What's in a name?

[[Cameron]]

Hey guys,
I've been talking some things over with my band in regards to our name, which is currently Mystery Machine, now myself and one guitarist believe this to be a bit immature, seeming like a band kids would be in and wouldn't be taken seriously. I personally believe you'd need buisness people to take you seriously to make it, however the other guitarist seems to think that making it based purely on music and how good it is, and the name should just be something you like and that music is all about not taking yourself too seriously. I'm just wondering what you all think? Is a name all that important or is it purely down to the music you make?
-Cameron

[ildu]

Mystery Machine sounds like crap. Don't bite, make up your own.

[Tuomas]

I think the name is important. A classy name can draw listeners even though the music is crap. And then, a good name stays in your head. The same goes to all art. Some people get famous only becaus they have a name that's dynamic. homer Simpson was Max Power for some time in one episode. That was a brilliant example.

Then a name can be a clich'e and eveyone will laugh at it. Hmm, some of my favourite bands have horrible names, like Genesis and Renaissance, but then some, like Yes and Jethro Tull have splendid names. Because they're personal and not too much of a cliché.

I've had a couple of bands. The first was called Gregor Mendel, because I thought that was cool. My mates later changed it because they thought it was stupid. Gregor Mendel was a monk who discovered the genetic heritage. Anyway, it thought it sounded heavy! We changed the name to The Heros of the Dawning of the New Dark Millenium, which was basically a joke, but so were our songs, but as you see, it's really a bad name.

Now my brother had a band called Cockerspaniels, but they're commonly known as Cockers. I played with them for some time too. Then we broe up, and he formed Susy-Anne Cornfield and the Bluesband, and they play blues with no Susy-Anne. The former is pretty crap as a working name. The second doesn it for me. They even have some listeners in Last.fm and are quite famous in locally in their 15000 people's city. My brother and I once performed under the name "Jazz Cauldron" which I'm really proud of. Fun case, it was a local bands night, and there were some 10 bands. 9 Heavy metal bands and one with 3 guys jamming swing and jazz We got the most applauds though since there were quite a lot of adults there. Actually after the sound check the organiser came and said that sounded really cool

There's a couple of examples of good and bad names. Oh and I forgot. Afterwards I grew bored of Heavy Metal and left the band. Before that we did a few gigs under the name "Death Motör Öil" which was also my idea. I was just trying to think of the worst name for a heavy metal band. They nowadays play under the name Death Motör Oil, or DMOil as their demo says. I was going to get a patent for it and get some money from then, but then I thought meh. Jazz Cauldron is still there though I love it.

About mystery machine, it does sound a bit naive, sorry. Think about this: Is your band really a machine that makes mystery? From a band like that I'd expect something like Hidria Spacefolk combined with Ozric Tentacles and Synopsis but with 80's drumkit.

[voh]

I've been in a couple of bands (laspunk, ikari, 71red and Tortuga) and I only like two of those names now (Ikari and Tortuga).

Band names optimally are short, stick in the mind, are not just a one-schtick joke and are GOOGLEABLE. If you call yourself "the the" (which is an existing band I think), yeah, good luck having people find you online

Common words are bad choices. Something special is always better. That's why my current project is called Fixage. Not a common word, short, easy to remember

[Moresco]

Bands like The The were WAY before internet was around, so that doesn't really count.

As for the name, if your music is great, you don't need to worry about your name so much.  There are new successes every day with good, stupid, ridiculous, awesome, fantastic, boring, or odd names of all sorts.   The best band name in the world will not sell your music, but sometimes it's worth putting a little bit of thought into. 

Also, googling a band name isn't necessarily that important - if you're good you'll get noticed by playing shows, and odds are you'll be looked up on myspace first anyway.

Mystery Machine makes me think of Scooby Doo.

[shbaz]

"Why did you call the band 'The Beatles'?"
"It's just a name.  We could've been called 'The Shoes.'"

The first is taken, so I suggest the latter!

[Evil]

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail16.html

[evenwolf]

I don't necessarily think "Pearl Jam" or "The Police"  are all that convincing as names.   Without any word of mouth someone says to you "Hey lets listen to the police!"   "Ooh, do you love Pearl Jam?"  Sounds a bit odd.

