Band Names -- Better or Worse than the '80's?

[AlphaMale]

What say you?

 

I don't think I have ever seen so many horrible band names as I have the last few years.

 

And when I look at the thread about upcoming 2015 releases, I see even more terrible band names.

 

So my question for everyone is......

 

Band Names..... are they worse now than the hard rock heydey, or do you think they are better??

[KarpetRydOFunk]

No competition, really. But I think a lot of that has to do with the obvious fact that most of the band with the 80's Hard Rock sound are actually from that era.

[AlphaMale]

Not really. There are a lot of newer bands that have that 80's sound but just have hideous names.

[KarpetRydOFunk]

What I mean is, we're talking about thousands of bands from the 80's and 90's, compared to hundreds of bands from the 00's and 10's. And as someone said the other day, the 80's and 90's may have depleted most of the decent band names.

[AlphaMale]

Are they all copyrighted? I wonder if an obscure 80's band would sue a newer band for using it's unused name. Haha.

 

And I think there were quite a few terrible band names back in the 80's also!

[KarpetRydOFunk]

And I think there were quite a few terrible band names back in the 80's also!

 

Oh, very true. And a lot of those terrible names were re-used with merely a letter change.

[Geoff]

What I mean is, we're talking about thousands of bands from the 80's and 90's, compared to hundreds of bands from the 00's and 10's. And as someone said the other day, the 80's and 90's may have depleted most of the decent band names.

 

See, that's another thread for another day. If you ask me, there are far more albums released per year these days compared to back in the day. Not as prolific, and arguably not as good, which is why it may not be acknowledged this way... but I'm convinced there are more albums actually being released these days. Stuff seems to happen a lot quicker and easier these days, whereas it was much more of a project and an art "back in the day."

 

As for this thread, definitely worse band names these days. I don't know if they've all been taken or what - there were still countless silly ones in the 80's, but it doesn't seem to matter as they just happened and now the bands hold great memories and band names like Danger Danger, Trouble Tribe, Bang Bang etc. all bring back awesome memories, rather than leave you sitting back now and saying, 'Oh, wow, those band names really suck.' I just never thought about it back then really, but it just seems blatantly obvious how awful they are these days.

[Glen]

Actually the numbers are about the same - if you search on the main site during the late 80s you are looking at around 500 albums a year - not too dissimilar to the last few years.

 

In terms of band names, are they really that bad in recent years? I know we've had quite a few silly acronyms from Frontiers like LRS, WET, KXM etc, but that doesnt really bother me.

 

Personally i think a lot of the band names from the 80s/90s are worse....and sometimes just a bit cringey, like for instance -

 

Spread Eagle

Bang Tango

Mr Mister

Pretty Boy Floyd

Cats In Boots

Tigertailz

 

I think one of the whackiest recent names is Brother Firetribe?? I mean WTF is that all about?? ;-)

[Geoff]

I guess the thing with band names is that when a new band arrives on the scene and you're all like wtf, that name is crude! But then, if they're still around 3 albums on you don't even acknowledge that the name might have been bad - it's just the name of the band you like and that's it.

 

I agree if a band came out today called Brother Firetribe I'd be all like, zomfg, you guys are fucked in the head! But these days, that's just the name of a good band who's released a few discs now.

[The Rocker]

What we have to remember is the band names from back then are so ingrained in our heads, so they just sound right to us. There were plenty of "lame" ( for lack of a better word) names back then.

[phaffas]

Alot of the modern AOR or projects coming out from labels like Frontiers have really terrible names these days. Its like they are trying too hard, and arnt being original at all. They dont even "sound like bands"... they sound like Aor projects that will be forgotten.

[glam_junkie]

Glaym and Slyze bandz theze dayz sympli chanj da speylin ov wordz 2 cum upp wif sumthyng nue.

[KarpetRydOFunk]

Glaym and Slyze bandz theze dayz sympli chanj da speylin ov wordz 2 cum upp wif sumthyng nue.

 

2 nu, iff u asq mi.

[Nightrain]

Actually the numbers are about the same - if you search on the main site during the late 80s you are looking at around 500 albums a year - not too dissimilar to the last few years.

 

In terms of band names, are they really that bad in recent years? I know we've had quite a few silly acronyms from Frontiers like LRS, WET, KXM etc, but that doesnt really bother me.

 

Personally i think a lot of the band names from the 80s/90s are worse....and sometimes just a bit cringey, like for instance -

 

Spread Eagle

Bang Tango

Mr Mister

Pretty Boy Floyd

Cats In Boots

Tigertailz

 

I think one of the whackiest recent names is Brother Firetribe?? I mean WTF is that all about?? ;-)

 

I think Pretty Boy Floyd was made to mock Ugly Kid Joe, so I think it's not strange at all. Cats In Boots is also like Puss In Boots, the cartoon character

 

regarding Brother Firetribe, the band explained it's actually have no meaning but just a plain English translation from a famous Finnish tennis player's name, I forgot it's name, I read it on wikipedia

[KarpetRydOFunk]

 

Actually the numbers are about the same - if you search on the main site during the late 80s you are looking at around 500 albums a year - not too dissimilar to the last few years.

 

In terms of band names, are they really that bad in recent years? I know we've had quite a few silly acronyms from Frontiers like LRS, WET, KXM etc, but that doesnt really bother me.

