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Modern Talking

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Modern Talking
Modern Talking during their final concert in 2003
Modern Talking during their final concert in 2003
Background information
OriginGermany
GenresDance pop[1][2]
Europop[1][3]
Eurodance[1]
Synthpop[1]
New Wave[1]
Electronic Music[1]
Euro disco[4][5][6]
Years active1984–1987
1998–2003
LabelsHansa Records, Sony/BMG, Ariola Records, RCA Records
Past membersDieter Bohlen
Thomas Anders
See corresponding section

Modern Talking was a German Synthpop duo consisting of Thomas Anders and Dieter Bohlen.[2] Their music has often been classified as Europop.[3] They have been referred to as Germany's most successful pop duo,[7] and have had a number of hit singles, reaching the top 5 in many countries. Some of their most popular and widely known singles are "You're My Heart, You're My Soul", "You Can Win If You Want", "Cheri, Cheri Lady", "Brother Louie", "Atlantis Is Calling (S.O.S. for Love)" and "Geronimo's Cadillac".

Modern Talking worked together from 1984 to 1987, when the band split up. In 1998 they reunited and made a successful comeback, recording and releasing music from 1998 to 2003. To accommodate central European music markets of the late 1990s, they changed their original 1980s mellow Europop sound to up-tempo Eurodance. The duo released singles which again entered the top 10 in Germany and abroad. Some of those singles were "You're My Heart, You're My Soul '98", "Brother Louie '98", and "You Are Not Alone".

History

The beginning

Modern Talking's logo since they released their second single, You Can Win If You Want.

First formed at the end of 1984, they unexpectedly became immensely popular with their synthpop hit single "You're My Heart, You're My Soul" with which they occupied top-10 positions in 35 countries including their homeland where the single perched at the top for six consecutive weeks,[8][9] the single eventually went on to sell eight million copies world-wide.[2] The track was then followed by another number one hit "You Can Win If You Want" which was released in the middle of 1985 from the debut album The 1st Album. The album went on being certified platinum in Germany for selling over 500,000 units.[2]

Soon after their second hit, Modern Talking released the single "Cheri, Cheri Lady" which also quickly climbed to the top of the charts in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Norway, meanwhile entering the top-10 in Sweden and The Netherlands.[9][10] The single, being the only track released from their second album Let's Talk About Love, managed to push the album to a platinum status in Germany for sales of over 500,000.[2] The success continued with two other number one singles such as "Brother Louie" and "Atlantis Is Calling (S.O.S. for Love)" both from the third album Ready for Romance. The duo also charted high with their sixth single "Geronimo's Cadillac" from the fourth album In the Middle of Nowhere and "Jet Airliner" from their fifth album Romantic Warriors.

During this era, Modern Talking were successful in Europe, Asia, South America, Middle East, particularly in Iran, where all Western pop music was banned after the 1979 Islamic revolution. In the United Kingdom, they entered the top-5 only once, with the song "Brother Louie".[11] They were almost unknown in North America, never appearing in the US charts, although they did become one-hit wonders in Canada when "Brother Louie" peaked at number 34 in 1987. They released two albums each year between 1985 and 1987, while also promoting their singles on television all over Europe, eventually selling 65 million records within three years.[12]

Between 1987 and 1998

Immediately after the duo split in the mid 1987, Bohlen formed his own project called "Blue System" and enjoyed several high chart positions, with tracks like "Sorry Little Sarah", "My Bed Is Too Big", "Under My Skin", "Love Suite" and "Déjà vu". Meanwhile, Anders went solo, touring under the name of Modern Talking on several continents, such as: Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and Australia until the beginning of 1989, when he started to record some of his new pop-like material in LA and London, and also in his native country. Anders recorded five solo albums in English Different, Whispers, Down on Sunset, When Will I See You Again and Souled and one of his album was also recorded in Spanish Barcos de Cristal. He was more successful in foreign countries than his own country, yet he also reached several hits in Germany. Despite all the quarrels and disagreements that Bohlen and Anders experienced between themselves in the past, they began keeping in touch again after Anders moved back to Koblenz, Germany in 1994.

