30.
The LP Romantic Warriors , released in June 1987 , reached the top 10 of the German album charts, and the only single, Jet Airliner , reached the top 10 in Germany. The album In the Garden of Venus , released at the end of 1987, reached number 35 in the album charts, the single In 100 Years… also reached the top 40 of the German charts at number 30. A few months after the separation, the Dino label released a "best of" album under license, which made it into the top 20 of the LP charts.
In total, Modern Talking sold around 60 million records in the 1980s before the band split up due to internal disputes. From Bohlen's point of view, Anders' wife at the time, Nora Balling, was to blame for the breakup, who interfered heavily in the band's affairs. According to Bohlen, she banned her husband from certain appearances and changed the video shoots and concerts according to her ideas.
1998 to 2003
The record company Sony BMG has always wanted to release a "best of" record since Modern Talking ended. Dieter Bohlen was against it for years and suggested in 1997 that instead of a best-of album, record a completely new album and revive Modern Talking. He contacted Thomas Anders and he agreed after André Selleneit, the then managing director of Ariola , had signed Thomas Anders a few years earlier for a possible comeback.
So the duo got together a second time in early 1998, almost eleven years after the separation. Modern Talking released both remixes of older songs as well as new songs with which they could place themselves in the charts. Their album Back for Good landed at the top of the German charts and the new version of You're My Heart, You're My Soul , reached number 2. On the first six songs, Anders and Bohlen worked with rapper Eric Singleton , who was in rapping the instrumental parts of these songs. After the comeback, the video clips, concerts and appearances were produced in a much more demanding manner in accordance with the zeitgeist and the increased technical possibilities. When they had matured, Anders and Bohlen now mostly wore dark tailored suits in the video clips. In February 1999 they released the album Alone , which only contained new songs. As singles were You Are Not Alone and Sexy Sexy Lover decoupled. Both were able to place in the top 20 of the charts.
Because 2000 was the year of the dragon in the Chinese calendar , Dieter Bohlen named the ninth album by Modern Talking 2000 - Year of the Dragon . Appropriately, the first single was called China in Her Eyes , which also reached the top 10 of the charts. The second release Don't Take Away My Heart reached the top 50 of the charts. America , Modern Talking's tenth album , was released in spring 2001 . The first single was used as background music in the following Formula 1 season and was entitled Win the Race ; it came to fifth on the charts. The second release Last Exit to Brooklyn reached number 37. In spring 2002 Victory was released , which contained a second background music for Formula 1 with the single Ready for the Victory . For the second single Juliet , Bohlen was inspired by the disco music of the 1970s. In early 2003, the duo released the single TV Makes the Superstar from the album Universe . Lyrically, Bohlen referred to his experiences from the casting show Deutschland sucht den Superstar , in which he acts as a jury member.
In June 2003, before the release of another best-of album, Modern Talking split again. At the start of the Universe tour, Bohlen announced the breakup of the duo on June 7, 2003 during the Rostock concert in front of an audience of 25,000. The Final Album - The Ultimate Best of was released on June 23, 2003 . This renewed separation was accompanied by a quarrel that Bohlen sparked through statements about his singing partner in his second autobiography Behind the Scenes , which appeared in October 2003. Among other things, Anders was accused of having illegally withdrawn money from the cash register . After a lawsuit by Anders and a corresponding court ruling, Bohlen has not been allowed to repeat this claim since mid-2004.
The soundtrack of Dieter - The Film , which was released on March 3, 2006, features a previously unreleased modern talking song called Shooting Star . This was cut from old vocal parts by Thomas Anders and underlaid with a new melody. In 2014, Bohlen turned down an offer of 20 million euros for another comeback. Ten appearances in Russia and a tour of Germany were planned.
style
music
Dieter Bohlen was inspired by Italo Disco for the modern talking songs , especially by the falsetto-like refrain of the title Precious Little Diamond by the Fox the Fox formation , in which he recognized a strong emotionalizing effect on discotheque visitors, which he wanted to try in a similar way. He helped shape the Euro disco sound through his chart successes .
Most titles, such as Brother Louie, are based on a uniform drum machine pattern and a bass line . In addition to keyboard faces, piano interjections and rhythmic synth figures down. In the title You're My Heart, You're My Soul , for example, chord blocks on the piano alternate bar by bar with a fast synthesizer figure in sixteenth and eighth notes. In order to give the songs additional "drive" , e-guitars or synthesizer riffs are occasionally installed, as in Geronimo's Cadillac .
