Arctic Monkeys And Their Historic First Single

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The Arctic Monkeys is an English rock band that was formed in 2002. The band members are Alex Turner who is the lead vocalist and guitarist, Matt Helders who plays the drums and vocals, Jamie Cook who plays the guitar, Nick O’ Malley who plays the bass and is the backing vocalist. The genres that they normally sing is indie rock, garage rock, and post-punk revival. They are a very well known band and still play to this very day. But how did the Arctic Monkeys rise to fame.

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It’s difficult to get recognized in the music industry because it is very competitive and many people can’t be trusted.

The Arctic Monkeys grew up together in their childhood and formed a band while still attending school. During gigs they handed out lots of free copies of their demos to people to get noticed. It gave them a really great start of success. Their demos were shown all over the internet and impressed many people.

One of their great strategies were connecting to the youths through the internet. They grabbed many youths’ attention to their music by connecting to them. The music industry doesn’t like the idea of free music on the web because they believed other artists would do the same thing. It could have lost them lots of money. They got signed three years later to Domino. Every band’s dream is to get recognised and signed by a record label. The Arctic Monkeys were young guys and fresh out when it happened.

The first gig they had after they were signed was the London headlining show. They performed their first historic single “I Bet You Look Good On the Dance Floor” from the album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ to a total number of one thousand two hundred people. The crowd mostly consisted of youths and nearly everybody knew the lyrics. Very quickly, the song headed to the number one singles in the UK. Many people in the music industry were shocked and confused how it happened so fast to the fresh band. So how did it actually happen?

The song “I Bet You Look Good On the Dance Floor” was about struggle of love, clubs, and had lots of energy. The lyrics really connected to the youth's perspective and it helped because the band was practically made up of youths. They know that the key to having a great song is to connect it to the listener. The verses “Stop making the eyes at me, and I’ll stop making the yes at you, and what is it that surprises me, is that I don’t really want you to.” To recapitulate, it means wanting someone by playing games but not knowing if you really want them. The song has really powerful emphasis on the drums, bass, and electric guitar. When the lead singer, Alex Turner, sings he sings the vowels by opening his mouth wider trying to get a larger vowel sound. The backing vocalists do the same thing as well, except they sing with a falsetto tone. The backing vocalists are an example of the call and response musical pattern. Call and response is when there are two phrases, the second phrase is usually the response to the first phrase. It came from It has been around for centuries and was originated from African American music. During the song the lyrics “And your shoulders are frozen (cold as the night), oh but you’re an explosion (you’re dynamite). It’s an example of call and response, and when they performed you can hear the audience sing the response phrase. The genre is very punk, due to the loud and chaotic sounds of the instruments, however, they didn’t seem to dress like punk performers. For example, like the bands Kiss or the New York Dolls.

The most important thing for a band is to have a great relationship with the fans, which the Arctic Monkeys did. It’s how their single became number one in the UK. They never became too proud of themselves, they acknowledge their mistakes and losses. In the NME interview Alex Turner was asked questions about the bands’ fame and responded by saying, “What’s the point in talking ourselves up? We know we’re not the best band in the country. It can’t get any more successful. It can only get bigger.” Even as they were getting higher they kept their connection with their fans. It drawed many teens to their music over and over again.

In 2012 the Arctic Monkeys performs “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor” again but this time it was the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. Alex Turner, the lead singer, looked well cleaned because he had a haircut and gelled his hair into a suave look which made him look like a 70’s singer. In the performance the bass player mixed the bass up so high making it sound so good. However the bassist wasn’t the original member of the band and didn’t play the studie version of the song when it was released because he was replaced by the other bassist. Their vocals were on point, but they should have made the guitars much louder to get the same effect. The song to the British culture was a true living icon because of the sheffield accent. Another recent performance of the iconic song was this year at TRNSMT Festival in Glasgow Green with people like Adam Lambert, The Killers, Jessie J, James Bay, Interpol, and more. They had thousands of teenagers in the audience jumping around crazy and singing practically all the lyrics. The stage performance was wild with fire on stage and many hair flipping. Although it wasn’t the same how they first recorded it, it was still pretty amazing. Alex, playing the electric guitar, sounded really great because it want from low building up to a much higher note. Then, he began singing the other verse before jumping back to the chorus again to the loud thumping crowd.

Myspace.com is a social media site where you can find friends, blog, connect through chats, listen to music, watch videos, and more. It was much more used in the 2000’s than now. It’s also one of the reasons why Arctic Monkeys single, “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor”, debuted as number 1 in the UK. Fans would share the single around Myspace.com using the new technology to support the Monkeys. In the interview with Prefixmag.com they were talking to the Arctic Monkeys about how popular they are on Myspace.com. They didn’t have any idea about that. The interview said, “So that’s not you guys?” They responded, “No, no. The other day someone said to us, ‘I looked at your profile on Myspace.’ I said, ‘I don’t even know what Myspace is.’ When we were number one in England we were on the news and radio about how Myspace has helped us. But that’s just the perfect example of someone who doesn’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. We actually had no idea what Myspace was” (park7) It’s another example on how their fans helped their single rise to fame quickly by the internet.

The Arctic Monkeys were influenced and loved the American rock band called The Strokes. They followed their idea of 1980 colour television cameras used in their music video and used it for their single for a better effect. The making of the music video was just them performing in the studio with around three or four people watching. It didn’t show much punk but more alternative indie rock.

Many youths enjoyed the loud and electric music in the single. In the beginning of the intro, both guitar players are playing. The first one is playing an F#5 and the second is strumming naturally on the 2nd fret. The rhythm and harmony is how it gives the grunge type of sound.

In the end, the Arctic Monkeys single “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor” was their best recognized song that led them to great fame. It was on the list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, it won the best track at the NME awards, ranked number one single song in the UK and number 7 on NME, and has been covered by many amazing artists such as Tom Jones, Sugababes and Aerosmith. The band is still performing, they recently performed at a festival and teens still today listen to their songs and admire them. However, some teens stopped listening to them because as they aged a little their singing wasn’t like how they started. To this day, their iconic single from their debut album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ will always be praised by their fans.