“Feel Good” with Gorillaz and “Reject False Icons”

Abstract

Gorillaz are a music visual project created in 1998 by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. The chapter discusses the concept of Gorillaz, and how they made popular music innovative, virtually. Analysis of the hyperreal members includes a description of their multiple identities drawing on intertextual references and postmodern tropes in popular culture. The 2005 song and video “Feel Good Inc.” is analyzed musicologically under diverse theoretical frameworks such as Barthes’s “Third Meaning” and “Myth,” and Baudrillard’s simulacrum. The final part of the chapter discusses the live performances and the audience’s reaction to the group. The chapter concludes with discussion of the fascination generated by virtual representation of the group. Here, issues of authenticity and the identity of Albarn are questioned. Is Albarn’s purpose for producing Gorillaz entertainment value, or is he masquerading his identity by wearing multiple virtual faces of Gorillaz?

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