Those names could have backfired & people thought they were dumb.   Obviously the music trumps the name. 

Does the name have an effect?  Yesh.  Word of mouth spreads about a band, and the first image someone imagines usually sticks.   When I hear "Mystery Machine" I think scooby doo.    That will stick for most people.

I think the task of writing a good band name isn't to try to sound "grown up" or hard edged, but maybe to come up with something ambiguous or universal, or a nice mental image.   I would avoid pop culture references.  People can have all kinds of ideas what a "Pearl Jam" is and that creates conversation.   So the name helps or hurts, sure.

[buloght]

A band in our country is called "fokofpolisiekar" (link) which translates directly to "fuckoffpolicecar", sorry for the bad language  mods, anyways, I'm not sure about their music, but they are famous.

[Nine Toes]

Two sayings that come to mind here are:
1.  "If it ain't broken, don't fix it."
2.  "If the shoe fits..."

"Mystery Machine" isn't really immature, although it does make me think of Scooby Doo, for obvious reasons.

But, like everyone else is saying, names like "Pantera", "Metallica", and "Shadows Fall" aren't what got those bands signed (even though I happen to think that Shadows Fall is an awesome band name! ).  Even bands with crappy names get signed; "Crossfade", "Hinder", "Submersed", "The Donnas", etc.

Coming up with band names is really hard.  Because once you think of something that sounds even reasonably cool or catchy and original, that you and the rest of the band agree on, you'll sooner or later come to find out that it's probably already taken (or was taken).

EDIT:  Case in point - I was going to use "Ab Irato" as a band name, but as you can plainly see, it's taken.

No matter how original you think a band name is... dammit.

[evenwolf]

P.S.   I think Lordi is a kickass band.  Not for the name but I do think it works on two levels:

"Lordi"

Its irreverent.

It sounds good phonetically, and creates a new meaning from the word "Lord"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=POO33XjtAws

[Tuomas]

that's because it's lord in Finnish

[evenwolf]

ahahaha.

and yet i still find it clever on some level

[radiowaves]

Lordi sucks, face it! Now there is even euro-metal, wtf.

[evenwolf]

Yeah there's euro metal.   There's also French rap and Japanese Rock and Roll.    What's your point?    We live in a pluralistic society.  Did you think that genres only inspired people on the continent where it was invented?

[Tartalo]

Did you think that genres only inspired people on the continent where it was invented?

Many (most?) of the important bands in the origins of Heavy Metal were British.

And i think a name is indeed important, but Mystery Machine doesn't sound that bad.

[radiowaves]

Yes, there is japaneze rock and roll (which is even listenable) and french rap what is actually quite good, but Lordi isn't any band woth mentioning. I mean cmon, if there wasn't Eurovision, lordi would be very unknown band. Good bands work themselves up step by step, and name isn't everything. Besides, Lordi isn't any bands name, its just some stupid word that is meant to be cool like those masks...

[Tuomas]

I don't want to argue about that. But I would suggest that you listen some more Lordi than just Hard Rock Hallelujah, and you would notice that it's actually pretty good hard rock, and there's no denying that. And besides, Lordi is actually the name of the singing monster guy who also composes everything. I know it's a joke, but the guys take it seriously. And true, even Abba wouldn't be known without the eurovision. Most probably Celin Dion would be just another boring singer. And Lordi did work up step by step, they released 3 albums before they even were accepted to ESC. 5 Years back no-one would have voted for them. I bet if you ever find artists like Alice Cooper or Kiss, you will notice that they were worth listening, and Lordi intentionally doesn't differ from them that much.

[radiowaves]

Alice Cooper and Kiss had their own time, Lordi doesn't, it just tries to imitate. Yes, i haven't listened much Lordi but face it, only Finland knew about it before Eurovision. But ok, I won't argue anymore, you pretty much got me 

[Tuomas]

Yeah don't! And then name a band that does not intimidate someone else or sound like something before it. That's where the name comes. The name is what you remember. Not "that band that sounds like Nirvana" but "insert some crappy crunge band here".