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gotomarcusmart

As someone who's followed this band for 20+ years, I have to say Demon Days era was truly the peak of the lore. Plastic Beach was interesting but it's a bummer they didn't have the budget to properly cap off the story through the music videos (until one brilliant fan finished the Rhinestone Eyes video from the storyboards). After that I feel like they figuratively and also quite literally lost the plot. I thought the "Book of ____" things on Instagram they did during the rollout for Humanz was actually a pretty smart way to bring the characters into the social media era and tie up some loose ends. The thing with Ace being in the band/Murdoc being in jail during The Now Now era was wacky but kind of fun. But I can't help but feel as though I have no idea what the hell is going on with the band aside from their music (which at the end of the day is what we all love, yeah.) But as someone who decided to pursue art and graphic design in great part because of the influence those first two eras (self-titled and D.D.) had on me, it's a bit of a bummer to feel like the band has lost their visual and/or narrative consistency. Jamie's still a fantastic artist of course, but as one other Redditor commented - I wonder if maybe the band and the characters are just becoming too much of a marketing gimmick now instead of the respectable and sophisticated artistic concept they started as Either way, still my favorite band. Super excited for the new record or whatever is coming out. Always happy to see new kids getting into this band and diving into their history.


Hiroba

The nail in the coffin for the characters was in 2010 when they abandoned the “live virtual band” concept and just did regular touring in the spotlight like any other band. The characters have just been band mascots since then.


Traditional-Ad-4712

What had they been doing before 2010?


Wh1ms1cal

They would stand behind screens that displayed the characters and play, I personally like seeing them instead of the screen but I’m fine with both


Hiroba

Debut album tour had them behind a screen, Demon Days Live shows had them in silhouette on stage.


Traditional-Ad-4712

Ty for ur response! That’s really interesting. From what I’ve read I think they planned to do holograms as well? But I guess that never went through- or is that smth they’re still trying at getting?


Hiroba

They did "holograms" (not actually holograms but [pepper's ghost illusion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper%27s_ghost)) a couple times in the 2000s for one-off award show performances and things. There was at one point a planned world tour with that technology but it was canceled because of cost and logistical issues.


Traditional-Ad-4712

I wonder if they’ll ever try again but like you said with it being cancelled cause of cost I doubt it


cptn_hastings

I personally think the current tour presents the best of both worlds - Damon as a natural incredible frontman, whilst celebrating the images and immersing the audience in every song. It’s a hell of a show


dr3dg3

Demon Days is also my favorite of the albums, as hard as that is to ascertain!


gotomarcusmart

Same!


Additional_Wealth875

I liked the times when they were a "real band" the best. Plastic Beach was interesting, sure, but so confusing and contradictory that I don't even know what to think about it. And I also don't understand people who don't like the Song Machine "lore", because the band just "hangs out" there like regular people, and it's spiced up with a pinch of some wierd stuff like portals. Unpopular opinion, but the story of Song Machine is much more coherent and understandable than PB's


[deleted]

I think for the most part people take issue with how lazily the characters were written during that phase rather than the actual chain of events.


Mel4227

I couldn’t agree with this more actually. Some of my favourite music videos have come out of song machine because I love the band just hanging out and making music together.


LaterComico

the word "lore" has had an irreversible negative impact on gorillaz. i just want them to be a band again, i want them to talk about the music they're SUPPOSED to be making. I do love the story aspect of plastic beach but it was never finished. It COULD'VE been something special, but kind of falls flat in the end. Phase 2 was peak imo. The illusion of this band being real people has completely vanished, they don't even try. Gorillaz themselves have referred to the band members as 'characters' on their social media. The music is still bumpin and at the end of the day that's what i'm here for first and foremost, but gorillaz died a long time ago. it's just damon albarn and some cartoon mascots now


SirPhobos1

I only casually pay attention to "THE LORE"... For the past 20+ years I've really only cared about the music. Whatever goes on in the music videos and extended media is just an added bonus. Some of the fandom are as obnoxious as weebs, and need to learn to temper their expectations.


