3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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-

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.