Duran Duran - Electric Barbarella

What this video is

Released in September 1997 as the lead single from Duran Duran's album Medazzaland, 'Electric Barbarella' arrived at a pivotal intersection of pop culture and technology history: it is widely considered the first single by a major-label artist made commercially available for digital download on the internet, sold via Capitol Records' website in partnership with Liquid Audio. The song is a direct homage to the 1968…

Why it matters

Represents a critical late-career moment for the New Romantic/synth-pop generation navigating a post-Britpop landscape. Aesthetically bridges the band's 1980s MTV visual heritage with 1990s fetish-fashion crossover culture. The video's censorship history and its pioneering digital distribution…

The director

Ellen von Unwerth (b. 1954, Frankfurt, Germany) is a German photographer and director who began her career as a fashion model before transitioning behind the camera. She won first prize at the International Festival of Fashion Photography in 1991 and has…