 

Personally i think a lot of the band names from the 80s/90s are worse....and sometimes just a bit cringey, like for instance -

 

Spread Eagle

Bang Tango

Mr Mister

Pretty Boy Floyd

Cats In Boots

Tigertailz

 

I think one of the whackiest recent names is Brother Firetribe?? I mean WTF is that all about?? ;-)

 

I think Pretty Boy Floyd was made to mock Ugly Kid Joe, so I think it's not strange at all. Cats In Boots is also like Puss In Boots, the cartoon character

 

regarding Brother Firetribe, the band explained it's actually have no meaning but just a plain English translation from a famous Finnish tennis player's name, I forgot it's name, I read it on wikipedia

 

Veli Paloheimo

[glam_junkie]

 

I think Pretty Boy Floyd was made to mock Ugly Kid Joe, so I think it's not strange at all. Cats In Boots is also like Puss In Boots, the cartoon character

 

 

 

other way around.... ugly kid joe was mocking pretty boy floyd.

 

pretty boy floyd is actually the name of a famous gangster from early in the 1900's.

[Geoff]

 

 

I think Pretty Boy Floyd was made to mock Ugly Kid Joe, so I think it's not strange at all. Cats In Boots is also like Puss In Boots, the cartoon character

 

 

 

other way around.... ugly kid joe was mocking pretty boy floyd.

 

pretty boy floyd is actually the name of a famous gangster from early in the 1900's.

 

 

What he said. Remember PBF had released a debut and were basically without a record label to release their second album on before Ugly Kid Joe ever even released anything.

 

And word about the gangster thing, which is why I never thought the name was a bad as one could take it if you took it for face value rather than the reference.

[Glen]

Right, yeah whatever.

 

Regardless of where they came from, they are still shit names.

 

imho of course ;-)

[Jez]

...and both shit bands as well

[The Rocker]

 

Actually the numbers are about the same - if you search on the main site during the late 80s you are looking at around 500 albums a year - not too dissimilar to the last few years.

 

In terms of band names, are they really that bad in recent years? I know we've had quite a few silly acronyms from Frontiers like LRS, WET, KXM etc, but that doesnt really bother me.

 

Personally i think a lot of the band names from the 80s/90s are worse....and sometimes just a bit cringey, like for instance -

 

Spread Eagle

Bang Tango

Mr Mister

Pretty Boy Floyd

Cats In Boots

Tigertailz

 

I think one of the whackiest recent names is Brother Firetribe?? I mean WTF is that all about?? ;-)

 

I think Pretty Boy Floyd was made to mock Ugly Kid Joe, so I think it's not strange at all. Cats In Boots is also like Puss In Boots, the cartoon character

 

regarding Brother Firetribe, the band explained it's actually have no meaning but just a plain English translation from a famous Finnish tennis player's name, I forgot it's name, I read it on wikipedia

 

I think the Pretty Boy Floyd/ Ugly Kid Joe thing was the other way around.

[KarpetRydOFunk]

Actually, I think Ugly Kid Joe was a mockery of Pretty Boy Floyd.

[Nightrain]

yeah that's true, my mistake, and Jez is also mistaken for calling PBF shit

[eaglesfan3000]

All the cool band names were taken up in the 80's and 90's. I know there is a story behind this but what's up with the name Twisted Sister?

[Captain Howdy]

On 11/24/2014 at 12:37 AM, AlphaMale said:

What say you?

 

I don't think I have ever seen so many horrible band names as I have the last few years.

 

And when I look at the thread about upcoming 2015 releases, I see even more terrible band names.

 

So my question for everyone is......

 

Band Names..... are they worse now than the hard rock heydey, or do you think they are better??

Was thinking about something like this the other day when I saw a bunch of new submissions to the main site. Yes there are still bands coming along with good names, but so many are terrible. Part of me wonders if it is because so many of todays bands are not necessarily English speakers as a first language and they maybe don't realise how bad their names are. Some names are just cookie cutter names as well. Names they think sound 80s but really dont.

Also, I find it cringe when bands use the main persons name. Back in the day you could get away with it if it sounded cool (Van Halen, Bon Jovi etc) or if you were into the lighter side of rock (Huey Lewis, Bruce Hornsby, Bruce Springsteen etc) but today it really does not work, especially when you have some less than cool sounding name, especially once again, from a non-English speaking country where your name just isn't that normal or could sound like something else.

Here are a few names that were recently submitted that are pretty damn awful imo

 

Big Red Fire Truck

Ruffyunz

Deserta

Robert Pehrsson's Humbucker (unless you are a guitarist you probably have no idea what a humbucker is)

The Black Skeleton

Nigro (yes it may be your surname, but you tell me one person who does not see that and think of a word that is not acceptable)

Screamaker

Youthex

The View inside

 

Of course there are still some decent band names, and some of them actually are good throw backs to 80s sounding names

Jettblack

Crazy Lixx

Reckless Love

Halestorm

Crashdiet

The Warning

Bloodywood

One Desire

 

Of course though there were still bands back in the day that had bad names, but I do think its more glaringly obvious.

 

I do think that while a bad name is not necessarily a sign the music will be bad, I do think there is at least a possibility they might lose potential new fans who are put off by the name though.