Alphaville

Years Active: 1982–present

Genre/s: Synth-pop

Label/s: Atlantic, Metropolis, Polydor, Warner Bros.

Members: Marian Gold, David Goodes, Jakob Kiersch, Carsten Brocker, Alexandra Merl

Alphaville is a German synth-pop band formed in Münster in 1982. They gained popularity in the 1980s. The group was founded by singer Marian Gold and musicians Bernhard Lloyd and Frank Mertens. They achieved chart success with the singles "Forever Young", "Big in Japan", "Sounds Like a Melody", "The Jet Set", and "Dance with Me". Gold remains the only continuous original member of Alphaville. They took their name from Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 film Alphaville.

Alphaville was formed after lead singer Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd met in West Berlin in 1981. The pair were heavily influenced by UK indie acts like Tubeway Army, Gary Numan and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Gold had written "Big in Japan" in 1979 after hearing the music of Holly Johnson's band Big in Japan. They first named their band 'Forever Young' and subsequently changed it to 'Alphaville' after the 1965 science fiction film. Together the three (Gold, Lloyd, and Frank Mertens) wrote and recorded "Forever Young" as a demo. The first Alphaville concert took place on 31 December 1982 in Enger, Westphalia.

In 1984, the newly renamed Alphaville released their debut single, "Big in Japan". In the early years, Gold said that "none of us could really play an instrument. The music was in our heads, but we were dependent on synthesizers and drum machines and things like that. ... The equipment we had at that time was basically toys – the cheapest monophonic synthesizers you could imagine. We had a little studio in a basement, made a couple of demos and sent them to some record companies to try to get a deal. We didn't have much hope, but we had three offers and from that moment everything happened very fast."