Artic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys are an indie rock band formed in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England in 2002 after meeting at Stocksbridge High School. The band consists of Alex Turner (vocals, guitar), Jamie Cook (guitar), Nick O’Malley (backing vocals, bass) and Matt Helders (drums, vocals). Founding bassist Andy Nicholson left in 2006.

The band has released five studio albums, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” (2006), “Favourite Worst Nightmare” (2007), “Humbug” (2009), “Suck It and See” (2011) and “AM” (2013), all of which debuted at #1 on the UK Albums Chart.

The band’s rise to success started in late 2004/early 2005 when demo songs which had been handed out in CD form at gigs found their way onto the internet. These demos rapidly spread among message boards and friends leading to a growing fan base for the band, and were collected on the unofficial Beneath the Boardwalk, which the band recognizes on their website. The band owe much of their success to viral buzz via the Internet, and have eschewed typical ‘commercial’ channels, including refusing to appear on the UK’s (now discontinued) Top Of The Pops music program, which was often seen as a gateway to success. 

 

The typical ages for the Artic Monkeys fans tend to be people in their late teens and some younger. This has came about as one of the ways in which they became popular was through online promoting which is more popular among younger age groups, as most of the time they are more technologically advanced. This resulted in the bulk of their fan base being younger, however as they became more popular one could see that the typical age of their fans gradually became a little older such as people in their late teens and 20's.

My main source for finding the location of listeners has been Last.Fm, however one can also see that the Artic Monkeys have a huge fan base in the UK as this is where the Artic Monkeys established their band and the majority of their concerts have been in the UK. Using Last.Fm one can see their popularity worldwide and this is due to them being a band of the "Internet Age", meaning it is easier to promote music worldwide and for a band to trend worldwide. Evidence of this is listeners across the world in Australia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, The US and even Viet Nam. Overall their main location of listeners would be the UK but they are well known worldwide.

The social background of listeners of this band would be mainly students and people living the university life. This is because their fan base is relatively young. Many of their fans would also have a keen interest in music and most of their friends in their friend group would listen to similar music, and also as other indie bands, their fans have a broad taste in music. Due to their age they would be interested in style, music, going to concerts and out clubbing with friends. One can see how the age and music taste of a fan can greatly affect their social background.

There is no specific gender that dominates the fan base of the Artic Monkeys as their music is appealing to everyone and is not intended for males rather than females, or vice versa. It is becoming more apparent that with indie artists, their music seems to appeal to a wide range of audiences and does not specifically focus on one group more than the other.

The spends and interests of fans of the Artic Monkeys would consist of the typical student income, possibly a part-tim job and university loans. However the slightly older fans may just be starting a full-time job. Their interests would be concerts, shopping in less mainstream stores for items that appeal to them, clothes and albums. Also an interest would be going on nights out with friends.