Evolution of Band Names?

For those who know a bit about rock music recorded before the 90s, you probably noticed (& experienced) the ever-changing trends in band names.

During the 50s rock'n'roll/ doo-wop era, we had dozens of great vocal groups that leaned towards "classy" or romantic sounding names, most having "The" at the beginning. Old school versions, of course.

eg:

The Five Satins
The Cadillacs
The Silhouettes
The Diamonds
The Moonglows

Occassionally, you'd get names w/ the -(leader's name) & (The Band's Name Here) formula. (eg: Buddy Holly & The Crickets)

By the late 60s, we started seeing way out names. The more bizarre, the better. No doubt a reflection of the 'psychedelic' counterculture & their values. (eg: Strawberry Alarm Clock, Moby Grape, Crazy Elephant, Vanilla Fudge, The 5th Diomension, Iron Butterfly...)

2008-03-20T05:22:08Z

Into the 70s, names started to sound more like veiled statements or references & one-word names were more common. (eg: Black Sabbath, Generation X, Heart, Queen, Rush, Steely Dan..)

In the 80s, seemed we were getting into an era of fun names or ones that reflected music trends (eg: The Go Gos, The B-52s, Eurythmics, Oingo Bingo, New Order..) Phrases started to creep their way into the picture too (eg: Frankie Goes to Hollywood, A Flock of Seagulls, Missing Persons...)

2008-03-20T05:25:50Z

I've noticed that today, we're seeing more that sound a bit like sentence fragments or phrases.

Bring Me The Horizon
The Devil Wears Prada
Job For A Cowboy
blessthefall
Rise against
Escape the Fate...

2008-03-20T05:27:38Z

Lol! So the actual Question is- What's your take on it all? :)

2008-03-20T12:31:20Z

Jake/ rckets-

You can call the older ones lame or boring...but that's too easy to say with the benefit of 2008 hindsight. Back when those groups were new, few even thought rock'n'roll would last 5 years.

Anonymous2008-03-20T05:28:47Z

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Nowadays its usually long pieces of lyrics or statements or poetic lines etc..

Panic at the disco
My chemical romance
bullet for my valentine
funeral for a friennd
Job for a cowboy
as i lay dying
three doors down

I quite like these names(thats one thing i like about those bands :P)
I think earlier bands had it easier because they took all the original names.. and trust me - choosing a band name meaningful is oine of the hardest things of being in a band..

Band names depends a lot on the scene they come from.. nowadays american punk bands use a lot of ANTI or AGAINST in their names:
Anti Flag
NoFX
RiSE Against etc

You mentioned names like the leaders name and then the bands name (iggy pop and the stooges)
In the first punk invasions.. most bands tried to break of the barrier between lead man and rest of band and the audience. It was about unity. Names like
Sex Pistols
Ramones
FAns would be called (for eg - Sheena Ramone,Sheena Pistol) and band members the same (they were all pistols,ramones)
Then there british INDIE bands who use a lot of people's names in their names and THE is still popular
THe Klaxons
THe Hoosiers
Who's Adam
Neil's children

Then there are cheesy acts :

!!!
Yeah yeah yeahs
?
We offend you yeah ?

Yeah those are band names : / ...

Rckets2008-03-20T06:27:14Z

OMG, for the 80's you totally forgot The Human League. I'm starting a one-man campaign to get them into the RARHOF.

My take on it is a rather simple one. All the good or most of the cool names are either taken or sound too similar to something that has already been used prior. Therefore, these bands are forced to come up with complete madness like Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. But you brought up an excellent point. We were much classier back in the 50's albeit a tad on the boring side.

mzhudson@sbcglobal.net2008-03-20T05:36:10Z

My favorite names are the ones that happen almost accidentally and are therefore very unique.

For instance, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant discussing their band's future and somebody says something similar to: "If we don't do this right it'll go over like a lead zeppelin." All they did was change the spelling and voila! a cool band name.

Also, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Named for a coach, Leonard Skinner, who hassled Gary Rossington about his long hair. It was so bad that the whole school joked that the coach was out for Gary.

One night the young band joked with the audience that they should change their name to Leonard Skinner. The crowd went wild, another change of spelling to protect the innocent, and another great name.

The names after the mid to late 60s are the best.

Salvador2008-03-20T07:10:09Z

I really dislike the bands that have the three-words for their name with the exception of my fav band Less Than Jake. The difference between them and bands like Escape the Fate, is that LTJ are fun and have been around forever spreading punk and ska music. The majority of the bands with the long-sentence for their name usually represent awful scream-o/emo/godawful metal music. Some of the bands are indie though like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

I don't think we'll be seeing a change in the evolution of band names for quite some time.

ZomgCamPwns!2008-03-20T05:32:56Z

Bands now use words from other bands like:
Protest the Hero
Almost Heros

and then there's:
My Chemical Romance
Matchbook Romance

But then again, I guess its hard to be original these days because every other teenager in the US thinks its cool to be in a band.

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