Research into Chosen Artist

Arctic Monkeys 

Arctic Monkeys are an English indie rock band formed in 2002 in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield. Alex Turner and Jamie Cook both taught themselves to play the guitars that they had received as Christmas presents in 2001. They formed a band with Alex's school friends Andy and Matt. Originally, Glyn Jones was the vocalist of the band, before he left and Turner took over vocal duties. The current band consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, lead/rhythm guitar), Jamie Cook (rhythm/lead guitar), Nick O'Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Matt Helders (drums, backing vocals). The band's first ever gig was at The Grapes in Sheffield. After a while, the band began to give away the demo CDs that they had recorded. Former member Andy Nicholson (bass guitar, backing vocals) left the band in 2006 shortly after its debut album was released. 

The band have released five studio albums: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006), Favorite Worst Nightmare (2007), Humbug (2009), Suck It and See (2011) and AM (2013), as well as one live album At the Apollo (2008). 

Mark Bull, a Sheffield photographer, filmed some of the band's performances and made the video to 'Fake Tales of San Francisco' and showed it on his website. In May 2005, the band released their first EP, 'Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys', which was a limited run of 500 CDs and 1000 "7s, as well as an unlimited iTunes Music store release. In 2005, Arctic Monkeys eventually signed to Domino Records, having resisted the temptation to sign to a controlling major label. They also reportedly signed a £1 million publishing deal and a £725,000 deal with Epic to cover the United States. The band's first single with Domino was 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' Released in October 2005, the single went straight to number one in the UK charts, ahead of Robbie Williams and the Sugarbabes. Second single, 'When The Sun Goes Down', experienced the same chart success and Arctic Monkeys also appeared on their first NME cover.

The band's debut album became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, surpassing Elastica's self-titled album and remains the fastest-selling debut album by a group in the UK. The band have won five Brit Awards--winning Best British Group twice, and have twice been nominated for Grammy Awards. The band also won the Mercury Prize for its debut album, in addition to receiving two nominations in 2007 and 2013. 

Arctic Monkeys were heralded as one of the first group of acts to come to the public attention via the Internet (fan-based sites rather than from the band), with commentators suggesting they represented the possibility of a change in the way in which new bands are promoted and marketed. The band are also regarded as one of the most prominent bands to be part of the post-punk revival in the UK, after achieving commercial success and spawning two number one singles with its debut album. 

Why Do You Only Call Me When Your High?

This music video by the arctic monkeys is one that does not follow some of he most common indie rock codes and conventions. It doesn't have a basic balance between Narrative and Performance (this video being 100% narrative) and misses some common features i have found to be in other indie rock videos. These include: Making the artist a silhouette by placing a light behind the artist blocking out his main features, Instruments are not present at all in this music video - opposite to many videos i have seen. However all band members are present (a common code to follow) and the narrative has direct relation to the song's lyrics.

This music video follows 4 of Goodwins 8 principles, A direct relation between lyrics and video, a direct relation between music and video, it being 100% narrative based (point 8) and subtle hints of voyeurism are hidden throughout the video, like at the beginning, they play 'Do I Wanna Know?' while he is in the pub getting high. This is advertising the main song on the newly released album, creating a very good advertising campaign for this song and the new album, AM. The lyrics and the narrative have a direct relation to each other, as the lyrics read "Leave you multiple missed calls" and in the narrative, the woman (Stephanie) looks at her phone realising she has 17 missed calls from the artist (Alex Turner) and ignores him and goes back to her presumed love interest. The song tempo is slow and has a steady beat and the video represents this by a man walking slowly down a high street and keeps imagining his girl with another man. At one point the footsteps of the drunken man almost run parallel to the beat of the song. 

Goowins other 4 points are Common Genre Conventions, Notions of Looking (women), Demands of the record label (in terms of artist representation) and Inter textual References all of which are clearly not present in the music video. 

R U Mine?

This arctic monkey music video follows more of the codes and conventions 'normally seen in indie rock music vidoes. The black and white filming is a good and effective way to encapture your audiences in an indie rock video as it resembles the blatant meaning of the song (the artist is telling the audience he want the girl but does he want him, in black and white).

The subtle hints of an indie rock band are scattered throughout this video and the performance at the end of the video is a commonly used feature in other indie rock videos. Alex turners teddy boy representation also gives the audience the theme of rebellion (a very underrated convention of the rock genre originating from the 60's) as well as the band wearing sunglasses at night and constantly moving about the car, care free, Filming the whole thing in a moving car gave the band that little bit of diversity they were hoping for, also allowing them to fit in some of Goodwins principles.

Common genre conventions were used with the performance at the end of the music video as well as the artists image and the themes of rebellion, unlike the music video above. They use the notions of looking principle on the two girls that were in the car with the band. They were represented as 'groupies' that the main character in the music video (Alex Turner), is using to fill his needs while this fictitious woman makes up her mind and decides to take him or ditch him.