Background to the Group • Hollywood Undead (HU) formed in 2005,

their first song called „The Kids‟. The

original members where Deuce, Charlie

Scene, Johnny 3 Tears (AKA: J3T), Da

Kurlz, J-Dog and Funnyman.

• Their first album „Swan Songs‟ was

released in 2008 and was a success.

They claim there genre is „R‟n‟B‟, rap

mixed with punk and elements of rock.

This has been nicknamed as „Rap-Rock‟.

• In 2010 the band member Deuce left the

band because of personal differences

between them and the other members.

The band needed a new fifth member…

Background of the Group • Danny Murrillo, a long time friend of the

group, was asked to help them on tour

and he eventually became the fifth

member of HU. His stage name ;Danny.

• On April 5th 2011, their second and best

selling album so far was released entitled

„American Tragedy‟. This was a lot darker

than the first album and included much

darker songs, most being about murder,

rape or drug abuse with the occasional

uplifting song such as „Comin‟ in Hot‟.

• They are currently waorking on their third

album which will be released later on in

2012.

• All members of the band wear masks to

conceal their faces.

Current Image of the Group- Danny • Danny‟s mask is gold. This connotes personal

power making him seem like a powerful artist to

the audience and allows him to dominate his

fellow band members. His mask has the cross on

it making him seem religious which makes him

appear more innocent, moral and more righteous

which makes the band look a lot more innocent

and good attracting a more righteous audience.

• He wears a cap. This is genre representative as it

is something rappers commonly do and therefore

represents the „rap‟ part of the „rap-rock‟ genre.

• His general choices of clothing include black,

leather items which are more of a rock genre

suggesting the „rock‟ part of „rap-rock‟ to the

audience.

• He also has tattoos, again representative of the

rock genre and also appealing to a rebellious

teenage audience as a tattoo is seen as a form of

rebellion.

Current Image of the Group- Charlie

Scene (CS) • CS wears a bandanna and sunglasses t o act as

his mask. This differentiates him from the rest of

the band because they have real masks and he

doesn‟t making him seem more individual. The

bandanna and sunglasses also create a

mysterious dark look to CS which are common

themes of a rock genre and therefore help show

HU as a „rap-rock‟ band instead of just a rap

group.

• He also wears a cap to suggest the rap element.

• He wears a black hoodie, jeans and t-shirt. This

connotes death and murder which increases the

dark feel he has but also makes him look evil,

cancelling out the righteous and moral idea that

Danny‟s image gives off. The hoodie also makes

him appear like a thug, again a form of rebellion for

the stereotype of a teenager and therefore helping

to appeal to this rebellious audience through the

use of mise-en-scene elements.

Current Image of the Group-

J3T • J3T‟s mask is blue. The colour blue represents sadness,

making him look like a dark depressed part of the band.

This links in with his name as the T stands for „Tears‟.

This creates audience sympathy for him making them

want to hear the music more. He has a tattoo of the

number 3 on his neck and the number is on his mask,

which helps to identify him and allows him to be easily

recognised because it‟s the 3 part of his name.

• The butterflies on his mask. Butterflies represent change

which suggests a difference, singling him out further from

the other individuals in the band.

• He again wears similar clothing to the other two members

to show the image of the bands genre.

• All of his clothes are black which make him look even

more depressed, linking in with the blue on the mask. This

helps the audience have sympathy for him again

increasing the want for them to listen to the music out of

sympathy.

Current Image of the Group- Da

Kurlz(DK) • DK has a mask with two emotions. A

crazy smile and a angry face. This

suggests he is the crazy unpredictable

one of the group as his own face does not

appear to remain a constant at all. It also

makes him look quite creepy which could

intimidate the audience into listening to

the music.

• Unlike other band members, he has no

hat and no rap elements, but has all the

rock elements suggesting that he is the

“rocker” of the group which makes him

appeal to a more wider rock audience and

attracting a larger rock audience.

Current Image of the Group- Funny Man

(FM) • FM has an emotionless black mask suggesting

mystery and depression, which again goes to the rock

audience. It also makes him look dark and moody

which can also be appealing to a rock audience.

