Tabula Rasta

~from an assignment for Dr. Nash's Advanced Composition~

We are now in the long senescence of the rock and roll revolution. Some will measure the start of the revolution from the mid-Fifties, when Chuck Berry cracked popular music open along racial and musical lines. Others see a massive shift in popular music culture provoked by The Beatles. The latter group may be more correct, especially when the subject of rock and roll band names is considered. Prior to The Beatles there were few music groups with fabricated names. The mashing together of Beat, the name given to late-fifties counter-culturalists in coffee houses wearing berets and listening to folk music, and Beetles, an homage to Buddy Holly and the Crickets, is credited to John Lennon. Building on that clever wordplay, the vast array of band names accumulated in the past few decades is astounding. The intent of the names chosen is varied. The three largest categories of band names in English language popular music are those meant to frighten, those meant to be absurd and those derived from other bands’ songs.
The frightening band names tend to be affixed to groups in the realm of metal and punk. It is reasonable to assume a band with a name like Day-Glo Abortions will not be performing a Brandenburg Concerto. How does such a provocative name come to be? “A promoter gave them an entire case of "Day-Glo" brand spray paint to promote their next show with. The band decided their name would be DAY GLO + ‘whatever word was used the most in tomorrow's paper.’ The next day's paper had a huge story about a prominent doctor caught performing abortions. The rest is history” (Heathenworld). Many names in this classification fly in the face of conventional sexual mores. The bands want your reaction to their name. A case in point are the Revolting Cocks. Part of the hierarchy of frightening monikers includes how the names are derived. In the Cocks case, their name was “thought up in an all night drinking/drug binge at the Wax Trax Records office” (Heathenworld). If the actual creative process is not interesting enough, the band name will evoke a wry, or
cynical, or horrifying take on human behavior. The band Ed Gein’s Car refers to a demented killer and necrophiliac of the Fifties, whose car “was on display at Wisconsin State Fairs for a few years [. . .] after he was caught” (Heathenworld). The band name choice is doubly provoking, due to the extreme nature of Mr. Gein’s activities, and the for-profit displaying of the car he used to haul his victims. Dead Kennedys, a punk band, chose their name not to mock the assassinated Kennedy brothers, but as a commentary on the death of the American dream (DanFalco). Either way, the intended offense or provocation gets attention.
Humor is another effective way to get the attention of the music buying populace. Absurd or nonsense band names abound in popular music genres. Archers of Loaf and Toad the Wet Sprocket are two fairly successful bands. Both names mean absolutely nothing. yet they tickle our imagination with the assemblage of words. Other bands will most certainly not grace the stage at the Grammys, nor do they expect to. No, we will not see Admiral Poopy Pants and His Dancing Teeth accepting an award. It is safe to assume the same for Hornets Attack Victor Mature, Once I Killed a Gopher With a Stick, or Jehovah’s Witness Protection Program (Funny Band Names). The people who go to see these bands know it will be a jolly, ironic night. You do not go to a venue featuring Gee That's A Large Beetle I Wonder If It's Poisonous with the expectation there will be hummable tunes resonating in your head afterward. These bands flout their ironic detachment even as they seek acceptance and approval.
If humor and horror do not reflect a band’s ethos, there is another well-used division. Many music groups borrow from their revered counterparts, using other band’s song titles as their names. Those that do so tend to be a bit more serious about their craft. The Rolling Stones took their name from the Muddy Waters song “Rolling Stone,” Radiohead took their name from Talking Heads’ song “Radio Head,” and Simple Minds found inspiration for their name from a lyric in David Bowie’s “Jean Genie” (DanFalco). Simple Minds wisely shed their original band name of Johnny and the Self Abusers. Judas Priest, a heavy metal band, made an interesting reach across musical genres, choosing their name from Bob Dylan’s “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest.”
In all the vast panoply of music group names, the unifying principle over the decades since The Beatles endures. Grab attention, and do so in a cool, self-deprecating, or intentionally off-putting way. Choosing a band name based on absurdity, fright, or humor will get a band noticed. Discerning the presence of actual talent behind names like Happy Mondays, Porcupine Tree or The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black is a wonderful adventure for fans of live music, and risk-takers who fill their iPods through iTunes purchases. It depends on whether the listener is moved by murder, Monty Python or the reflected glory of other established music groups.