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.