Gorillaz are an English band that consists of four virtual members – 2-D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle and Russel Hobbs. The band was created by singer Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett in 1998. Gorillaz are famous for having lore so rich that you’ll need days to read it! The band also has a unique artistic style, which has evolved a lot throughout the years.
In this article, you can find a brief history of the virtual band, as well as an analysis of their style.
Creation
Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett got the idea for Gorillaz while they were watching MTV and thought everything was boring. The 1990’s started the artificially created band trend (bands created by producers), so Albarn and Hewlett decided to parody this phenomenon by creating an explicitly artificial cartoon band. Damon started writing recording music, while Jamie started drawing sketches of the characters.
Style and Band Lore
Jamie Hewlett had already had a few successful comic books, with his most famous one being Tank Girl, which is still published today. Fans can see the visual similarities between the comic and Gorillaz’s backstory and mood. The Gorillaz also share the cynical tone and surrealistic nature of Tank Girl. Meanwhile, Damon Albarn was the frontman of the British band Blur, which was wildly successful in the 1990’s. The rebellious British spirit of Blur is embodied by Gorillaz through Albarn’s lyrics and sound.
Gorillaz – Phases
The band divides its career into phases, each marked by a thematical and artistic change:
- Phase I (1997-2003) – Murdoc Niccals created Gorillaz with 2-D (a keyboardist and singer that Murdoc accidentally put into a coma and then rehabilitated). They were later joined by drummer Russel Hobbs (an African American hip-hop artist who absorbed the souls of his dead friends and became a musical genius) and guitarist Noodle (a Japanese child soldier with erased memory).
- Phase II (2003-2007) – Gorillaz had a hiatus following their American tour. Noodle wrote the album Demon Days that brought the band together. However, during the filming of ‘El Manana’ the windmill island they built it on was bombed and Noodle disappeared.
- Phase III (2008-2013) – Murdoc finds a new hideout for Gorillaz on Plastic Beach (a garbage island in the ocean). Murdoc forces 2-D to record music with him and creates a cyborg clone of Noodle to use as a bodyguard. Russell comes back by swimming to Plastic Beach, but its toxic waters turn him into a giant. Meanwhile, the real Noodle is discovered but the band must first fight off Bruce Willis, Boogieman and the Black Clouds.
- Phase IV (2013-2018) – While Noodle was fighting a demon, 2-D a whale, and Russell – the country of North Korea, Murdoc was getting them a record deal, which ended their seven years-long hiatus.
- Phase V (2018-2019) – Gorillaz replaced Murdoc for Ace and recorded an album. Meanwhile, Murdoc escaped prison and eventually returned. The visual style remains the same as the previous phase.
- Phase VI (2019-nowadays) – Gorillaz find themselves relentlessly pulled into strange portals, while they’re trying to make new music. The band also deals with their own issues (especially Murdoc’s Machiavellianism), and they finally come together as friends.
Each member has a unique character and their own story arc. The music videos closely follow the lore, which became the signature for all of Gorillaz’s music. The visual style resembles Hewlett’s comic strips with its flatness of image, a mixture of dull and vibrant colours, pronounced linework, and odd bodily proportions.
The tracklist of Gorillaz is a mixture of uplifting and melancholic songs, sometimes overlapping (‘Clint Eastwood’). The sound is rough as Gorillaz explore punk rock, with the unique addition of hip hop and lo-fi.
The art style has matured in Phase II, and it now features more small details, as well as more complex textures.
Although Demon Days belongs to the alt rock movement of the 2000’s, it completely turns it on its head by adding classical instruments like piano, and blurring the lines between pop, rock, hip-hop and psychedelia. Thematically, the album deals with one’s ‘personal demons’ and the human destruction of the Earth. These are the core themes of Gorillaz’s music.
Phase III’s art style heavily relies on CGI and realistic 3-D images, which completely changed Gorillaz’s appearance.
Pollution and climate change are the main themes that Plastic Beach explores, with the addition of the personal demon, which is materialised in the Boogieman hunting down Murdoc. The music styles in this album differ from Gorillaz’s previous albums as the band dumps their punk sound for pop and funk.
Gorillaz visually returned to their roots. The CGI was ditched in favour of their signature 2-dimensional look, albeit a more complex version of it.
The album Humanz responds to the political upheavals of 2016-2017, but Albarn refused to add any real references. There are many collaborations on it, which disappointed some fans. The style continues to evolution brought on by Plastic Beach as it explores pop-rock, dance and R&B.
The Now Now delves deeper into psychedelia, disco and synth-pop. The album gives out the warm fuzzy feeling of a California trip bathed in psychedelic colours, but also apathy.
The art sets up complex realistic settings against the comic 2-dimensional style of the characters, which is most apparent in the song ‘Strange Timez’.
Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez was released episodically with new song/music videos popping up to keep up with the times. Critics describe it as an amalgam of every music style there is, with the most common styles being alt-rock/pop, electronica, and hip hop.