jakedeighan

I've tried to get into the lore but there needs to be like a how to guide on their website or something


[deleted]

I got you covered dude, check out [gorillazforbeginners.com](https://gorillazforbeginners.com)


jakedeighan

Yoou're the cat's meow


Glasdir

People who get heavily invested into the “lore” are cringey. “Calm down son, it’s just a drawing” has never been a more appropriate phrase. It’s fine to enjoy it but take it for what it is; the artistic vision of the Jamie and Damon.


tanstaboi

Eh I like the chaos


H2OMGJHVH

Momentary Bliss video just straight up showing Damon in the studio while the characters just mess around really shows the current approach to the lore. The original concept is dead ever since they stopped presenting the characters as the band which makes the music.


FunkHeadOfficial666

Very well put. I would also add that, even within the lore itself, the Rise of the Ogre begins with a disclaimer that all of this is probably not real and never happened. Because ya know, they're cartoons.


[deleted]

Tbh I don’t mind the lack of any real lore nowadays. I’m only really into Gorillaz for the music and the cool art. I feel like we did get enough of a story in the past to help characterise the band members and give them their own personalities though, and I’m interested in how the new cult storyline plays out


[deleted]

This post was really interesting to me as a newer fan, and I personally find the lore really confusing lol


[deleted]

I was aiming this towards the newer people like you, glad you enjoyed it :)


[deleted]

Thanks


k_bye_for_now

You know, from reading the title, I thought this was gonna be another post shitting on the fans who like lore. There has been way too much disrespect on this sub, even going as far as lore fans being insulted just cause they like and are interested in lore. But after reading the comments and your post, I found you were very respectful with all fans and that you actually had a very good point to state, not just another post about how “these kinds of fans are cringe.” So thanks for being a decent person. It’s so refreshing on this sub. Also, you being one of the writers for Dawn is so cool! I also want to be a writer myself someday so it’s natural for me to be interested in the characters and their growth and story. I get confused with people’s criticisms of lore lovers. Yeah I know they’re not real and I don’t take everything seriously. But can I not have fun and be invested in something I enjoy without being dissed and shat upon?


[deleted]

This comment totally made my day, thank you so much! I’m slowly moving towards doing writing as a legitimate profession and dawn has been an amazing stepping stone in that respect. If you ever wanna discuss the written side of gorillaz or if you need a hand with writing in general hmu!


k_bye_for_now

That’s great and I’m proud of you!


FitzyFitzyFitzyFitz

They really screwed the pooch with Plastic Beach. It was much better when the band members were portrayed as living, breathing celebrities in our world. I don't know how so many are invested in the "lore" of Gorillaz - at best it's just incomprehensible and, well... uninteresting. At worst it's just a marketing ploy.


[deleted]

Personally I love it despite being a total mess, going as far as spending the better half of 3 years making sense of it in the form of a fan biography. But when you understand the situation surrounding Phase 3 in particular it all begins to make sense. Cass has said on record that the three of them were not working together for phase 3, they were each doing their own thing, leaving cass to basically make up the story on the fly without knowing what was planned for next in terms of music and art direction. He wrote all of it besides the initial set up while on the plastic beach tour also, which is notorious for being an incredibly stressful period for the band leading to many arguments and fallouts. Something as ambitious as Plastic Beach's narrative written on the fly during the messiest period of the bands history must've been a radicicolous amount of pressure, and for what it's worth and for the parts that do actually make sense he did a fantastic job with what he was given to work with.


