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Xiangyu Kong

Intermediate Composition 2089 048

Professor Aaron Kerley

Artist Biography Final Draft

22 April 2017

Muse Biography

Muse is a British rock band formed in Teignmouth in 1994. The band consist by Matt

Bellamy, the vocal and guitar; Chris Wolstenholme, the bass and keyboard; Dominic Howard,

drums. Bellamy started his first band at the age of 13, and then met the other two friends in

Teignmouth Community College in Devon. They changed the bands name for several times,

from Gothic Plague to Fixed Penalty to Rocket Baby Dolls and finally settled as Muse in 1997.

The genre of Muse is usually considered as progressive, alternative, electronica, and space rock

with sci-fi style. The band Muse are always compared with the other bands who share similar

genre, such as U2, Radiohead, Coldplay, and so on.

The band Muse grew from a college band to world-famous rock stars step by step. The

first debut album of Muse, Showbiz, was released in 1999. The genre of Muse was not

completely settled down in their very first album. For example, in the song Unintended, Bellamy

used acoustic guitar instead of electric guitar, and the song has very slow rhythm, and this kind

of style rarely appears in their later albums. Absolution was the third album of Muse which

released in 2003, as well as the first album known by North Americans. Time Is Running Out and

Butterflies and Hurricanes in this album became their classical works which have been played in
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their concerts many times. The fourth album Black Holes & Revelations in 2006 was their first

huge success, which was the best sale album in the UK and reached the top ten in America. Two

years later, in 2008, Muse started their first world tour, and their live performance in Wembley

became the most memorable scene to their fans. In 2010, Muse released their fifth album The

Resistance and performed along the U2 world tour as the opening band. Shortly after, Muse was

asked to write the theme song for 2012 London Summer Olympics, and they performed the song

Survival during the Olympics. In the same year, they released the album The 2nd Law which is the

most representative album of their sci-fi style. In 2014, Muse released their last album by far,

Drones, and this newest one is the most successful album of Muse, which reached the No.1 place

in Billboard 200 and grabbed the Grammy Award.

Besides the albums and singles, Muses performance in concerts is another reason make

them successful. Muse are the first rock band who use round stages in arena concerts, while all

other bands only use square stages. Bellamy, Wolstenholme, and Howard, each of them take in

charge of 120 degrees of the round stage, and all of them can bring showy performance for the

audiences on their sides. Also, the band Muse is very creative in the use of visual effects during

concerts, for example, flying drones for lightings, acrobats in mid-air, and projectors around

every corner of arenas.

The excellence in albums production and live performance has gained the band Muse

their reputation in worldwide, and this trend is still going in recent years. Hopefully, they can

managed to keep their high standard and bring more surprise to the fans of rock music.
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Works Cited

Muse: profile of the band. The Telegraph. Telegraph UK, 2 Dec. 2010.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8176141/Muse-profile-of-the-band.html,

Accessed 2 Feb. 2017

Phares, Heather. Artist Biography by Heather Phares. Allmusic. Allmusci.com,

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/muse-mn0000514563/biography, Accessed 2 Feb. 2017