Band name observation

What's up with all these newer bands with names like Young the Giant, Foster the People, Cage the Elephant, The Naked and the Famous, Florence and the Machines, Marina and the Diamonds, Two Door Cinema Club, TV on the Radio, etc.,??? I hadn't listened to my local alt-rock station in ages, and then I'm hit with this shoe-gazing music whose albums all look like artsy-fartsy meaningless elementary scribbles. I know I'm out of touch with today's radio, but these band names are worse than some of the metal cliched ones when put together as a genre, not to mention the crappy music the new generation is growing up with, imo.

Just wanted to get that off my chest.

I agree. And how about "Architecture in Helsinki".

All those names remind me of "Toad The Wet Sprocket".

its better than the crap that i hear on my radio

A couple of those names sound appropriate for doo-wop groups, which would be cool if they actually were doo-wop groups. Most of them sound like soulless acoustic/electronic doodle music to my ears with no personality.

Totally agree

I see band names like "Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire" or "Fear Before the March of Flames" or whatever and the first thing I think is "How the hell do they expect to fit all of that on a concert T-shirt?"

in all seriousness, with all the bands that are, or were, i'd say it's pretty tough to find a unique name these days that is relevant to the music you play. i'm not sure if i could come up with much better given the circumstances.

these days thanks to protools & the like, everyone has a band. and thanks to the internet, everyone has heard of them.

mc666 wrote:

in all seriousness, with all the bands that are, or were, i'd say it's pretty tough to find a unique name these days that is relevant to the music you play.

I agree with this to a certain point Monty, I couldn't come up with a band name if I tried no matter what genre it might be, but when a band comes out and calls themselves Cage the Elephant, would it be hard for those who follow to not call themselves Young the Giant, Foster the People, etc.? What about just Pickle the Computer, Power the Building, Forest the Racer, and so on and so on, just a bunch of meaningless names you can come up on the spot based on the template for a mostly meaningless form of music.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I see band names like "Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire" or "Fear Before the March of Flames" or whatever and the first thing I think is "How the hell do they expect to fit all of that on a concert T-shirt?"

I think these ridiculous names might have started with the band …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead that started in the mid 90's, but I could be wrong. I wouldn't play in a band whose name is a damn sentence.

mc666 wrote:

in all seriousness, with all the bands that are, or were, i'd say it's pretty tough to find a unique name these days that is relevant to the music you play. i'm not sure if i could come up with much better given the circumstances.

these days thanks to protools & the like, everyone has a band. and thanks to the internet, everyone has heard of them.

so very true and i agree I dont think id do much better either

I actually like the band TV on the Radio, but most of those other bands you mentioned suck!

Cage the Elephant, hate their name, hate their music and I am a loss while they are so popular.

As far as band names go, sadly doubt I could come up with anything then Cage the Elephant, Foster the People and whatever name those crap bands have come up with already.

Addy wrote:

mc666 wrote:

in all seriousness, with all the bands that are, or were, i'd say it's pretty tough to find a unique name these days that is relevant to the music you play. i'm not sure if i could come up with much better given the circumstances.

these days thanks to protools & the like, everyone has a band. and thanks to the internet, everyone has heard of them.

so very true and i agree I dont think id do much better either

And I don't think this plague of goofy names is confined to shoegaze/alt bands either. Just take a look at some of Century Media's bands. 3 Inches Of Blood, 7 Horns 7 Eyes, Arsonists Get All The Girls, The Man-Eating Tree and the dreaded iwrestledabearonce.

everyone is trying to be more 'creative' than the others.

tohostudios wrote:

Addy wrote:

mc666 wrote:

in all seriousness, with all the bands that are, or were, i'd say it's pretty tough to find a unique name these days that is relevant to the music you play. i'm not sure if i could come up with much better given the circumstances.

these days thanks to protools & the like, everyone has a band. and thanks to the internet, everyone has heard of them.

so very true and i agree I dont think id do much better either

And I don't think this plague of goofy names is confined to shoegaze/alt bands either. Just take a look at some of Century Media's bands. 3 Inches Of Blood, 7 Horns 7 Eyes, Arsonists Get All The Girls, The Man-Eating Tree and the dreaded iwrestledabearonce.

iwrestledabearonce has some funny videos, and you can tell there is a certain amount of fun factor to what they do, which is more than what these recent crop of shoe-gazers are doing. The metal scene has its fair share of bands with funny names to be sure though.

GrandNational wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

Addy wrote:

mc666 wrote:

in all seriousness, with all the bands that are, or were, i'd say it's pretty tough to find a unique name these days that is relevant to the music you play. i'm not sure if i could come up with much better given the circumstances.

these days thanks to protools & the like, everyone has a band. and thanks to the internet, everyone has heard of them.

so very true and i agree I dont think id do much better either

And I don't think this plague of goofy names is confined to shoegaze/alt bands either. Just take a look at some of Century Media's bands. 3 Inches Of Blood, 7 Horns 7 Eyes, Arsonists Get All The Girls, The Man-Eating Tree and the dreaded iwrestledabearonce.

iwrestledabearonce has some funny videos, and you can tell there is a certain amount of fun factor to what they do, which is more than what these recent crop of shoe-gazers are doing. The metal scene has its fair share of bands with funny names to be sure though.

I wasn't thinking about the music or videos, just names that I find to be dumb. I agree about bands that have a whole sentence for a name; I generally find if it's more than 3 words, the name annoys me.

In todays world, I am surprised that there are not more bands with just symbols as their name ala Prince (artist formally known as).

I ascribe to the idea that if you're going to have a long band name it should be translated into a short acronym that then becomes what you're really known by. Punk/hardcore bands were always the best at doing this - like TSOL or DRI.

tohostudios wrote:

Addy wrote:

mc666 wrote:

in all seriousness, with all the bands that are, or were, i'd say it's pretty tough to find a unique name these days that is relevant to the music you play. i'm not sure if i could come up with much better given the circumstances.

these days thanks to protools & the like, everyone has a band. and thanks to the internet, everyone has heard of them.

so very true and i agree I dont think id do much better either

And I don't think this plague of goofy names is confined to shoegaze/alt bands either. Just take a look at some of Century Media's bands. 3 Inches Of Blood, 7 Horns 7 Eyes, Arsonists Get All The Girls, The Man-Eating Tree and the dreaded iwrestledabearonce.

100% agree there too, I wasnt gonna say anything but you said what i was thinking

I hate modern rock

stepcousin wrote:

I hate modern rock

So do I for the most part but I think this thread is more about goofy band names.

tohostudios wrote:

stepcousin wrote:

I hate modern rock

So do I for the most part but I think this thread is more about goofy band names.

my point. the names and the sound seem to epitomise eachother. lack of originality.

I think it's just a sign of our age (for the 35+ demographic). Sure, it sounds goofy to us, but the younger generation seems to like the long-drawn out names. Lack of originality? Maybe. Not as original as a hearing-imparied jungle cat I suppose.

Quote :

I generally find if it's more than 3 words, the name annoys me.

Yea, I think I pretty much fall in that category too.

SHOEGAZE band names has got to be one of the weirdest