Puppet Monkey Techno Music Record Player

For the launch of their fourth studio album, the Arctic Monkeys even managed to stir up an old-fashioned censorship controversy (if having a big-box retailer threaten to put a sticker over the words “Suck It” passes muster as censorship). One can almost imagine the boys from Britain mischievously choosing the title as a joke on American corporate and cultural sensibilities. “Suck it and see” is, after all, candy-inspired colloquial British for giving something —anything—a try. Presumably, that distinction was lost on the powers-that-be at the Walmarts of this world, who may have worried that the pseudo-sexual flavor of the album title would encourage impressionable American teenagers to experiment with a variety of behaviors that might actually involve sucking. Of course, nothing keeps rock ’n’ roll feeling relevant, in touch with its rebellious roots, like a censorship controversy generated by the small-minded monitoring of big business morality police. But few bands in rock history have generated more hype than Arctic Monkeys.

Ushering in what pop pundits called a “new era in music marketing,” Arctic Monkeys—who gave away CDs at their early concerts and selectively released free music online—were an internet sensation of such magnitude that they scored two No. 1 hits in the U.K. before the launch of their 2006 debut album. “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not”  sold over 100,000 copies on the first day of its release, and over 360,000 copies within the first week—the strongest record debut in British history. Even then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown tried to catch their wave, claiming to be a fan, though he was unable to name a single one of their songs. Not long thereafter, Arctic Monkeys displaced the brilliantly imploding Libertines in NME’s listeners’ poll, earning the moniker “best band in the U.K.” All the buzz soon made the transatlantic voyage: “Whatever” scored the second-fastest first-week-debut for an indie record in U.S. history, entering the Billboard charts at #24. But sales lagged thereafter, and the band’s US launch, however respectable, never caught up with its UK success.