Artist case study

Arctic monkeys

The Arctic monkeys are a British rock band founded in High green, Sheffield in 2002 by friends Alex Turner (lead singer) and Jamie Cook (lead guitar). In 2003 the band released a collection of songs entitled 'Beneath the Boardwalk' which they recorded and produced themselves on a tight budget.Word quickly started to spread via social networking and file sharing site about the band gaining them greater status in the independent music industry.

The band quickly grew in popularity across the north of England, receiving attention from BBC radio and the British tabloid press. In 2005, Arctic Monkeys released their first single Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys on their own 'Bang Bang' label, featuring the songs "Fake Tales of San Francisco" and "From the Ritz to the Rubble". This release was limited to 500 CDs but was also available to download from iTunes. Soon after, the band played at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, on a stage reserved for less known or unsigned bands. 

They signed for Domino records in June 2005 and were reported to have received a £1 million publishing deal with EMI.Their debut single 'I bet that you look good on the dance floor' released on the 17th October 2005 went straight to number 1 in the U.K. charts beating of the likes of Robbie Williams ans The sugarbabes. Shortly after this they were featured on the front cover of the NME magazine.Their second single 'when the sun goes down' released in January 2006 also went straight to number 1 in the U.K. singles charts.This amount of chart success with very little marketing made some question if multimillion pound advertising was really worth it.

The bands debut album 'Whatever people say i am, thats what i'm not' was released and
became the fastest selling debut album in UK chart history, selling 363,735 copies in the first week.

The Arctic monkeys went on to release several albums such as :

• Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)
• Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007)
• Humbug (2009)
• Suck It and See (2011)
• AM (2013)

The Arctic monkeys have been placed under the umbrella of 'indie rock' but it has been difficult to pin them to an exact style as through out out their albums their sound as evolved from garage-rock in their first two albums to 'hip-hop' in the latest album 'AM'.Most of the bands songs are centered around failed relationships, nostalgia and growing old.