walking upstream…
Arctic Monkeys
photo: cc by 3.0 ↗Arctic Monkeys
sourcesWikipedia · Far Out Magazine
Formed by four teenage friends in High Green, Sheffield, Arctic Monkeys turned MySpace demos and thick Yorkshire vernacular into the fastest-selling debut album in UK chart history, Alex Turner's rapid-fire lyrics capturing weekend nightlife with a novelist's eye for detail. Across seven albums they shed the scrappy garage-rock urgency of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not for the desert-rock strut of AM and eventually the lounge-crooner detachment of Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, rarely repeating themselves twice. Turner's evolution from wiry indie wit to velvet-voiced auteur made the band one of the few 2000s guitar acts still genuinely surprising people two decades on.
the sound in question
2005
I Bet You Look Good on the DancefloorArctic Monkeys
walk the tributaries ↓
The Strokes2000s · Garage rock revival / Indie rock
Turner has named the Strokes as one of the records that made him want to be in a band in the first place — the taut, unfussy garage-rock riffing and deadpan cool of Is This It gave Arctic Monkeys' earliest songs their nervy, economical snap.
listen: upstream & here
2001
Last NiteThe Strokes
2005
I Bet You Look Good on the DancefloorArctic Monkeys
listen forPut on the Strokes' Last Nite, then Arctic Monkeys' I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor — that same clipped, downstroke guitar hook and too-cool-to-care vocal delivery runs straight from Casablancas's New York apartment into Turner's Sheffield bedroom.
Oasis1990s · Britpop / Rock
Turner has cited Oasis's Definitely Maybe and Be Here Now as records that hooked him on guitar music growing up, and the band's knack for a huge, plainspoken, singalong melody resurfaces whenever Arctic Monkeys slow down and reach for an anthem.
listen: upstream & here
1994
Live ForeverOasis
2009
CornerstoneArctic Monkeys
listen forPlay Oasis's Live Forever, then Arctic Monkeys' Cornerstone — different accents, same trick: a plainspoken lyric riding a melody built to be bellowed back at the band from the front row.
Dr. Dre1990s · West Coast hip-hop / G-funk / Gangsta rap
Turner told NME he wanted AM to sound 'like a Dr. Dre beat' filtered through guitars, and the album's thick, slowed-down grooves and space-conscious low end show the band deliberately borrowing hip-hop's sense of rhythm rather than rock's.
listen: upstream & heresource: NME ↗
1992
Nuthin' but a 'G' ThangDr. Dre
2013
Do I Wanna Know?Arctic Monkeys
listen forCue up a Dr. Dre G-funk groove like Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang, then Arctic Monkeys' Do I Wanna Know? — listen for how the guitar riff sits back in the pocket the way a hip-hop bassline would, built for nodding along more than jumping around.