Contrary to what Bohlen is often accused of, he always used more than the usual three chords for Schlager and Punkrock: Most of the songs are based on at least six chords, whereby especially in the first hits of Modern Talking mainly minor chords in the Stand in the foreground. Most of the songs are written in 4/4 time, while some ballads are based on 3/4 or 6/8 time. In the Formula 1 anthem Win the Race to shuffle rhythms used. After the comeback, Bohlen oriented himself, in line with popular pop fashion, to the Eurodance sound typical of the 1990s . Since in 1986 the single with its first ballad (Give Me Peace on Earth) turned out to be a flop, no ballad was released as a single later.
singing
Modern Talking caught the eye with its falsetto pitches and the hit song of Thomas Anders. In 2001, the three studio singers Rolf Köhler , Detlef Wiedeke and Michael Scholz, who had sued the Berlin district court, agreed with Modern Talking on compensation of 100,000 DM each. They and, as was not known until 2004 after an earlier denial , especially the pop singer Nino de Angelo were largely responsible for the characteristically high voices in the Modern Talking sound ensemble . The duo consisted of a sextet vocally . Studio singer Birger Corleis was involved in the productions until 1987. For the newer albums, three new studio singers were hired to sing.
Texts
Modern Talking's lyrics are commonly referred to as cheesy and easy to understand. Bohlen noted the genesis of the text of You're My Heart, You're My Soul in his autobiography:
"I admit: I didn't know we were going to have a world hit, that's why I hit the lyrics in half a minute."
Surrealistic dream images and clichés are often mentioned ( Boulevard of Broken Dreams from Geronimo's Cadillac ). Sometimes they contain little stories (like the one about Brother Louie - Bohlen's co-producer Luis Rodriguez was referring to this).
Video clips
The music video Modern Talking were in the 1980s dominated by fog effects, colored lights and geometric, clean shapes such as spheres, cubes, pyramids, etc. In the clip of Brother Louie scenes from the film were Once Upon a Time in America used. The video clips that Modern Talking produced after their comeback showed dancers in computer-animated backdrops and were significantly more expensive and complex.
public perception
Modern Talking was particularly successful in continental Europe, Asia , South America , Australia and some African countries. In Great Britain they were once in the top ten ( Brother Louie , No. 4 on the BBC charts, 1986). Modern Talking never hit the charts in the US , although they sometimes did tours for European immigrants there. There are a variety of different remixes and covers of Modern Talking songs in different languages and musical styles. There is an orchestral version of James Last of You're My Heart, You're My Soul .
The group was very popular in the Soviet Union . After the announcement of Glasnost in early 1986, Modern Talking was the first western band to officially sell their albums in the Soviet Union. They were modern, English-speaking, apolitical and not from the states of the "archenemies" USA or Great Britain. Some fans traveled thousands of kilometers to Moscow to line up in front of the sales outlets. In 1987 the duo gave ten concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Immediately afterwards, Bohlen also had success with the Blue System project, which was started in 1987, and in 1989 was named "Hero of Russian Youth". Anders tours again and again through Russia and performs a mixture of modern talking hits, his own songs and classics. In April 2009, Anders performed for the tenth time in the Kremlin Palace , more often than any other musician. Modern Talking has left its mark on the musical world in Russia, which can still be heard today. On March 20, 2006, Anders was made an honorary professor by the National University of Arts and Culture in Kiev on the grounds that modern talking had shaped the taste of music for an entire generation.
Music critics were not very enthusiastic about Modern Talking and gave the band almost exclusively bad reviews due to their music and their performance. Although the catchiness and professional production of the songs was recognized, the lack of originality towards British representatives of these music genres, such as the Pet Shop Boys or Erasure, was criticized. In particular, it was criticized that many of the titles would sound quite similar; a fact that Bohlen also openly admits:
“I'm not denying that all modern talking hits sound very, very similar. We have always extracted those tracks as singles from our LPs that sound as close as possible to their predecessor. "
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks / months, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks / months, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
|||
| 1985 | The 1st album |
DE1  (42 weeks)DE |
AT2 (8 months)AT |
CH2 (32 weeks) CH |
- |
First published: April 1, 1985
Sales: +630,000 |
| Let's talk about love |
