Last time out, I tried to put my finger on some of the trends in band naming predicted or half-predicted by my predecessor, Dmitri Borgmann. These included intense imagery, religious imagery (now and again), ungoogleable abstractions, and odd spellings—including plays on the letter v, all caps, disemvoweling, and numbers.
Here are some others I’ve found, mostly by researching other articles on the topic and checking what I can. (My thanks to the authors of this Reddit thread especially.)
The. The word “The” has had a strange journey in band-name history. In the 1950s and 1960s, it seemed like every band name with the structure “The [Simple Plural Noun]s” went into use. Later, it was just “The [Noun].”
By the 1980s, newer bands like Rush and Journey tended to drop the “The.” Although fans would sometimes add it anyway to two-word band names like (the) Smashing Pumpkins or (the) Talking Heads. Some bands who kept “The” tried spelling it “Thee” (Thee Headcoats, Thee Midniters, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, Thee Flying Dutchmen, Thee Lordly Serpents).
By the turn of the century, there was a more genuine “The” resurgence—The White Stripes, The Datsuns, The Strokes, The Vines, The Exies. Today, I see a lot of chatter about The 1975, The Hu, The Struts, The Pretty Reckless, and The Black Keys.
Repetition, Repetition: Band namers think it’s nice to say things twice…or thrice. There’s Duran Duran, The Ting Tings, Attack! Attack!, Choir! Choir! Choir!, Everything Everything, Django Django, Hot Hot Heat, JR JR, Wet Wet Wet, BADBADNOTGOOD, PKEW PKEW PKEW, Ra Ra Riot, Mr. Mister, Years & Years, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Mother Mother, Radio Radio, Talk Talk, Rah Rah, Goo Goo Dolls, and The The…and that’s a short list!
Place Names: Some bands have just ripped their names straight from the atlas (Chicago, Toronto, Nazareth, Boston, Phoenix, Berlin, Alabama, Kansas, America, Europe, Asia). A more recent trend is to use geography as a jumping-off point (Glasvegas, The Manhattan Transfer, Best Coast, Miami Sound Machine, Hollerado, Japandroids).
Length: It seems like at some point in music history, every possible length for a band name has been identified as a trend. We’ve had periods where one-word names seemed to be the next big thing. Ditto for two-word names and three-word names. But the 2000s saw a memorable glut of crazy-long band names (The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, Eximperituserqethhzebibšiptugakkathšulweliarzaxułum, Please Inform the Captain This Is a Hijack, Success Will Write Apocalypse Across The Sky).
Key Words: Individual words have had their days in the sun. There was a point where every new band seemed to have “Wolf” in its name (Wolf Alice, Wolfmother, Joyous Wolf, Wolf Parade). Later, it was “Beach” (Beach House, The Beaches, Talmud Beach, Beach Slang, Menace Beach...too late for the Beach Boys). One word that’s gained traction more recently is “rat” (Mallrat, Ratboy, Ratboys, Ratking, Rat Child, just Rats). Bands with the F-word in their name are gaining ground lately, too—which probably says something about our society, but I don’t have time to get into that.
Witch House Weirdness: This is a small subgenre of electronic music, but it’s right on the fringe of unconventional band names (†‡† (Ritualzzz), Gr†ll Gr†ll, M△S▴C△RA, oOoOO, VAGUE003, IC3PEAK, S U R V I V E). There are some normalish witch house band names, but they aren’t as much fun to look at.
Next: Let’s talk publicity!
THE CAMPBELL CAMPBELL MIND OF WEIRD
brand name
**
No relation to Max Brand