Nineteen ninety-seven was a weird year for music. The charts were a chaotic soup of Spice Girls, Radiohead’s OK Computer, and the burgeoning boy band explosion. In the middle of this, three guys from Birmingham—the core of what was left of Duran Duran—decided to sell a song for ninety-nine cents on a website. No, not iTunes. This was years before Steve Jobs stepped onto a stage to revolutionize your pocket.
Electric Barbarella wasn’t just a catchy synth-pop track about a robot girlfriend. It was a Trojan horse. It was the first time a major label artist ever sold a digital download on the internet. Honestly, at the time, most people didn’t even know what that meant. You needed a special player, a lot of patience for your 56k modem, and a willingness to piss off every record store in America.
The Robot That Nearly Broke the Music Industry
If you look back at the Medazzaland era, the band was in a strange spot. John Taylor had just left. It was just Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, and guitarist Warren Cuccurullo. They were leaning hard into an experimental, electronic sound.
"Electric Barbarella" was a direct nod to the 1968 Jane Fonda film Barbarella, the very movie that gave the band their name (thanks to the character Dr. Durand Durand). But while the song was a retro-future tribute, the distribution was pure sci-fi.
Capitol Records teamed up with a company called Liquid Audio. They put the single up for sale online a week before it was supposed to hit physical shelves. This seems like common sense now. In 1997? It was basically an act of war.
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Major retailers like Tower Records and Trans World Entertainment didn't take it well. Some actually boycotted the album. They saw digital downloads as a direct threat to their survival. Turns out, they were right, but their "solution" was to punish the band for being five years ahead of the curve.
That Video Everybody Hated (at First)
You can't talk about this song without mentioning the music video directed by Ellen von Unwerth. It featured the band buying a "sexy" robot played by model Myka Dunkle.
The plot is quintessential 90s Duran:
- The band buys a robot.
- They take her home (dressed in latex and fake pearls).
- She malfunctions and starts electrocuting people at a party.
- Chaos ensues.
The BBC and MTV actually refused to air the uncensored version. They called it "indecent." Looking at it today, it’s mostly just kitschy and campy, but the censors weren't having it. They demanded cuts. It’s funny how a band that practically built MTV with "Hungry Like the Wolf" was suddenly too spicy for the network they helped create.
Why the Tech Was a Nightmare
If you tried to buy the Electric Barbarella digital single back then, you didn't just click "download."
- You had to install the Liquid Audio player.
- You paid $0.99 for the radio edit or $1.99 for an "Internet-only" remix.
- You waited forever.
- The file was "CD-quality," but PC speakers in 1997 were basically tin cans.
Most people just gave up and bought the CD. But the data showed something interesting: 80% of the people who actually managed to buy the digital version went for the $1.99 exclusive remix. Fans wanted the stuff they couldn't get in a store. It was the first real proof that the "super-fan" economy could work online.
Chart Performance and Legacy
The song did okay. It peaked at #52 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #23 in the UK (though that was a much later release). In the grand scheme of Duran Duran's hits, it’s not "Rio." It’s not "Ordinary World."
But its importance isn't in the chart position.
It’s in the fact that Nick Rhodes saw the future. He told Billboard in 1997 that the internet would change how everyone lived. He was right. While other bands were fighting Napster a few years later, Duran Duran was already looking for the next digital frontier. They were the first band to use virtual reality in a video later on, and the first to play a concert in Second Life.
What You Should Do Next
If you’re a fan or a music history nerd, don't just stream the radio edit. Go find the "The Electric Barbarella (The Solutions It's Electro Remix)." It captures that gritty, industrial-pop vibe that Warren Cuccurullo brought to the band during that decade.
Also, watch the music video again with a critical eye. It's not just "guys with a doll." It’s a very specific, high-fashion commentary on artifice and the "showroom floor" of celebrity culture, shot by one of the most famous photographers in the world.
The next time you tap "Buy" on a digital track, remember that a robot-themed synth-pop song from 1997 paved the way for that click to even exist. The industry fought it tooth and nail, but Duran Duran just plugged it in and dimmed the lights.
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Check out the Medazzaland 25th-anniversary vinyl if you can find it. It was stuck in a licensing limbo for decades, especially in the UK, but it's finally available to the public in a way that actually sounds good on modern equipment.