The Reunion: 1998–2003

In the beginning of 1998 the duo reunited, and had their first performance together in March on Germany's biggest TV show Wetten, dass..?. They released a re-packaged version of their '84 single "You're My Heart, You're My Soul '98". The single, however, no longer sounded like a mellow Europop track, instead it was a typical up-tempo Eurodance number, featuring rapper Eric Singleton on the rap vocals. Their first comeback album Back for Good, which included four new tracks, as well as all of the previous hits redone with modern techniques, stayed at number one position in Germany for five consecutive weeks and managed to top the charts in 15 countries,[12] eventually selling three million copies in Europe alone.[13] The duo won the award at World Music Awards for being the Best Selling German Band that year. The follow-up album Alone which also went straight to number one in Germany was very successful elsewhere as well; the album managed to sell well over one million units in Europe alone.[13]

Bohlen and Anders followed the 1980s Modern Talking pattern as they chose to release two singles from each album, as in the past. A series of singles and four more albums followed such as Year of the Dragon, America, Victory and Universe. After reaching the point where they had already collected over 400 gold and platinum awards worldwide,[12] Bohlen and Anders decided to split up again in 2003 just before the release of another of their album compiled of best-songs.[14] The second break-up seemed to have been triggered mainly from the negative portrayal of Anders by Bohlen written in his autobiographical book published on October 4, 2003.[14] In the course of all the disputes which eventually drove the duo to its break-up, Bohlen was involved in Deutschland sucht den Superstar, the German edition of the UK's Pop Idol. The compilation album was released in 2003 entitled "The Final Album" which contained all of the duo's singles. Thomas Anders started another solo career immediately after the end of Modern Talking, while Bohlen had by now begun devoting most of his time to new talents, especially those he discovered on DSDS.

Production and sales figures

In 1984, Bohlen cited the hit single "Precious Little Diamond" (by Fox the Fox), as his inspiration for using falsetto choruses. The studio vocal line up of Rolf Köhler, Michael Scholz, Detlef Wiedeke and (on early albums) Birger Corleis, in addition to Bohlen and Anders, produced the high choruses characteristic of Modern Talking.[15] Köhler, Scholz and Wiedeke later went on to work with Bohlen in Blue System, before joining with songwriter Thomas Widrat to form Systems in Blue. Köhler, Scholz and Wiedeke were never credited on the Modern Talking albums, and eventually went to court over the matter. They received an out of court settlement and Bohlen published a sleeve note for his next release (Obsession, by Blue System), acknowledging the trio's contribution.[15][16]

Further influences include German-language Schlager music, disco pop (Bee Gees) and romantic English-language songs of Italian and French origin, like Gazebo's "I Like Chopin". After the 1998 reunion, Bohlen produced eurodance, as well as American-style MOR ballads.

Global sales of Modern Talking, after the duo's second and final break-up in 2003, had reached 120 million singles and albums combined,[17] making them the biggest-selling German music act in history,[17] so far outselling even Frank Farian's projects Boney M. and Milli Vanilli, Michael Cretu's Enigma, Sandra as well as Scorpions and Rammstein.

Dieter Bohlen also composed for other artists, during his Modern Talking time, like Chris Norman and Smokie, whose song "Midnight Lady" (1986) remains Bohlen's most popular composition. He also composed a large number of disco tracks for C. C. Catch, using an accelerated, less-romantic sound. Some English Bohlen songs such as "You're My Heart, You're My Soul" were also recorded with German lyrics by Mary Roos, using the same playback tracks. When Modern Talking split up in 1987, a number of tracks written for the last album were re-arranged and then transferred onto Dieter Bohlen's first solo album by Blue System. Modern Talking's 6th album was released about the same time as the 1st single from Blue System, "Sorry Little Sarah", where Bohlen competed in the charts against Modern Talking's "In 100 Years" hit song.

