The 1975

The 1975 are an English pop rock band formed in Wilmslow, Cheshire in 2002. The band consists of Matty Healy (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, primary songwriter), Adam Hann (lead guitar), Ross MacDonald (bass) and George Daniel (drums, primary producer). The band's name was inspired by a page of scribblings found in Healy's preowned copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac which was dated "1 June, The 1975".

The band members met in secondary school and first performed together as teenagers in 2002, before professionally releasing music in 2012 under the independent label Dirty Hit. From 2012 to 2013, they opened for several major acts and released a series of extended plays—Facedown, Sex, Music for Cars and IV—before releasing their UK chart-topping self-titled debut album (2013), which included the popular singles "Sex", "Chocolate" and "Robbers".

All of the band's albums hit No. 1 in the United Kingdom and charted in the Billboard 200, garnering critical praise and appearing in numerous publications' year-end and decade-end lists. Their second album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It (2016), also reached No. 1 in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and its box set received a nomination for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package at the 59th Grammy Awards. The band's third album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018), received widespread acclaim and won British Album of the Year at the 2019 Brit Awards with its single "Give Yourself a Try" earning a nomination for Best Rock Song at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. It was followed by Notes on a Conditional Form (2020) and Being Funny in a Foreign Language (2022) with the latter receiving a nomination for British Album of the Year at the 2023 Brit Awards.

Rolling Stone stated that the band has been at "the forefront of modern pop rock" since their debut, with Billboard declaring them "the most ambitious pop-rock band of their generation". Pitchfork has described them as a "band of friends" who "ascended from scrappy emo rockers to global superstars". Entertainment Weekly has characterised them as "British Phenoms", NME has proclaimed them as "Art Pop Heroes", and the BBC has called them “Modern Pop Icons”. They have received several awards and nominations including four Brit Awards, two Ivor Novello Awards, as well as two nominations for the Mercury Prize and two nominations for Grammy Awards. In addition, they have been awarded "Band of the Decade" at the 2020 NME Awards.

History

2002–2011: Formation

In 2002, at Wilmslow High School, guitarist Adam Hann recruited Matty Healy to be the drummer in a band he was forming with bassist Ross MacDonald. Hann wanted to start a band because a local council worker had begun organising gigs for teenagers and he wanted to play at one. When the band's prospective singer, Elliott Williams (now of Editors), dropped out after one rehearsal, Healy took over vocal duties, playing double duty as lead vocalist and drummer. He eventually gave up drumming to George Daniel, later recalling that meeting Daniel "changed his life". Daniel describes his first impression of Healy as "the most outwardly passionate person in school—endearing, and intimidating." The quartet began as a band playing covers of punk and emo songs at school and at Healy's house before eventually writing their own material.

To keep the band together, Hann, MacDonald and Daniel all went to university in Manchester while Healy briefly attended music school. They played gigs and recorded their own music while working as delivery boys at a local Chinese restaurant. By 2010, the band was being managed by Jamie Oborne but remained unsigned due to their genre-hopping approach, so he set up his own independent record label, Dirty Hit, and signed the band for £20. Before settling on the name The 1975, the band performed under several names, including Me and You Versus Them, Those 1975s, Forever Drawing Six, Talkhouse, the Slowdown and Bigsleep. They were also known as Drive Like I Do before adopting their current name in 2012. Healy recounted that the final name was inspired by scribblings found on the back page of the book On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

I found a page of scribblings [on Jack Kerouac's On the Road]. It wasn't really disturbing or dark or anything...the important thing that stuck with me was that the page was dated '1st June, The 1975'. At the time I just thought that the word 'The' preceding a date was a strong use of language. I never thought it would be something that would later come to be so important. When it came to naming the band, it was perfect.

2012–2014: Early career and self-titled debut album

The band's self-titled debut album was recorded with Mike Crossey. Between autumn 2012 and spring 2013, during which time the album was recorded, the band released four EPs. They toured to support and build momentum for the album, including numerous gigs and special appearances with other artists.

The album received positive reviews from critics, and topped the UK Albums Chart on 8 September. As of March 2016, it had sold 410,981 copies in the UK, and 390,000 copies in the US. Critics at Pitchfork have favourably compared them to the Big Pink. Sex EP was described by Paste as "equal parts ethereal and synth pop", with "haunting" and "smooth" vocals. Their "mellow", stripped down style was praised for its lack of "attention-grabbing production theatrics".

The release of the band's first EP, titled Facedown, in August 2012 saw the band's first UK airplay on national radio with lead track "The City", which was also featured as part of a BBC Introducing show with Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1. The 1975 once again garnered national radio attention in late 2012, with BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe championing their single "Sex" from the eponymous EP, which was released on 19 November. They embarked on a United Kingdom and Ireland tour extended into early 2013, before beginning a US tour in Spring 2014. Upon the release of Music for Cars on 4 March 2013, the 1975 found mainstream chart success with "Chocolate", reaching number 19 in the UK Singles Chart. On 20 May 2013 the band released IV, which included a new version of "The City". The track charted in the UK and received airplay in several other countries.

The 1975 toured extensively to support releases and to build hype before releasing their debut. The band supported Muse on the second leg of The 2nd Law World Tour at the Emirates Stadium in London on 26 May 2013. They also toured with the Neighbourhood in the United States in June 2013, and supported the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park on 13 July. In August, the band performed on the Festival Republic Stage at 2013 Reading and Leeds Festivals.

In a feature article, Elliot Mitchell of When the Gramophone Rings wrote that releasing a string of EPs before the debut album was "a move that he deemed necessary to provide context to the band's broad sound, rather than just building up with singles alone." Healy said, "We wouldn't have been able to release the album without putting out the EP's first, as we wanted to make sure we could express ourselves properly before dropping this long, ambitious debut record on people."

Their self-titled debut, The 1975, was released on 2 September 2013, co-produced by Mike Crossey, known for his work with Arctic Monkeys and Foals. The 1975 were selling out shows even before the debut of their full-length album as Healy recalled in an interview with Larry Heath of The AU Review. The lead single was a re-worked "Sex", which was released on 26 August 2013. The song premiered on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show on 8 July 2013, and a music video premiered on YouTube on 26 July. The 1975 debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart.

Public reaction to the band's music has been mixed, particularly on social media platforms like Twitter, "perhaps the last public space for unfettered music criticism in an increasingly anti-critical landscape", according to Vice magazine's Larry Fitzmaurice in 2016. In an essay on the critical response, he said they have been "the Most Hated and Loved Band in the World" and described "as underrated and overhyped, although the needle has far more often swung towards the former direction". Veteran rock critic Robert Christgau said he thinks "they suck" and should not be called a "rock band" as they do not "rock". In Fitzmaurice's opinion, the band's debut album was mainly a straightforward rock album recorded "with a soft-focus and especially British sensibility", while I Like It When You Sleep was only rock music in the loosest sense of the word. Overall, he said their music is pop "in the realm of Alternative", most comparable to INXS.

The 1975 toured in the UK in September 2013, among others performing in Kingston upon Hull as headliners at Freedom Festival, a celebration of the city's shortlisting for 2017 UK City of Culture designation, and at iTunes Festival on 8 September as an opening act for indie electronic quartet Bastille.