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THE RELEASE OF DEMON DAYS
British virtual art pop band Gorillaz, fronted by legendary Blur frontman Damon Albarn, released their sophomore album Demon Days in May of 2005. While the album was an immediate hit upon its release, listeners at the time likely wouldn't have guessed how much the album would go on to impact the music industry. Demon Days shook up the popular music landscape by breaking rules, setting new precedents, and creating completely new concepts. Almost 20 years after its release, core concepts from the album’s framework can still be found in the music industry today. From blending genres to incorporating extended media, here are five of the major impacts Gorillaz’s Demon Days has had on popular music.
THE VALIDITY OF SIDE PROJECTS
Possibly the biggest piece of trivia about Gorillaz is that it started as a side project of musician Damon Albarn. In the 2000s, this would’ve been a genuine revelation to new listeners. At the time, Damon Albarn was best known as the frontman of the massively successful British rock band Blur, known for their hit albums Parklife and Blur. A side project becoming so popular, to the point of totally eclipsing the artist’s original band, was extremely uncommon at the time. However, Gorillaz would explode after the release of Demon Days, with the album remaining the band’s most popular today. To put the scope of Gorillaz’s popularity into perspective, they rank among the top 150 most-streamed bands on Spotify and have triple the number of monthly streaming numbers as Blur — who themselves have an impressive 10 million monthly streams.
Today, we see side projects regularly achieve mainstream success, which we covered in a separate article. Thom Yorke — Radiohead’s legendary frontman and one of the most famous musicians in modern history — is currently finding great success with his side project, The Smile. In 2009, members of Queens of the Stone Age, Led Zeppelin, and Nirvana/Foo Fighters would form the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, whose only self-titled album is a modern classic. Julian Casablancas of The Strokes tapped into the experimental rock arena in 2018 with his project The Voidz, and they still release music today.
CHANGING STYLES WITHOUT LOSING AN AUDIENCE
One of the biggest reasons it was such a surprise to see Damon Albarn at the helm of Gorillaz in 2005 was the band’s distinctly different sound from Blur. Blur had their feet firmly planted in 90s Britpop revival, making rock-leaning tracks that were bouncy, smooth, and catchy. Gorillaz, however, couldn’t be pinned down by a “rock” sound. Albarn and his numerous collaborators used a combination of hip hop beats, electropop arrangements, and touches of alternative rock to form a sound that was completely unique to Gorillaz. Albarn even altered his singing style to better fit with Gorillaz’s calmer, more loose sound. Both bands have continued to excel despite their frontman splitting his talents between multiple sounds. As late as 2015, Blur was continuing to churn out quality Britpop with their album The Magic Whip. Gorillaz has also continued to evolve, pushing further and further into art pop with each release.
Today, artists altering their genre almost seems like a rite of passage to prove their staying power. Massive stars like Post Malone and Beyoncé have driven their stock upwards by embracing country music. Rage artists are finding themselves moving closer and closer to emo and metal with each release. Recently, the music industry received a shakeup with Lady Gaga going back to her art pop ways after embracing more conventional pop for some time. Artists are sometimes rewarded for taking risks today, and the success of Demon Days helped lay that foundation.
THE INTERSECTION OF HIP HOP AND ROCK
While they didn’t invent the genre, Gorillaz brought trip hop — a combination of hip hop and electronica — to the masses with Demon Days. Bands like Portishead and Massive Attack were slowly building up the genre during the 90s, but Gorillaz synthesized the grittiness of Portishead and heaviness of Massive Attack into a widely accessible form of trip hop. However, Albarn wasn’t ready to fully step away from his rock roots yet. Demon Days is full of tracks that mesh together hip hop beats and vocals with alternative rock interludes, songwriting, and attitude. Where tracks like “DARE” dive fully into electronic beats and a rhythmic feel, “Feel Good Inc.” comes in with its lumbering bass line, sung verses, and guitar-heavy bridge. Additionally, many tracks on the album feature rappers or hip hop producers, adding more credibility to the album’s double-sided nature.