Solo careers

Modern Talking - Shooting Star
Modern Talking's Shooting Star, a previously unreleased song from 2006.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

In 2006, Bohlen included a secret message in his song "Bizarre Bizarre" when played backwards: "There will never be an end to Modern Talking". Bohlen's response: "I meant to say that the music of Modern Talking will live forever".[18] Anders has kept the Modern Talking songs in his repertoire and produced songs in a similar vein for his solo records ("Independent Girl"). In 2006, he produced an album Songs Forever of swing and jazz versions of popular songs (including Modern Talking's first hit). Bohlen has written two autobiographical books about Modern Talking's history from his perspective. The first book sold a million copies in Germany. The sequel was heavily criticised for his unfairness towards the people he worked with. As a result of that, Bohlen withdrew from the public for a year until 2006, when he said he regretted putting out the second book. Anders had not been the only one pressing charges against Bohlen and demanding that sections of the book be modified. Frank Farian was also angered by Bohlen's literary output and released a book in which he tried to expose Bohlen as a fraud.[19] Bohlen's first book was the basis of an animated comedy film called Dieter - Der Film. The soundtrack of this film contains the previously unreleased Modern Talking song "Shooting Star" which had been written for the Universe album.

Members

Official Modern Talking members
1984–1985
1985–1987
1998–2000
2001
2002–2003

Discography

Main article: Modern Talking discography
Year Album Single
1985 The 1st Album (1984) You're My Heart, You're My Soul
(1985) You Can Win If You Want
1985 Let's Talk About Love (1985) Cheri Cheri Lady
1986 Ready for Romance (1986) Brother Louie
(1986) Atlantis Is Calling
1986 In the Middle of Nowhere (1986) Geronimo's Cadillac
(1986) Give Me Peace On Earth
1987 Romantic Warriors (1987) Jet Airliner
1987 In the Garden of Venus (1987) In 100 Years
1998 Back for Good (1998) You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul ’98
(1998) Brother Louie '98
1999 Alone (1999) You Are Not Alone
(1999) Sexy Sexy Lover
2000 Year of the Dragon (2000) China In Her Eyes
(2000) Don't Take Away My Heart
2001 America (2001) Win The Race
(2001) Last Exit To Brooklyn
2002 Victory (2002) Ready For The Victory
(2001) Juliet
2003 Universe (2003) TV Makes The Superstar

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Modern Talking on allmusic". allmusic. Retrieved 2010-10-02.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Dieter Bohlen - Germany's Prince of Pop". Deutsche Welle. 2003-02-121. Retrieved 2009-08-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Cite error: The named reference "Dieter Bohlen - Germany's Prince of Pop" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b "Argentine Biz Worries That '98 Gains Will Deflate In '99". AllBusiness.com. 1998-11-21. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  4. ^ Official Myspace General Info>Bio: "The songs before the first split were produced in a style that can be vaguely described as Euro Disco"
  5. ^ Monstersandcritics.com "Genre-wise they were often classified under euro disco"
  6. ^ Music-city.org "Modern Talking's songs before first split were produced in style that can be possibly described as Euro Disco"
  7. ^ "Dieter macht Schluss mit Thomas". Stern (magazine) (in German). 2003-06-08.
  8. ^ "Rap music and the far right: Germany goes gangsta". the Independent. UK. 2005-08-17. Retrieved 2011-04-18.
  9. ^ a b "Chartverfolgung / MODERN TALKING / Single". Musicline.de. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
  10. ^ "Modern Talking - Cherri Cherri Lady". SwissCharts.com.
  11. ^ "UK Top 40 Database". EveryHit.com.
  12. ^ a b c "Modern Talking Biography at Sony Music (Germany)". Sony Music.
  13. ^ a b "IFPI Platinum Europe Awards: 1999 Awards". IFPI Europe.
  14. ^ a b "Modern Talking's biography on MTV (Germany)". MTV (Germany). Retrieved 2010-04-20.
  15. ^ a b "Bohlens Sänger ist tot (Bohlen's singer is dead)" (in German). 2007-09-18. Retrieved 09-08-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  16. ^ http://www.systems-in-blue.de/ Systems in Blue
  17. ^ a b "Neues "Modern Talking" mit Medlock und Bohlen" (in German). Süddeutsche Zeitung. 2007-05-08. Retrieved 2010-06-03. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ "shortnews.de
  19. ^ "sueddeutsche.de
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