Arctic Monkeys

The arctic monkeys are an English indie-rock band that formed in 2002. They have released five studio albums. They have won seven Brit awards and have won the Mercury Prize. They were one of the first bands to come to public attention via the internet, because of this they represented themselves differently than in ways which other bands were promoted and marketed.

The bands early albums had lyrical influences such as John Lennon, wanting to write in the style of his songs and also have them be compelling. Although in their fifth album “AM” is more hip-hop influenced with artists such as Black Sabbath and Outkast.

In one of their earliest videos, for the song Crying Lightning, they are presented as a down to earth band with an extreme passion for their music. The video is a performance based piece and it follows the group playing the song whilst in a boat that is on water. This is shown within a long shot that connotes the band playing together as one group with their individual instruments, creating a sense of their togetherness as a band as well as their talents individually. This instantly generates the genre indie rock as well as providing positive recognition and promotion for the band and their music. Arctic Monkeys try and convey this image of caring a lot about their music as it appeals to the people who may be fans of their music, this may possibly be demand of their record label to appear this way in order to gain an audience. As well as this in the shot it denotes them on a boat in a lighting storm, illustrating the lyrics Crying Lightning. This could suggest that as a band their aim is to get their music and the narrative of their music across to the audience.

Within the performance music video the mid-shot highlights the importance of the main artist Alex Turner. This could show to the audience that he is the leader of the band and implies that he is their star persona.