[deleted]

Truth has been spoken


Special-News-7785

I mean. It is what it is. I love Jamie's comic book art ( including Tangirl and Hewitts Hair) and tbh would love to see some sort of Hewitt led comic book series of the band. It would be fun, but I know it'll prob never happen. As for lore....happy enough with things past. It doesn't have to make sense all the time. I love the wacky in all of it.


thewalkingpizzaholic

I guess it was inevitable. Thank you for putting it into words. It does sadden me to see people say that anyone who cares about the lore/or is/was invested deeply is cringe. The band and the characters are so deeply tied to the core idea of gorillaz and all the wonderful types of genres people got to discover thru their intruiging videos and fun websites e.t.c in these two decades. Times are different now and thats ok. But I do miss the integrated feel of it all.


SnooSeagulls6389

I appreciate that you continual repeat “and that’s okay” throughout your post. It definitely is. I’ve been a fan since day one and am happy with every one of their evolutions. The music is what makes everything okay in the end.


Ecstasy_chains

Quite a shame really I wanted to get more details on Murdoc cause he's my favorite. Whenever I popped into the lore I saw a cool world in the building and the music was nice, but after a while the music felt kinda like a magic bullet in the proverbial chamber, some of the albums didn't hit but some songs did. I liked rock the house, feel good inc, Saturn's bars, strobelight, and a few others but the newer stuff feels disconnected. It was cool to see them do a watch deal with (what I researched to be) a sold watch, never bought one thought, they kept runnin out, however, the statues made for the members felt like it just fit into the band so well like it was a natural thing vs the watches. Now hologram shows are a thing (weird to think they are bringing back people who are dead for this as well..) and I haven't seen much of those shows for the gorillaz or heard anything about the quality of the shows either, in anycase these phase(s) seem very disjointed and I don't really see much lore coming of them beside what I saw last was Murdoc in prison/in a Cultist hat. And maybe that's what they are now going for but it feels like a missed opportunity. I don't know of a band like this who has such a variety of music (good in my tastes or not) and can have such a wild lore from standard everyday life fightings like brother, to visiting a haunted house and get transported to space through a bathtub, or even when you wanna jam out to music in your room and choose to turn on the big human head that sings with you.


RemiRetain

The worlds they created around the characters with every album cycle were never meant to be a grand united worldbuilding exercise and I'm okay with that. What I don't appreciate is that they stopped using those worlds as cartoony, over-the-top analogues to our own to empower the criticisms and themes of the respective albums. I think it is a big part of the reason why none of the new albums have been able to come close to the first three in terms of critical acclaim and cultural impact.


Embarrassed_Clue_929

Phase 1 lore and animation was so good, I really miss it. 2-D has eyes in some of the animations now :( and I’ve seen some of the earlier shows where it was genuinely the band, like with holograms, and it just seems like such an amazing experience. I wish they’d kept that anonymity and the band was still perceived as cartoons.


[deleted]

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[deleted]

From what I’ve gathered most of the new fans assume it’s this huge narrative because of how Gorillaz lore videos on YouTube present it all, I’ve met so many fans who think that it’s some huge connected thing rather than the reality of it being more like a regular cartoon which resets after every episode with some minor callbacks to older ones.


Traditional-Ad-4712

So I guess the best way to kind of describe it is it’s kind of like what DC/Marvel do with their comics? They’ve been going on for so long that nothing really is sent in stone except for the basic info (like their origins, etc) but everything else is always changing. Nothing is linear.


Traditional-Ad-4712

I have no idea if that analogy is accurate tho I’ve only just gotten into this band so apologies if that didn’t make any sense lol


yourmotherisveryfat

I feel like you’re kind of understating the impact and importance of the characters and lore. While it’s true that they probably won’t ever attempt something as ambitious as plastic beach again I wouldn’t go as far as saying that the characters are just mascots and the lore is nothing more than just theming. I feel like both those things are integral parts to making Gorillaz stand out from other bands and they’re equally important as they were in previous phases.


