Arctic Monkeys are an English rock band from High Green, a suburb of Sheffield. Formed in 2002, the band currently consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, guitar), Jamie Cook (guitar), Nick O'Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Matt Helders (drums, backing vocals).

Arctic Monkeys achieved chart success with their first single, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor", which reached number one in the UK Singles Chart. Their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, released in January 2006, became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, surpassing Oasis' Definitely Maybe. It remains the fastest-selling debut album for a band. It received critical acclaim, winning both the 2006 Mercury Prize and the 2007 BRIT Award for Best British Album. The band's second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, was released on 23 April 2007, sold over 225,000 copies in its debut week, and was nominated for the 2007 Mercury Prize. The group also picked up the award for Best British Album and Best British Group at the BRIT Awards in 2008.

Arctic Monkeys achieved their success through fan-made demo tapes. They were heralded as one of the first acts to come to the public attention via the Internet, with commentators suggesting they represented the possibility of a change in the way in which new bands are promoted and marketed. The band eventually signed to the independent record label Domino Records.

Formation and early years

In 2001, neighbours Alex Turner and Jamie Cook asked for instruments as Christmas presents and both received guitars. After teaching themselves to play, the pair used the instruments with Turner's schoolmates Andy Nicholson and Matt Helders. Nicholson already played bass guitar, so Helders ended up playing drums — "that was all that were left... they all had guitars so I bought a kit after a bit." An article in Blender magazine in May 2006 suggested that Turner was not the original singer of the band: "When their first singer, Glyn Jones, left after a few months, Turner cautiously stepped up to the mic, innit." This was soon followed by a more detailed article in UK tabloid The Sun, who reported that in the very early days of the band — before they had played a gig — Glyn Jones, another attendee of Stocksbridge High School, used to be the band's singer. Jones said that he and Turner "were bored our GCSE exams so we started writing a song about a geek in our year...". Jones says that he was lead singer only because "Alex was really humble and didn't realise how great his own voice was... he was happy just playing his guitar." However, Jones says that he "did not have the dedication to take it any further... to me we were just a gang of kids messing around because we were bored." Although reports suggested they named themselves after Helders' uncle's (or even father's) band, Helders later admitted that these reports were false, claiming "we made that up ‘cause we got so many people asking us that in the UK, so we just started making stories up", and that he just didn't have the heart to tell the original reporter he'd been lying.