DE2 (43 weeks)DE |
AT4th (6 months)AT |
CH1 (19 weeks) CH |
- |
First published: October 14, 1985
Sales: +610,000 |
|
| 1986 | Ready for romance |
DE1 (26 weeks)DE |
AT1  (8 months)AT |
CH1 (18 weeks) CH |
UK76 (3 weeks) UK |
First published: May 26, 1986
Sales: + 735,000 |
| In the Middle of Nowhere |
DE1 (12 weeks)DE |
AT2 (3½ months) AT |
CH3 (10 weeks)CH |
- |
First published: November 10, 1986
Sales: + 410,000 |
|
| 1987 | Romantic warriors |
DE3 (10 weeks) DE |
AT6 (1½ Mt.) AT |
CH8th (7 weeks)CH |
- |
First published: June 8, 1987
Sales: + 35,000 |
| In the Garden of Venus |
DE35 (4 weeks) DE |
- | - | - |
First published: November 30, 1987
Sales: + 50,000 |
|
| 1998 | Back for Good |
DE1 × 5
(52 weeks)DE |
AT1 (25 weeks) AT |
CH1 × 2
(32 weeks)CH |
- |
First published: March 30, 1998
Sales: + 5,700,000 |
| 1999 | Alone |
DE1 (27 weeks)DE |
AT2 (21 weeks)AT |
CH3 (17 weeks)CH |
- |
First published: February 22, 1999
Sales: + 1,000,000 |
| 2000 | 2000: Year of the Dragon |
DE3 (18 weeks)DE |
AT5 (10 weeks) AT |
CH4th (12 weeks)CH |
- |
First published: February 28, 2000
Sales: + 425,000 |
| 2001 | America |
DE2 (15 weeks)DE |
AT7 (12 weeks) AT |
CH10 (11 weeks) CH |
- |
First published: March 19, 2001
Sales: + 150,000 |
| 2002 | Victory |
DE1 (15 weeks)DE |
AT7 (11 weeks) AT |
CH14 (7 weeks) CH |
- |
First published: March 18, 2002
Sales: + 150,000 |
| 2003 | Universe |
DE2 (12 weeks)DE |
AT10 (7 weeks) AT |
CH25 (5 weeks) CH |
- |
First published: March 31, 2003
Sales: + 110,000 |
Awards
- 1985: Bravo Otto - Best Group, Gold Award
- 1985: Formula One award - No. 1 hit You're My Heart, You're My Soul
- 1985: Formula One award - No. 1 hit You Can Win If You Want
- 1985: Golden Europe Award - No. 1 hit You're My Heart, You're My Soul
- 1985: Formula One award - No. 1 hit Cheri Cheri Lady
- 1986: Bravo Otto - Best Group, Silver Award
- 1986: Golden Lion , Best Group of the Year
- 1986: Formula One award - No. 1 hit Brother Louie
- 1986: Formula One award - No. 1 hit Atlantis Is Calling
- 1998: VIVA Comet - Lifetime Achievement Award
- 1998: Bambi , comeback of the year
- 1998: Golden Europe , comeback of the year
- 1999: Golden Camera in the category Best German Pop Music
- 1999: Echo Prize, Rock / Pop Single National Nominated
- 1999: Echo Prize, Group National / Rock-Pop
- 1999: Radio Regenbogen Award, comeback of the year
- 1999: World Music Awards , World's Best Selling German Group
- 1999: Record-99 Award, Sales Award
- 1999: RSH Gold
- 2000: Amadeus Austrian Music Award , nominated for Best Rock-Pop Group
- 2000: Echo Prize, National Rock-Pop International Group nominated
- 2001: Echo Prize, National Rock-Pop National Group nominated
- 2001: Top of the Pops Award, Top Artist Germany
- 2002: Echo Prize, National Rock-Pop Group nominated
Web links
- Internet presence (Sony & BMG) for Modern Talking
- Modern Talking at Discogs (English)
- Modern Talking on MusicBrainz (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ New "Modern Talking" with Medlock and Bohlen. In: sueddeutsche.de. May 17, 2010, accessed March 24, 2019 .
- ↑ Record cover of You're My Heart, You're My Soul
- ↑ You're My Heart, You're My Soul in the German single charts ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 29, 2014
- ↑ Planet Wissen ( Memento from February 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ The history of Nora Anders
- ↑ Interview with André Selleneit for the program "25 Years of Modern Talking", broadcast by MDR on January 5th, 2011 at 8:15 pm
- ^ Trial: Dieter Bohlen loses against Thomas Anders
- ↑ Bild.de July 29, 2014: Dieter Bohlen rejects “Modern Talking” reunion , accessed on July 29, 2014
- ↑ moderntalking.ru ( Memento of the original from September 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c Ann-Dorit Boy: Modern Talking - The Russians Like It Different , Spiegel Online, April 24, 2009
- ↑ Merit Cross Debate - Griefahn wants to attach orders to Bohlen. In: Spiegel Online. June 19, 2003, accessed December 23, 2012 .
- ^ Phekt: Spring in Siberia. In: fm4.orf.at. June 20, 2011, accessed December 23, 2012 .
- ↑ Dieter Kampe: The musical zero in the spotlight . In: Der Spiegel . No. 3 , 1989, pp. 160-162 ( Online - Jan. 16, 1989 ).
- ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK
- ↑ a b c Gold & Platinum Awards 1986. Music & Media Magazine, December 27, 1986, accessed October 7, 2019 (English, page 34).
- ↑ a b Gold & Platinum Awards 1987. Music & Media Magazine, December 26, 1987, accessed October 7, 2019 (English, page 46).
- ↑ Thomas Anders on Back for Good at Lanz on July 15, 2015 on ZDF
- ^ Fencing with the Pirates of Music. Associated Press , June 29, 2001, accessed October 8, 2019 .
- ↑ Bravo Otto Prize Winner 1985 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bravo Otto Prize Winner 1986 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bambi 1998 for the comeback of the year ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Echo Prize Winner 1999 ( Memento from July 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ RSH Gold Award 1999
