Arctic Monkeys are an English rock band that formed in Sheffield in 2002. the band consists of alex turner, the lead vocalist, jamie cook, guitar player, nick o'malley, bass player and matt helders, who plays the drums. their genre of music could be considered indie. indie rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the United states and the United KIngdom in the 1970s. originally used to descried independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock or "guitar pop rock".
From analysing the music video for Arabella, a song released in 2013, it gave me an insight into the type of audience the bad would attract, as the genre is indie rock, it appeals to the indie audience. the majority of the audience in my opinion would be quite young with an age range between mid teenage years to late 20s. the rock influence within the Arctic Monkeys music, in my opinion, makes the audience more male orientated. though this does not mean a large part of their audience would be women due to the band members being male so the female gaze is there to attract.
Researching into Arctic Monkeys band I was able to discover there influences and who their music is aimed at. As they are influenced by 1960’s British Rock music the audience’s styles are also influenced by this. Also, due to them mentioning that a lot of their songs are about nights out and Sheffield cultures, it gives the music an urban touch to it. Therefore influencing there audience to have a similar urban style.
Task 1 - Music Video
the cornerstone music video is entirely in keeping with the brand of arctic monkeys as being independant and unconventional such as indie music is depicted. whilst the opening shot is a blank white picture with the signature twangs of the guitar, 3 seconds into the music video, a figure appears. it is Alex Turner, the lead singer of the band, he is pictured wear a rad jumper, headphones, a wearable speaker, blue tinted dress pants, holding a microphone. at exactly 9 seconds into the music video the the memorable line "i thought i saw you in the battleship", is when the imagery switches to alex turner, dead center in the middle of this white background making eye contact with the camera as if he is deathly staring into our soles. the picture itself is quit grainy and looks like it is shot on an old camera to give the effect of the picture being raw and unfiltered such as the band like to portray themselves. from the second alex turner looked at us through the camera until he walked back out of frame at 31 seconds in , he did not lose contact with us by blinking or even looking away.
the prolonged eye contact is sure to make the audience feel uncomfortable due to the fact the figure does not lose this while also moving closer and further way to the camera while singing into this handheld microphone. finally, at 2 minutes and 42 seconds into this 3 mints and 14 second music video, a yellow toned light turns on off camera creating a shadow behind alex turner, i believe this has other connotations relating to the song lyrics, as they describe his struggle of trying to find this girl. the lyrics while the light was turned o read "i saw your sister in the cornerstone, on the phone to the middle man, when i saw her she was on her own, i though she might understand,she was close, well you couldn't get much closer, he said i'm really not supposed to but yes you can call me anything you want" with an emphasis on the t at the end. the shadow in my opinion could relate to the so called "women" he is looking for looking over him.
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