Names of Rock and Roll Bands
November 13, 2003

Normally, listening to the radio is an enjoyable experience for me, but the other day it turned into depression. While driving my kids in the car, they told me to check out a new “oldies” station. When I tuned in the frequency I expected to hear refrains of “Shama-lama-ding-dong” and “Bop She-Bop.” Instead, I heard some familiar favorites from my own generation.

I was just starting to get use to the idea of my music being referred to as “Classic” and now they have gone and further relegated it to “oldies” status! What does that say about me? I guess every generation faces this epiphany at some point, but I thought that it was a little farther down the road for me.

Things change-- including music. In the case of music, I don’t know whether “art imitates life” or “life imitates art? Maybe a mixture of both. Regardless, they seem to change together.

Back in the day of the true oldies (say fifties and early sixties) life was taken at a slower pace and the names of rock and roll groups reflected it. Remember “The Coasters” and “The Drifters”? But then in the seventies society shifted into higher gear, thus the rock group named “Rush”.

Another example of music being a sign of the times can be found in the names of the “girl groups”. At one time you could tell that a band was all female just from its name: the “Chiffons”, “Ronettes” and “Shangri-Las”. However, in subsequent years, it was not so apparent-- case in point: the guys who called themselves “Queen”. And it got worse. We then had “Boy George”, who indeed was a boy, but since he always wore a dress, I suppose he felt that he needed to also wear the name as a disclaimer.

And then there was the girl group “Bananarama,” which actually illustrates another evolution in rock history. There have always been rock groups named after food, but in the early days it started out simple with “Bread.” However, since man cannot live by bread alone, we had to get more exotic with “Meatloaf”. I have eaten bread and meatloaf before, but I have never seen "bananarama" on a menu. (Actually, that sounds like what you might call bananas headed in the wrong direction, on their way back, up and out!)

It seems that rock groups have always been fond of animals too. They just can’t spell them correctly. We can see examples of this in the sixties with the “Monkees”, “Byrds” and “Beatles.” I guess one group could not decide on a mascot, so they finally just gave up and called themselves “The Animals.” Later, in the seventies, not only was the spelling handicapped, but so was the animal, hence “Def Leppard.”

Rock music has always been a popular vehicle for artists to use in questioning the establishment, but some of the artist’s names have raised questions themselves. Many fans thought it was so avant-garde whenever the “idiot formerly known as ‘Prince’” had his name legally changed to a hieroglyph. In actuality, the same thing had already been done back in the sixties by “?”, of “? and the Mysterians.” And while other groups ask questions with their names, like “The Who” and “The Guess Who”, still others try to answer a few questions, as in “Yes.”

Questions of faith might also be raised, as the names of still other groups demonstrate. And again, there is an evolution—unfortunately to the dark side. Personable names of groups like “The Righteous Brothers” and “Peter, Paul and Mary” give way to more inanimate names like “Genesis” and “Nazareth.” Further degradation eventually leads us to “Black Sabbath” and “Blue Oyster Cult.”

Other rock groups also use color in their names, like these last two, but rather than carrying a negative connotation, they can evoke emotion. The range of emotion depends on the color and how it is stated—everything from the “Moody Blues” and “Deep Purple” to “Indigo Girls” and “Simply Red.”

Rock music has splintered into different factions over the years. Fortunately, a few of those factions are continuing to evolve (rather than devolve), thus coming full circle-- so it’s not only the “oldies” that are “goodies”. (No offense, but for me, the eighties was a vast wasteland, musically speaking.)

Thankfully, my children and I can now share some mutual appreciation of some of what rock and roll has to offer, from Abba to ZZ Top.

© Copyright 2003 Glen Davis