, Sheffield's own, are proof that talent can indeed rule the day.
This group of four unassuming Yorkshire lads formed a band in 2002 that has quickly fired the imagination of fans across the world. After quickly conquering their native Britain they ventured across the Atlantic where they have grown out of the alternative American college scene to become a mainstream success.
Today, polititicians refer to them in their speeches. Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer claims to listen to them every morning. They have become,if reluctantly, cultural icons.
Listening to them for the first time elicits an immediate visceral response - this is something special, you think all at once.
Then, not long after your thoughts coalesce, you are struck by the unique individuality of their sound and their infectious enervating energy.
Some time later, enthralled, you venture an idea of what their sound might signify.
It gives a voice, if for a moment, you surmise, to the true raw and combustible passion that inhabits the council flats, the clubs,the schools, the coming together of young minds living in a fast paced world, the confluence of many musical influences and cultures from everywhere intersecting and yearning to capture it all at once, in a way unfamiliar to any corporate prediction of market trends.In essence they are the new spirit of rebellion.
Hearing Alex Turner's driven stream of consiousness lyrics written and sung unapologetically in his native Yorkshire patterns against the backdrop of insistent bass and rhythm guitar and drums hints at a sense of the modern Britain.
They have risen, it can be argued, as a consequence of this new Britain more egalitarian and informed than in past but imbued more and more with the groundswell of the common man.
The Arctic Monkeys came up the hard way with the surprising ease that characterises the digital age. Foregoing the careful assessments of consumer interest and well crafted marketing plans, they got the nod because they were good and people talked.
In the past this might have left them trapped in a niche for years. Today, talk is global and word spread.
Actively handing out free CDs at their early concerts and encouraging file sharing set the whole thing into momentum.
Other bands have tried this approach but unencumbered by the talent of the Arctic Monkeys they have not gone nearly so far nearly so fast
An site formed and before long they were tapped into a huge wellspring of young fans in America and the rest as they say has been history.
They have since signed a contract with Domino Records and have been accused by some critics of cynical manipualtion of the Internet medium: a baseless charge considering the new territory they have unearthed with their success.
Chris Anderson, senior editor of , has written of the coming new economics in his excellent book .
He argues that the accessiblity and efficiency of marketing and buying on the internet has allowed a wider range of products than ever before catering to the widespread diversity of tastes in the consumer public. Gone, he argues, is the age of the single hit that sets the barometer of consumer intererest. In its place is the new reality of more products available for a disparate public, producing, in effect, many smaller hits, all of them sustainable.
The Arctic Monkeys may be artifacts of the old idea of the hit but they have used this new technology to propel themselves into this place, putting Anderson's thesis on pause, on talent alone.
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