• He has no cap, black leather clothes and black hair

again suggesting a rock metal audience for this

member of the band and also makes the funny man

look like he has no humour which is a bipolar opposite

to what his name should suggest. This increases the

mystery element to the audience and could potentially

make him seem more appealing to the audience.

• He is wearing dog tags which suggests he has some

honour and does care about things and does believe

in freedom. This makes him look a lot less

depressing, and more human to an audience,

allowing the audience to relate to him (Uses and

Gratifications Theory).

Current Image of the Group- J-Dog

(JD) • JD is the rapper of the group based on his

image. He has the dollar note as a mouth,

with money being a common theme of rap

music making him appear to the be

rapper. He also wears a cap, another

common theme of the rapper. He also has

blood on his mask which suggests murder

which is another stereotype associated

with the rapper. Plus his name has the

word „Dog‟ in it, which is a common

expression to call someone in rap music.

He appears to have little or no rock-style

to him that signifies him as rock in the „rap-

rock‟ so he more appeals to the rap

audience as his image makes him look like

a rapper.

Current image of the group as a

whole

• In conclusion there is no general image of the

band, as they are all together individuals,

each appealing to a different audience to

make their music more wide-spread so that it

reaches more people.

• However, when the band are together as

whole, the predominant colour is black so they

do look more like a rock group than a rap

group meaning it isn‟t fully true to the „rap-

rock‟ genre.

Industry of the Group

• Hollywood Undead is under the Polydor Records record

label (part of the universal music group). They run a

range of genres such as pop („Lady Gaga‟), Rap („N-

Dubz‟) and rock (Marilyn Manson) so they have wide

coverage, meaning the artists they represent are

targeted at wide audiences.

Audience of the Group • HU‟s main audience is a young, under 30

audience, an even mix of male and female

listeners who have gone onto further education

(like College). They also have audience of the

rapcore (rap/rock) genre because they are a

rapcore group.

• They appeal to them through the use of their

individual images, meaning most of the

audience listen to the band for a different

member or their collective image as a whole,

and make rap songs that have rock incorporated

into it. This makes it appeal to both separate

audiences.

Cultural Values and Ideology

• Their cultural vales are suggested by their

music. These are varied, but all appeal to a

young audience because they are stereotypical

of a young audience.

• They seem to think drinking to excess is okay,

as the song „California‟ suggests as the lyrics

say „lets get, get drunk‟ suggesting that they

believe getting drunk is acceptable.

• They also seem to think sex whenever they feel

like is acceptable in society as the song „Bottle

and a Gun‟ suggests as one of the lyrics is „I can

show you how to hump, without making love‟.

Sexuality and Voyeurism

• Most of their songs contain sexual themes,

about band members, or groupies engaging in

it, or songs about rape. This appeals to the

young audience as it‟s topical and is

stereotypical of young people.

• Since Deuce left the band there has been less

and less voyeurism in their videos and group

appearances and this makes them look more

respectable, despite what some of their music

is about.

Intertextuality

• One of their songs, „Levitate‟

has been remixed and used for

the game „Need for Speed:

Shift 2‟ which suggests the

song „Levitate‟ is fast paced

and exciting. This makes the

band look exciting. This means

more people would want to

listen to the group because of

how exciting they are and how

they appear to be.

How the music creates

representations of image- „Swan

Songs‟ • Most of the songs on their first album were

depressing and about death, sickness and

disease, with the occasional uplifting song

and the occasional song about sex or

partying. This appeals to a young

audience because depression, drinking

and partying are commonly associated

with the young audience and therefore the

song relates to them meaning they would

want to listen to them.

How the music creates

representations of image-

„American Tragedy‟ • In their second album, their songs instantly get a

lot darker. Most are about, death or hell, or

destruction with the occasional song about

partying. This makes them seem even more

depressing but does allow them to better appeal

to the rock part of the audience as these are

common elements of rock. The rap part of the

songs appeal to the rap audience but there are

no heavy rap themes on the second album.