Band-ity - Fall Out Boy

The final band I am going to look at for my brand identity research is Fall Out Boy.
They are an American Pop / Rock / Punk band, and have been around since 2003, with their first single, 'Dead On Arrival'.

The single was only released on vinyl or via digital download, not on a CD. Also, the vinyl sleeve and the vinyl itself were just blue, without a picture of the band and no logo, making it clear that the band wanted to focus on getting their music heard rather than marketing themselves. This immediately established to the audience / potential fans what sort of band they are, and what they want their band identity to consist of.

This was the 9th single by the band, titled 'Thnks Fr Th Mmrs' (Thanks For The Memories), and was released in 2007. The title of this song is similar to 'The Neighbourhood'; when they felt they were enough of an established artist, they cut out the vowels and a few consonants of their name (The Nbhd), and Fall Out Boy have done a similar thing with the title of this single. However, this was done because the record label asked the band to shorten the titles of their singles, because they were too long, so the band used 'Thnks Fr Th Mmrs' as the title, as a sort of ironic 'dig' at their label.

Bassist Pete Wentz explained that the song refers to a romantic relationship in which the initial sentiments have gone, but both lovers continue to "sleep with each other" to 'satisfy their physical and mental desires'. The cover of the song, therefore, might symbolise a clock on their relationship; it's only a matter of time before the couple totally lose that spark and no longer want to be together, hence the clock. Also, the word 'memories' in the title is a reference to time, which could be a direct reference to the clock in the picture.

The latest single released by the band is 'Centuries', and was released on the 9th September 2014. This is the first single released by the band this year, and saw the return of the band's more 'rockier' sound, since the bands' 2013 singles were said to be more 'pop' than 'rock'. "We started writing 'Centuries' while we were on tour because we felt the calling. Traveling the world for the last year we have seen and been a part of the landscape and fabric of music - from tiny sweaty clubs in Australia to insanely huge festivals in the UK. It felt impossible not to react to it." Patrick Stump said about the song. "We don’t feel any urge to turn the clock back; we crave something new, our place in it all. That some kids from the middle of nowhere in the USA can make a mark or will scream long enough until the world listens, is amazing - but it’s all just to prove to the next kid that she can pick up a guitar and know that it is a weapon. Make no mistake, “Centuries” is the story of David & Goliath. It is us passing along the story of how we feel right before we step on stage, trading feeling small and human for all the sweat and grit and sheer power of belief it takes to stare down a giant. Sometimes wrongs are righted. Sometimes if you scream loud enough the world will listen. Sometimes the quintessential loser wins. Sometimes the giant falls."

The band also released an intense Scantron-directed music video for the song, which was filmed using Instagram’s new 'Hyperlapse' app to give a super-fast, super thorough tour of Chicago. They said they wanted to do something different to fit with their new sound, and they thought that this would be the best way to do it. By making a video using this technology, they got a lot of people talking, and the video already has 3.5 million views. They have said that this video is only just the promo video and that there is an official video to follow, which has left social media wondering how they are going to top their lyric video.

In 2009, Fall Out Boy, released a greatest hits albums named 'Believers Never Die – Greatest Hits'. It featured all of the singles the band had released up until that point, with 2 extra songs which no one has heard yet.

The artwork was designed by an artist called Daniel Danger. He has designed and illustrated for the likes of Universal Pictures, DreamWorks, The Black Keys, Arcade Fire, and Snow Patrol.

The band released this album because they knew they weren't going to be releasing a new album for a few years, and they feared about disconnecting themselves from their fans, and so they were unusual with their reasons for releasing a greatest hits album - they did it for the fans so they had an album to listen to whilst they waited for their next album, whereas a lot of artists release a greatest hits album because their record label predicts a lot of money will come from it. “A lot of people think it’s just the label contract, pushing it out, but we’re putting two new songs on there, one that a lot of people liked off the mixtape we made, then we’re including two bonus tracks,” Pete Wentz said. “There’s DVD commentary on all our videos, then there’s gonna be a lot of secret messages to our fans in the artwork. It’s not just some straightforward thing.”

