Saturday, February 19, 2011

Here’s a list of the top twenty most gruesome band names-

http://hangout.altsounds.com/news/90595-rock-list-the-twenty-most-gruesome-band-names.html

What do all these names have in common? Violence. Explicit or Implicit Violence. These names all give us insight to the band and offer a brief introduction into their musical dynamic. They are the first things you hear when we talk about the new up and coming musicians of the world. Therefore, their names are an important aspect of their band character. I mean let’s just take a look at some of the bands that toped this list- diSEMBOWELMENT, Revolting Cocks, and Alien Sex Friend (hilarious and violent) all compose a great deal of weird ass violent material.

The funny thing for me was the fact that the large majority of the violent band names were everyday, big time bands. Army of Pharoahs, Alien Ant Farm, and Audioslave are all big name bands (and I didn’t have to look past the A’s in my iTunes Artist column). All of these household names are incredibly violent and gruesome by nature.

Regardless of whether the bands are big time names and concert rockers or small time bands like Birdmonster, a common theme runs throughout the music industry. Just like in any other realm of media-people love violence. And incorporating violence into your band name is a key way to gain notoriety and fame. So I’ll ask the audience- What’s the most gruesome band name not on the list? and What’s the most gruesome band name in your iTunes?

4 comments:

  1. I agree completely that giving your band some type of bizarre and gruesome name is a good way to attract publicity, whether it be negative or positive. Having a name that draws attention makes the common music listener think, "Hmm I've never heard this band before, but I'm gonna look them up and see what they could possibly sing about." As for other violent band names, I believe Bullet for My Valentine is pretty implicitly violent.

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  2. Of course these bands use violent names, its because people are fascinated by violence. I mean come on, we are taking a class on violence. People love to explore violence and see how it affects us. Having a violent band name is the same as making a violent movie, it brings in profit.
    I just looked through my library and sadly the most violent band I got is probably Guns and Roses because it has the word "gun" in it.

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  3. Agreed. The German industrial metal band Rammstein was named after the world's deadliest airshow accident at Ramstein, Germany. According to the Wikipedia article, "Sixty-seven spectators and three pilots died, and 346 spectators sustained serious injuries in the resulting explosion and fire". Pretty violent name for an awesome band.

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  4. piggybacking on the idea of capturing one's attention with the artist/band name, song titles could also be violent in nature, from the top of my head I could think of a few:
    *Fuck you - Lily Allen
    *Stab my back - the All American Rejects
    *Stockholm Syndrome - Blink 182
    *Cute without the e - Taking back sunday

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