It's easy to see why Bond have been dubbed the Spice Girls of classical music. The British-Australian group are the highest selling string-quartet of all time, and as a foursome they look like fashion models, all skimpy skirts and stilettos, shiny hair and sparkly teeth.
Bond contain two Australians in Tania Davis and Haylie Ecker, and in the artwork with their new CD Classified, they are a tangled grid of long legs. Their violins, or at least the ultra-modern version of violins they use, are strategically placed between these legs like phallic objects.
One suggestive image - reminiscent of last year's Russian "lesbian" teenage pop sensations Tatu - has a Bond girl provocatively pressing her hand against another's shoulder. A further image flirts with S&M as a Bond girl playfully tries to strangle another with her own necklace.
At "Bondcam", on the band's website, similarly pictures are beamed to the viewer every six seconds.
One would be forgiven for thinking that all this was actually a catalogue for underwear or a feature on the women in James Bond films, such is the skimpiness of their outfits.
Subtle, Bond are not. But their bid to transcend classical music's conservative, image - a movement that started in the early 1990s with child prodigy violinist Vanessa-Mae - has been wildly successful and lucrative. It's not a coincidence that both Bond and Vanessa-Mae were concocted by the same svengali, British manager Mel Bush.
Clearly Bond is a brand; designer Issey Miyake has even made a clothing range "inspired" by the group. Exactly what that brand means and represents is causing some debate.
To the quartet themselves, they are four strong women in their late 20s, "seeking the challenge of the new and wanting to have fun"; to the classical music scene, it means style over substance; to classical music teachers, it means more students in classes; to their record label, Decca, it means 3 million album sales.
To corporate sponsors, they are a group with one foot in the teen pop market, the other in the older, wealthier classical music demographic. Luxury companies such as Jaguar, Martell cognac, Mittweida beer and Othello watches are involved in sponsorship deals with the group.
Member Tania Davis, from Sydney, who plays viola and has performed with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony and London Symphony Orchestra, says questions about Bond up classical music would not be asked if they were a pop act.
"People have these expectations that because we come from a classical background, somehow we should be wearing long black dresses and looking serious on our album cover," she says. "Because our music has a pop influence, we're quite happy to wear glamorous designer clothes on our album. We chose to enjoy that whole thing that goes along with being four girls - we see it strong and empowering that we can look great on an album. It's a sign of the times - Kylie Minogue and Delta Goodrem, they've both got glamorous pictures of them on it. It's part of today's marketing."
Bond contain two Australians in Tania Davis and Haylie Ecker, and in the artwork with their new CD Classified, they are a tangled grid of long legs. Their violins, or at least the ultra-modern version of violins they use, are strategically placed between these legs like phallic objects.One suggestive image - reminiscent of last year's Russian "lesbian" teenage pop sensations Tatu - has a Bond girl provocatively pressing her hand against another's shoulder. A further image flirts with S&M as a Bond girl playfully tries to strangle another with her own necklace.
At "Bondcam", on the band's website, similarly pictures are beamed to the viewer every six seconds.
One would be forgiven for thinking that all this was actually a catalogue for underwear or a feature on the women in James Bond films, such is the skimpiness of their outfits.
Subtle, Bond are not. But their bid to transcend classical music's conservative, image - a movement that started in the early 1990s with child prodigy violinist Vanessa-Mae - has been wildly successful and lucrative. It's not a coincidence that both Bond and Vanessa-Mae were concocted by the same svengali, British manager Mel Bush.
Clearly Bond is a brand; designer Issey Miyake has even made a clothing range "inspired" by the group. Exactly what that brand means and represents is causing some debate.
To the quartet themselves, they are four strong women in their late 20s, "seeking the challenge of the new and wanting to have fun"; to the classical music scene, it means style over substance; to classical music teachers, it means more students in classes; to their record label, Decca, it means 3 million album sales.
To corporate sponsors, they are a group with one foot in the teen pop market, the other in the older, wealthier classical music demographic. Luxury companies such as Jaguar, Martell cognac, Mittweida beer and Othello watches are involved in sponsorship deals with the group.Member Tania Davis, from Sydney, who plays viola and has performed with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony and London Symphony Orchestra, says questions about Bond up classical music would not be asked if they were a pop act.
"People have these expectations that because we come from a classical background, somehow we should be wearing long black dresses and looking serious on our album cover," she says. "Because our music has a pop influence, we're quite happy to wear glamorous designer clothes on our album. We chose to enjoy that whole thing that goes along with being four girls - we see it strong and empowering that we can look great on an album. It's a sign of the times - Kylie Minogue and Delta Goodrem, they've both got glamorous pictures of them on it. It's part of today's marketing."
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