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Credit: Alexandra Wolkowicz, Andy Brown, Scott Jones<\/p>\nThe British Music Experience presents Don\u2019t Believe the Hype a new temporary exhibition uncovering the Artwork of Arctic Monkeys\u2019 Debut Album.<\/p>\n
The exhibition explores the creation and cultural legacy of one of the most recognisable album covers of the 21st century: Whatever People Say I Am, That\u2019s What I\u2019m Not, the 2006 debut by Arctic Monkeys, with the exhibition launching 20 years to the day of the album\u2019s release.<\/p>\n
Centred on the artwork surrounding the album, the exhibition moves beyond the iconic cover image to examine the wider visual world from which it emerged \u2013 a sequence of ordinary moments, encounters, and traces that together formed an authentic portrait of youth culture at the time.<\/p>\n
The exhibition documents the conceptual journey of Scott Jones, Creative Director for the album, alongside original photographic material, outtakes, interior imagery, and personal artefacts from the period. It traces a day-in-the-life approach to the album\u2019s visual identity: the cover image, single artwork, and photographic sequences that documented a specific moment in time.<\/p>\n
Together, these materials form an extended visual document of youth, place, and lived experience, shared spaces, boredom, anticipation, and the small moments that later took on cultural meaning.<\/p>\n
The exhibition also reveals for the first time the photograph that inspired the smoke-filled photobooth image that became the album\u2019s cover.<\/p>\n
Credit: Alexandra Wolkowicz, Andy Brown, Scott Jones<\/p>\n
Twenty years on, Don\u2019t Believe the Hype\u2026 invites reflection on why this imagery continues to resonate. In an era dominated by algorithmic feeds, optimisation, and self-conscious performance, the exhibition looks back to a pre-platform digital culture shaped by peer-to-peer sharing, early social networks, and collective discovery, where visibility was communal rather than curated.<\/p>\n
The exhibition reframes the album artwork not as an act of branding, but as a social document of a generation at the edge of the attention economy.<\/p>\n
Scott Jones said:<\/p>\n
\u201cMost album artwork reflects youth culture after the fact. This was different. The images didn\u2019t try to perform or exaggerate what was happening around them \u2013 just document them. The artwork came from ordinary moments, from waiting around, from nights out, from being there. The poetry was already present; the work was in celebrating it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liz Koravos, Executive Director<\/strong> at the British Music Experience said:<\/p>\n \u201cThis exhibition allows visitors to slow down and look again at an album artwork many people think they already know. By placing the artwork back into its original context \u2013 its objects, its moments, its ordinariness \u2013 we can better understand why it connected so deeply, and why it still resonates today. Launching the exhibition on the 23 January, we mark 20 years to the day that the album was released.\u00a0 What makes the record curatorial gold is its specificity. The songs are rooted in queue lines, taxi rides, sticky dance floors, and half-heard conversations, yet they translate universally.\u00a0 We\u2019re excited to mark the anniversary through this temporary exhibition and in doing so, highlight how important the band\u2019s contribution is to the history of British rock and pop.\u201d<\/p>\n Book your tickets now on The BME website<\/a>. Find out what\u2019s good up North on our new platform, The Northern Guide.<\/strong>\u00a0
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