The music video for 'America's Suitehearts'  involves various people being drastically changed by the media and paparazzi, which is what the song is said to be about. The video is made up of clips of the band performing in exaggerated circus costumes on a carousel, and the music video is said to be inspired by director Federico Fellini, as well as the film 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'.

Each band member's costume represents a character from various lyrics on Folie à Deux', the album which the song features on:

• Patrick Stump: Dr. Benzedrine (Mr. Benzedrine from "20 Dollar Nose Bleed")
• Pete Wentz: Mr. Sandman (from "Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet")
• Andy Hurley: Donnie the Catcher (from "What a Catch, Donnie")
• Joe Trohman: Horse Shoe Crab (from "The (Shipped) Gold Standard")

The music video for 'What a Catch, Donnie' was a turning point for the band, as it was dedicated to Atlanta rapper 'Dolla', who was shot and killed a few months before the song's release. The band shot the video for the song on 1st July 2009, and was released on MTV on 6th August 2009.

Pete Wentz said "We haven't done a video like this before, a video dedicated to someone's death, the death of our best friend and rapper, Dolla. We hope to shoot the video for 'What a Catch, Donnie' in the same place he was shot.
The video follows lead singer, Patrick Stump, alone at sea trying to find his way home. 

Throughout most of the video, he is fishing, reading in his cabin, playing the piano, and suffering from loneliness.

Eventually, he finds a seagull trapped in ropes on his ship. He frees and befriends the bird and so the two set sail together and Patrick is no longer lonely.

Towards the end of the video, Patrick starts to fish again but finds strange objects such as deer antlers (from Antler Boy in 'Sugar, We're Goin Down'), a black and white striped jacket (the jacket Patrick wore in 'Dance, Dance'), and a bass drum (one of Andy Hurley's drums). Finally, he comes across a sign featuring the letters F, O, and B (the sign from 'Thnks fr th Mmrs'. He then looks up and spots a white casket (from the music video for 'This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race') as well as a sinking ship. He immediately turns the boat around to rescue the survivors on the lifeboats (who include Joe Trohman, Andy Hurley, Spencer Smith, Brendon Urie, and everyone else (except Pete Wentz) who has worked with Fall Out Boy over the past few years).

After all of the survivors are on the boat celebrating because they were rescued, Patrick looks out at the sinking ship. In the top right corner you can see a man assumed to be the captain in a white uniform saluting; Pete Wentz. Once all of the survivors are on the boat, and getting closer to shore, Patrick sets free his Seagull friend and watches him fly off with his family into the coast. At the end of the song it also depicts some of their greatest hits. In the background they sing chorus lines from their songs "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy", "Sugar We're Goin Down", "Dance, Dance", "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race", "Thnks fr th Mmrs", and "Growing Up".
However, there was a mix-up with the release of the video, because the distributors released the wrong version of the music video. In the one they released, it featured a badly CGI-ed Pete Wentz, but the band just laughed it off and the fans found it amusing. “I kind of came up with the ‘Captain goes down with the ship’ idea, only somehow that got CGI-ed into, like, ‘Titanic’ on a $2 budget,” Wentz told MTV News. “It was not good, so that’s the only reason why I took myself out of it. It takes away from a video that I think is a really good piece."


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After reading the comment:

Fall Out Boy's 'brandity' isn't as consistent as that of other bands I've looked at (e.g. Arctic Monkeys and The Neighbourhood), as their album and single artworks vary in style and design, and their music videos are different in their styles and what they present and portray. For example, the video for 'American Suitehearts' is a metaphor for what the media can do to people; they change them and shape them to become almost 'clones' of what they want you to be, and they control you. The band follow this theme of trying to go against the norms of society throughout their lyrics, and this is what makes them different from other bands, but it is also what I like about them, and what has inspired me to  use a metaphor for my band's logo (the heart beat).