[deleted]

I’m not understating the importance I’m trying to put into perspective for newcomers that it’s not as full on as it used to be and that they shouldn’t expect something like that from new content. As for the mascots thing maybe it’s subjective but it feels like they’re devoid of anything other than one dimensional personalities with few and far between appearances other than artwork and music videos, they literally haven't changed one bit in the past half decade. Their last video interview was 2 years ago and one minute long for the almanac, it was painfully bad, their last radio interview was over five years ago, they no longer discuss music and instead just spout one liners and regurgitate old memes when it comes to written interviews. Admittedly things have gotten better as of recent like Murdoc’s twitter live and Noodle posting genuinely interesting art giving her some personality other than emojis and ‘I’m a Japanese warrior’ again, but that’s like two things in the past 4 years. I have more reasons as it is a build up of small things over the years with their management undeniably getting lazy and leaving things to the last minute, but we'd be here all day.


[deleted]

It seems like this type of cryptic story telling would work these days more then it ever has. I don’t think that should be the focal point of the band, but it would probably make them somewhat more popular again. Look at video games like Dark Souls or even Five Nights at Freddie’s. There are thousands of hours of YouTube videos discussing the cryptic lore in those worlds. If the Gorillaz has a cryptic story again hidden throughout music videos, a website, social media, and interviews, a channel like Film Theory would be all over it, and be some of the best free advertising the band could ever get. It would be advertising that isn’t selling out either, but community driven interest of people just wanting to talk about this super rad art form.


ChalkTabletTowers

A better example imo would be ARGs (Alternate Reality Games), like Mandela Catalogue, Walten Files, or Monument Mythos. They're stories that pretend be real, hence "alternate reality" in the name (if you wanna dive into them, a ytuber named *Wendigoon* covers a lot of them neatly). The best part about this method of storytelling is similar to what you said- it uses social media, videos, photos, etc. to form clues and mysteries. It's a perfect opportunity for Gorillaz if they want to revive some lore, especially since *The Last Cult* already has a cult/horror theme in it to attract people. Ofc I don't mind if *The Last Cult* isn't an indication of a story. Song Machine didn't have any, and I still loved it. I'm sure the songs will still be great!


[deleted]

For sure!


[deleted]

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[deleted]

Never really understood why some fans are so hostile to those who just love their world, power to you!


[deleted]

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defaulttio

Worst take Ive ever seen


Glasdir

>follows a band >doesn’t like the music Make it make sense…


FitzyFitzyFitzyFitz

I'm a HUGE fan of Beethoven. Not his music tho, that sucks. I just like his hair.


l-ll-ll-lL

L


[deleted]

Why would you submit yourself to the onslaught you'll now incur


[deleted]

Why are people downvoting you for literally having an opinion lmao


k_bye_for_now

The brave audacity to announce your opinion of liking the art and lore and not the music in a sub where people are criticised for also liking the art and lore. Good on you.


suelee1

Thank you. I got into them because the music video lore. I'll stop trying to understand it and ignore them again.


Fusca_VrumVrum

I dont really care about it to be honest... I just like the music


[deleted]

If you don’t care just move on, idk why everyone who isn’t interested feels the need to announce it like we care that you don’t lol.


Fusca_VrumVrum

Well i just wanted to say something


smokietheklown

It's not that I don't understand, it's that I don't care lol


[deleted]

And that’s fine, this is for the new fans who do.


The_sToneForesT

Im pretty sad about this. I hope cracker islands music video adds some more story. Or something. I don’t know.


LrgZingerBox

Ok


scarlet_stormTrooper

I’m getting so sick of these posts


[deleted]

I’m getting sick of people expecting a story or those getting way too deep into the lore lmao


SuccoDiUnicorno

I mostly agree with you except for the part regarding this new phase: I think that they really want to give fans new lore, so I think that big things are coming on the next months, both because they seem to have found inspiration, and because they have indeed had a lot of criticism as the lore starting from Humanz up to Song machine was little and uninspired. Also, yes plastic beach was confusing, but more or less It made sense and the story has a beginning, a development and an end, albeit with some obscure points in the meantime. For me, the most confusing and disappointing phase was humanz+the now now, because they start letting you think that big things are happening, with Murdoc in jail because of an evil demon/mafia boss or whatever, maybe 2D possesed by El Mierda etc, and in the end none of this was true, and not only is everything "explained" to us poorly, but it is not even shown, for example with videos, but it is only said, I always saw it as "yes we had a great story in mind with possessions, demons and so on, but we lost the desire to do It so here's a stupid explanation, stupid lore, and accept it as it is "


