Gorillaz, a music group that I appreciate indulging in, is a virtual band consisting of the four fictional characters, 2-D the main singer of the group, Noodle the guitarist, Murdoc the bass player, and Russel the drummer.

The premise for the fictional band was originally formulated as a commentary to that of American media, in particular that of the channel MTV, from UK comic book illustrator Jamie Hewlett, and musician Damon Albarn. During the year 1997, their first proclaimed single, “On Your Own”, had their debut on the airways, although it wasn’t under the Gorillaz name. Instead it was under the alias of Albarn’s other band, Blur. It wasn’t until late 2000, when their official debut single under the Gorillaz alias, “Tomorrow Comes Today,” was put into the limelight on radio stations. Thus began Gorillaz ‘journey into popularity, and in that sense, within the circulation of the late 2000’s to early 2010’s, within my toddler years, was when I first caught wind of them. This was in consideration for the fact that the band had massive influence within the internet space as well as pop culture at the time.

I was first introduced to Gorillaz through an episode of MTV cribs, which if you’re not familiar with, is a documentary that tours around the abodes of celebrities and musicians. Although the band is fictional, the episode went on like a usual episode of MTV cribs, with the exception of implementing the daily livelihood of the characters plus their rooms. The episode also had small clips of some of their most prevalent music videos, and the rooms they had recorded them in. One of those said clips, came from the music video Dare, whereupon listening to the few seconds that they were allowed to show on screen, had resulted in it becoming a core memory. It wasn’t until the age of 9, when out of complete boredom, I began digging into a rabbit hole within the world of Gorillaz. During my search, I found myself listening to a couple of their songs, one of which included the single 19-2000, where to this day is one of my personal cherished songs from the group. In that same search, I managed to discover their significant impact on early internet culture, with most of their popular songs being a staple in shaping meme culture as well as early YouTube. In addition to that, the band was highly associated with punk culture as well as street culture at the time, thus resulting in their popularity skyrocketing.

Most of the songs produced by Gorillaz are to make light of social, or issues within the music industry of the time, with singles such as Feel Good Inc. representing this. Moreover their music videos are notable for being able to construct a world and lore for the characters, while including other artists or musicians into the mix of the lore.

For several years since their debut song,  they’ve been able to be nominated for several awards, covering from the Grammy Awards to the GQ awards. In 2001, the fictional band managed to win the billboard video music awards, from their notable album, Clint Eastwood, for best modern rock new artist clip and best hip-hop clip. Half a decade later, in 2006, the band would win another award, this time from the Grammy Awards, for best pop collaboration vocals in their song “Feel Good Inc.”