As one of the driving forces of popular music today, hip hop has begun taking a page from Demon Days by regularly incorporating rock elements into songs. Rage artists like Playboi Carti continue to add punk, metal, and gothic elements into their tracks to create a more artistic feel. While not loved by everyone, emo has creeped its way into hip hop through artists like Trippie Redd. Denzel Curry famously recorded one of the best covers of “Bulls on Parade” ever made by mixing his aggressive flow and delivery with the track’s original punk sentiment. Popular artists in the R&B and hip hop scenes have also directly credited Demon Days as an inspiration, including Kali Uchis and A$AP Rocky.
THE POWER OF EXTENDED MEDIA
Gorillaz technically doesn’t exist — at least the band that’s depicted as making the music doesn’t exist. Rather than be the actual face of the band, Albarn teamed up with comic artist Jamie Hewlett to create a “virtual band” for Gorillaz. 2-D, Noodle, Murdoc, and Russel — four characters designed by Hewlett — make up the identity of the band in promotional material, album art, and music videos. With a band made up of animated characters, Gorillaz was in a unique position to load up on supplementary content outside of the music. Gorillaz has lore — so much so that YouTube videos explaining the characters' histories and developments receive millions of views. There’s a running narrative with these characters that mostly started after Demon Days was released, showing how the fictional characters write and record songs, interact with each other outside of music, and how their character growth has led to the band changing its sound over time. The characters have taken on a life of their own, and it’s likely that the band wouldn’t have achieved such massive success without this extended media.
Widespread marketing campaigns that include music videos, extra promotional material, storylines, and other extended media are common in today’s music industry. Car Seat Headrest used an internet scavenger hunt to promote their just-released album, The Scholars. The Weeknd famously used satirical caricatures of himself to depict the story and themes of his latest trilogy of albums. TikTok and other social media platforms are being used more than ever to elicit excitement for songs by creating dances, lip syncs, or soundtracking trends. Today, popular songs rarely exist without some kind of large scale visual accompaniment, and independent artists regularly create their own success by utilizing extended media.
MAKING A POINT, SUBTLY
Demon Days is a heavily political album. While its messaging isn’t painted directly in its song titles or sound, Albarn filled much of the album with subtle commentary on mid-2000s world politics. The tracks don’t stick to one topic though. “Fire Coming out of the Monkey’s Head” is a clear attack on human and corporate greed. “Feel Good Inc.” critiques capitalist structures pushing quick hits of happiness to distract from decreasing standards of living. “Dirty Harry” condemns the use of violence to fight violence. “Kids With Guns” is about… well. In a time where punk music was still commercially relevant, protest music was typically as subtle as a brick to the face. Demon Days helped break this mold by packing heavily political themes into highly accessible, catchy songs.
In the realm of political music today, properly layering subject matter into songs is seen as critical. Albums that are overtly political, such as IDLES’ 2018 masterpiece Joy as an Act of Resistance, are met with backlash by listeners who don’t want their music to be so confrontational. Hip hop artists in particular have been refining this craft for years, as artists layer themes of race, intersectionality, and wealth into tracks that are simultaneously bangers. Some of the most popular, politically charged albums of the last few years, such as MGMT’s 2018 album Little Dark Age, are massive commercial successes despite their inherently combative themes.
BOUNDARY BREAKING AND ERA DEFINING:
Demon Days is more than just one of the best albums from one of the most popular bands on the planet. It was a watershed moment for popular music, setting new precedents and pushing boundaries like few albums before it. Albarn, Hewlett, and countless collaborators created not only a generationally memorable set of tracks, but a generationally important moment in the music industry. Demon Days helped prove that side projects can be massively successful, helped artists feel confident in switching musical styles, bridged the gap between rock and hip hop in popular music, showed what a strong media presence can do for an artist, and helped display the power of subtlety. The album has been influential for almost 20 years, and it likely will be for many more to come.