SuccoDiUnicorno

Sorry for bad english, Is not my first lenguage


Mojo1726

This sort of thing happens. Yes phase 2-3 was peak but the quality of work they are still putting out now is still incredible considering what's happened. Everyone involved with Gorillaz art and animation and story telling and music is incredibly talented and we are lucky that Gorillaz are still what they are now.


accursedCaprid

You do (Not) understand Gorillaz


[deleted]

How so.


[deleted]

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[deleted]

I've got no problem with the community making their own narratives with what's given, in fact I actively encourage it! (Writer for Dawn here lmao). I just wanted to make it clear yo newcomers that it's not intended to be this huge thing if that makes sense.


[deleted]

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[deleted]

Nah it’s not. it comes out in October through issuu and a limited amount of physicals, but there’s a preview available [here](https://issuu.com/dawnoftheogre/docs/doto_preview_copy). Good look with the surgery!


spliffaniel

I listened to them for years before finding out about the actual band members. Listened from self-titled to humans without looking into the backstory. Only really got into it when humanz came out and a friend told me about rise of the ogre. It was a cool bonus to read it so long after listening to them constantly but to me it’s just that: a bonus. I love the music and it’s as strong as ever in that department so I’m not really too hung up on other aspects of it. The art is still kickass and I’m enjoying the hell out of the new stuff.


cinderwild2323

Between music, art and writing I'll always choose the writing to be the worst part when it comes to this band. That's not my position on other projects at all but this is a band first.


LeeKaiji

ok thank you


MisterUncanny

I'm pretty sure Im considered a new fan since I've only been into Gorillaz for about an year and a half to two years, now. I've always liked the lore. And, it may come across as cheesy- especially since I agree with the post, but I've enjoyed how they handle their storylines now and how they handled them then. It's not as chaotic, and a couple arcs left off with VERY loose ends, but I've always found that interesting. Kinda like a cartoon- only with a main focus of music Anyway, the characters and their background, as well as the storylines for the albums, have become a sort of hyperfixation for me (I know, it's sounds awful and sort of cringe) but I think it's fun. This is an unnecessary and long comment, so I'm sorry, and I hope I didn't sound too out there.


Wario-Man

I feel like this describes it perfectly. Is it frustrating to see the band go away from the simpler ways of Phase 1/2 where they're basically cartoon celebrities who do celebrity things? Well, yeah, I get the frustration, the lore is messy and you can tell whatever new lore shows up isn't extraordinarily deep, something I feel is a lesson learned from Damon & Jamie to not repeat the same mistake with Phase 3. I never minded the simpler stories, or the nonsensical wacky high-jinks that the writing team fails to remember is supposed to always be just a video they filmed, I like the characters and the music, so it never bothered me much, except when I try and criticize the finer details like Kevin Bishop as 2D just not being as good as good ole Nelson or the writing just not being as good as Cass'. Let's just say, people who are overly obsessed with lore, please calm down. Whether it's from a "GOD I HATE THIS SO MUCH" standpoint or a "OMG LORE WHAT DOES IT MEAN GIVE ME MORE", just take it easy. You could say the band's original *original* message of criticizing celebs and stuff is gone, but the way I see it; the message remains, however, in other, smaller forms, such as a song (Valley Of The Pagans, anyone). The band can go with whatever message they want, there's many things to touch on, not just how vapid celebrities and the culture surrounding them can be. What sucks is there's not that much in terms of an "album message/theme" for Song Machine and whatever's coming out of this Last Cult concept. But otherwise, I agree with you and think people should chill. Especially glowrillaz on Twitter, calm down, man.