The Evolution Of Alex Turner, From Shy Teen To Rock God: An Appreciation

    The Arctic Monkeys frontman has grown in time into the sort of person people make pervy Tumblr tributes to.

    Dan Martin
    by Dan Martin

    BuzzFeed Staff

    With the release of their career-high, number one new album "AM", Arctic Monkeys have reassumed their place at music's top table. And their singer Alex Turner has graduated to rock's top lust object. He's now the kind of person about whom people say things like this.

    em @Emily_Mash

    The only thing that could make me feel better right now is if Alex Turner appeared on my doorstep with a can of cream soda and flowers

    Reply Retweet Favorite

    em

    @Emily_Mash

    The only thing that could make me feel better right now is if Alex Turner appeared on my doorstep with a can of cream soda and flowers

    / Via

    And this.

    Poppy Marello @poppymarello

    100% in love with Alex Turner.

    Reply Retweet Favorite

    Poppy Marello

    @poppymarello

    100% in love with Alex Turner.

    / Via

    And this.

    claude @wokaflockalame

    ALEX TURNER CAN HIT IT ANY DAY

    Reply Retweet Favorite

    claude

    @wokaflockalame

    ALEX TURNER CAN HIT IT ANY DAY

    / Via

    But it wasn't always this way. It has been a long journey for Alex to get here. Let us journey back across his many, many looks.

    Alex's first look was very much that of a rabbit in the headlights.

    YouTube
    YouTube

    A prodigiously talented beat poet rabbit, but a rabbit all the same. Observe Alex here in their first ever music video, for "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor". This is not a man entirely comfortable with his own posture.

    Back then he was less Rock Colossus, more Well-Mannered Sixth-Former.

    Getty

    This didn't really matter. It was All About The Music.

    tumblr.com
    Getty / Stuart Wilson

    And he had an impish charm going on.

    Yet increased success would see a slow but sure expansion of his hair.

    REX USA/Nils Jorgensen

    An early career high, here winning the Mercury Prize for debut "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not", saw it spike like Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary.

    The widening of the hair would only continue.

    tumblr.com
    tumblr.com

    Until it fully bloomed into the desert sheepdog era.

    REX USA/Owen Sweeney / Rex

    The band's time out in the Mojave Desert with Josh Homme making third album "Humbug" saw them let it all hang out, literally.

    He started to hang around Brooklyn a lot.

    REX USA/Beretta/Sims / Rex

    It was around this time that he started to be photographed smoking.

    Rex USA

    The surest sign of an insouciant rock star swagger emerging.

    There was a brief experiment with a tasteful moptop.

    Getty / Samir Hussein

    But the film school look was necessarily brief. Here he is pictured at the BFI premiere for Richard Ayoade's movie Submarine, for which he composed the soundtrack.

    Then came the Imperial Rock Star Phase.

    Getty / Mark Metcalf

    It was only really at this point, around 2011, that Alex graduated into proper sex symbol territory, with customary leather jacket and quiff complementing a man who had grown completely into his looks.

    That majestic quiff once again, from a different angle.

    Getty / Mark Metcalfe

    And in close-up.

    Getty / Mark Metcalf

    It is really quite remarkable.

    Over time, Alex developed a thing for tattoos.

    Getty / Theo Wargo

    By Coachella 2012, he was even starting to stand with a similar poise to his friend Josh Homme.

    Getty / Mark Metcalfe
    Getty / Theo Wargo

    The quiff was still his main priority.

    Fuckyeahalexturnerishot.tumblr.com
    Getty / Tim P Whitby

    In fact, headlining Glastonbury this year, he paused the performance so he could fix the quiff.

    Glastonbury 2013 found him all powerful, and rocking a bit of a teddy boy thing to boot.

    Getty / Ian Gavan

    Coo! The transformation was complete.