Köhler initially achieved commercial success performing under the pseudonym Marc de Ville in the late 1970s. As Marc de Ville, he recorded a few singles, including “Annie (I Don’t Wanna Talk About the Weather)”, “Walking Alone in the Rain” and “California”. Köhler performed with a diverse range of musicians, including Marius Müller-Westernhagen and heavy metal band Saxon. He also wrote a number of German songs, including “Wenns um Geld geht”, “Tortella” and “BIFI”. Köhler was part of the Modern Talking choir that used a falsetto style. In late 1984, Kohler was contracted as a studio session musician for the Modern Talking project to be part of the falsetto chorus.

He collaborated with Dieter Bohlen for nearly 16 years. During this time, he also composed some heavy metal and hard rock albums without any success. After the dissolution of Modern Talking, Kohler joined the Blue System project created by Dieter Bohlen and Luis Rodriguez. Blue System had an international success releasing several albums during 1987 to 1997, where Kohler can be heard singing for most tracks in both the refrains and choruses. In 2003, Kohler joined Systems in Blue. Rolf Köhler died on 16 September 2007 from an apoplectic attack, aged 56