This is an archived post from Wishes on Eyelashes, a previous incarnation of this site.
‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’, the debut album of Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys, is on course to break all sales records.
Despite predicting a successful week for the band, record shops have been inundated with customers purchasing the album. Early sales figures showed more than 100,000 copies had been sold on Monday alone, making it the fastest selling album since Oasis’ Definitely Maybe in 1994.
By the end of the week ‘Whatever People Say…’ is expected to shift over 350,000 copies, making it one of the biggest selling albums in its first week of release of all time.
In China it may be the year of the Dog , but in Britain it is most certainly the year of the Monkey. The teenage band from Sheffield, who sing mostly about modern day life in Britian, sold out their first UK tour before they had even released a single.
Their popularity is widely credited to the band’s use of the Internet to promote themselves. This is the first time this new media has been used to such effect, promting a flurry of other up and coming bands to replicate its success.
Websites such as myspace.com allow an unsigned band to distribute their songs without the use of a record company or even any staff. Whether this is the future for the music industry only time will tell, but its certainly a lot more than just monkey business.