John Taylor

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

John Taylor is an English bassist, born in 1960 in the Birmingham area. In 1978, in that city, he founded the band Duran Duran with keyboardist Nick Rhodes, named after a character in the science-fiction film Barbarella. Taylor began on guitar, but switched to bass guitar. Later singer Simon Le Bon, guitarist Andy Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor joined. Despite the shared surname, the three Taylors are not related.

Music and breakthrough

Duran Duran broke through in 1981 with Planet Earth and became one of the biggest bands of the 1980s, with songs such as Girls on Film, Hungry Like the Wolf, Rio and The Reflex. The band belonged to the New Romantics, a movement with striking clothing and make-up, and put a great deal of work into music videos, which were shown on MTV. In 1985 Taylor also played in the side project The Power Station, with singer Robert Palmer. Later he left Duran Duran for a time, but he returned in the 2000s.

Influence

As a bassist Taylor drew inspiration from funk and disco. His bass lines are mobile and danceable, and give Duran Duran's synth-pop a solid groove. In this way he shows how the new wave of the 1980s borrowed from the Black dance music of the 1970s.

Listening

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 7: The 1980s^NL Reader