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 differences
between them and the other members.
The band needed a new fifth member…

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 to
conceal their faces.

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 of the
rock genre and also appealing to a rebellious
teenage audience as a tattoo is seen as a form of
rebellion.

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 for
the stereotype of a teenager and therefore helping
to appeal to this rebellious audience through the
use of mise-en-scene elements.

7. Current Image of the Group-
• J3T‟s mask is blue. The colour blueJ3T sadness,
represents
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.
• All of his clothes are black which make him look even
more depressed, linking in with the blue on the mask. This
helps the audience have sympathy for him again
increasing the want for them to listen to the music out of
sympathy.

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 rock audience and
attracting a larger rock audience.

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 look a lot less
depressing, and more human to an audience,
allowing the audience to relate to him (Uses and
Gratifications Theory).

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-style
to him that signifies him as rock in the „rap-
rock‟ so he more appeals to the rap
audience as his image makes him look like
a rapper.

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 making love‟.

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.