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| This was the first studio album released by the band, in 2006. It was named 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'. The model on the cover is 19 year old Chris McClure. He was a friend of the Arctic Monkeys when the band gave him, his cousin, and a best friend money to spend on drinking and a night out. The photo of McClure squinting at the camera and smoking a cigarette that ended up on the cover of the album was taken late that night. There was some controversy surrounding the cover art after the album release — a Scotland health official said the photo “reinforces the idea that smoking is OK.” However, Johnny Bradshaw, the band’s product manager, responded to criticism by saying, “you can see from the image smoking is not doing him the world of good.” |
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| This is the album cover for 'Favourite Worst Nightmare', released in 2007. The building used in the music video and on the album cover is a row of houses situated in Liverpool which was marked for demolition. The video’s makers took down walls and removed windows and fences, and the interior of the house was then painted with psychedelic murals; front and back elevations of the house were ripped off to reveal the paintings for the shoot. The area was due for demolition and was therefore chosen because of the availability of empty houses. The cover portrays a sort of 'hippie' / '70s theme, as seen through the contrast in colours of the inside of the derelict house and the title of the album in the top corner. |
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| This was the 3rd album released by the band, in 2009, and is the first album cover which features the band. It was the first real time that the fans got to see and hear the band since their huge success in America, and this was the start of the Arctic Monkeys' 'rockier' sound. The idea of the band being on the front of the cover is unusual for their genre of music, because it's usually either an artistic image, or just a simple logo with a plain-ish background. The colours of the album are very different than their other artwork, mainly because it's not in black and white or full of dark colours. Even though at first glance the cover just looks like the band have been caught off-guard when they were standing around talking, a closer look will reveal implications of drug use; for example, the fact that Alex Turner is rubbing his nose, implying that he's just taken cocaine possibly. Also, the image of Alex has been duplicated above him, suggesting a sort of 'trip' caused by the drugs. |
 This is my favourite album cover by the band, mainly because it's so simple. The minimalistic sound wave features the initials of the band 'AM', which is also the title of the album, in the middle of the wave. The band haven't commented about the cover, which adds a sense of mystery to it, but the sound wave flows (mind the pun) into the lyric video for 'Do I Wanna Know'. |
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The website for the band is similar to the album cover of 'AM' - the black and white colour scheme with the bold writing. The website changes regularly, and may possibly even change to fit their style at the time of releasing a new album. For example, their old website (below) had a totally different font and style to how the website looks now. |
The first music video the band released was 'Fake Tales Of San Francisco', released in 2005. It is quite a simple video, with half of the video being performance based, and the other half is footage of the band on tour, mainly through a fish-eye camera. The performance is filmed in small venues in several different locations, and was directed by Chris Commons & Mark Bull, friends of the band.
The video for Fluorescent Adolescent was filmed in 2007 and was directed by Richard Ayoade and features Stephen Graham, who previously appeared on the "When the Sun Goes Down" video. The video premiered on Channel 4, which is unusual for a music video.
The music video is based around a fight between a group of clowns and a group of non-clowns at an abandoned warehouse. The leaders of the two groups have a flashback showing that they were friends when they were young children. During the flashback, photos of the band as young children are shown, but, throughout the fight, each group leader attempts to kill the other. As the music video climaxes, the non-clown leader tries to run over the clown leader. However the clown leader notices that the non-clown leader's car (with the non-clown leader inside) has been leaking fuel and drops his cigarette lighter. The car quickly catches fire and the clown leader looks on as his former friend burns and the music video ends.
In 2011, Arctic Monkeys released 5 music videos, all of which were directed by Focus Creeps, and they later directed 5 more music videos by the band. Focus Creeps have one aim - to portray teenage rebellion in their videos, and I think they do this perfectly in the video for 'Suck It And See', with the video for 'Evil Twin' being almost a follow-up video. It premiered in 2011 and tells a narrative story of a biker (drummer Matt Helders) and his relationship with a lover, portrayed by American model Breana McDow.
The video is set in California and mocks the macho nature of American biker culture. It has also been suggested that the video is a tongue-in-cheek response to criticism that the band's sound has become too "Americanised".
The most recent music video that the band have released is 'Snap Out Of It', also directed by Focus Creeps. It stars the Mexican actress Stephanie Sigman, and tells the story of 'the insanity of a broken heart'.
This video has been heavily criticised by critics for being too 'egotistic' of Alex (mainly because a beautiful woman is frantically dancing around and getting emotional over old videos of him). Also, they've said that the video 'doesn't leave room for interpretation' and it is too 'forward' in the way it portrays the woman in this video; implying that she is nothing without him and he no longer has a man so she isn't going to be able to cope.
Another criticism of the band in recent years is that Alex Turner has become the 'main image' of the band - he is the spokesperson and the recognisable face of the band (if you asked anyone who is not a fan of Arctic Monkeys to identify the other band members, they'd struggle). This is mainly because of the media, because they always push for a lead singer or spokesperson of the band, which is now Alex Turner. Just because he is the lead singer, though, it does not mean that he is automatically the main person. For example, Fall Out Boy's lead singer is Patrick Stump, but the bassist, Pete Wentz, is the focal point of the band with thanks to the media, so now he is the centre of the photoshoots and interviews.
I found some pictures of Arctic Monkeys before Alex was the centre of attention from the media... :
...and some after... :
Alex is wearing a white jacket whereas the other band members are wearing black jackets. Coincidence?
Alex has been placed in front of the rest of the band, and has been styled differently to them to make him stand out more.
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After reading the comment:
The Arctic Monkeys haven't exactly created a brand identity themselves, but more the media has for them over time. This is something that I don't exactly want for my band, so I am going to focus more on the promotion of their music rather than the band members themselves. This will stop the media from choosing a 'lead signer' without the consent of the band, which you can see was done with the Arctic Monkeys, and will make the media look more at their music rather than the band's image.
As with the post about FOB, there needs to be some sort of summary in terms of how this creates a brand identity for the band, in this case how it has evolved over time, and again how this might influence your approach to design.
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