Naming a band is a big decision. Sure, some bands go with the first thing that comes to mind and stick with it for years, or choose something that sounds like it was made with an indie band name generator, but there’s no end to the possibilities when making this crucial choice.
Somehow, though, given the boundless opportunities they have when dubbing their acts, a significant number of indie band names have fallen into identifiable patterns over the years.
1. The _______s
Examples: The Strokes, The Hives, The White Stripes, The Vines, The Killers, The Libertines, The Shins, The Black Keys, countless others
Ah, where would indie rock be without bands whose names were plural nouns with definite articles? While classic rock groups like the Beatles and early indie acts like the Smiths fall into this naming format, the garage rock revival of the early 2000s really made it trendy. In fact, bands with this name format are 75% more likely to have had their heyday between 2001 – 2006. Pop-punk band Sum 41 even parodied this format’s ubiquity in their 2002 video for “Still Waiting,” where they performed as “The Sums.” The popularity of these bands created a massive bandwagon effect, resulting in what became derided as “landfill indie,” with bands like the Pigeon Detectives, the Kooks, and the Fratellis bringing the revival to its logical conclusion by copying musical style and naming conventions. This name format has petered out since then, although more recent acts like the Vaccines and the Drums have given it some new life.
2. _______ the _______
Examples: Portugal. The Man. Walk the Moon, Young the Giant, Cage the Elephant, Minus the Bear, Foster the People, Pedro the Lion, Jukebox the Ghost
As far as naming conventions go, _______ the _______ is a real headscratcher of a name format. Sure, something like “Pedro the Lion” makes sense as a name, and “Cage the Elephant” is arguably an action one can take, but “Young the Giant” or “Minus the Bear” seem more nonsensical. Basically, these are all “(name/action/noun) the (noun).” It’s fun to imagine how different rock history would be if we had “Roll the Stones” and “Led the Zeppelin” back in the day.
3. Wolves, bears, and deer
Examples: Wolfmother, Wolf Alice, Wolf Eyes, Wolf Parade, Sea Wolf, Panda Bear, Grizzly Bear, Minus the Bear, Bear Hands, The 2 Bears, Deerhoof, Deerhunter, Deer Tick
When choosing an animal-related band name, you really have a bottomless number of species to choose from. You can be an arctic monkey, a modest mouse, a fleet fox, or even a wombat! Yet for some reason, indie acts gravitate towards wolves, bears, and deer. While these are arguably all pretty cool animals, some ecological diversity might be nice. There’s a whole world of fish, reptiles, insects, and birds out there, outside of land-dwelling mammals!
4. No vowels
Examples: MGMT, SBTRKT, MSTRKRFT, STRFKR
On one hand, you can probably read all of the names above, proving that vowels aren’t always necessary for reading comprehension. On the other hand, why? MGMT were originally called “the Management” before shortening their name, and STRFKR hides the profanity in theirs, but the all-caps consonants mostly just seem a stylistic choice that makes pronunciation a difficult question. Everyone spells out “MGMT” instead of saying “management,” but STRFKR were originally “Starfucker,” so do you spell the letters or say the old name? I doubt anyone takes the time to spell out SBTRKT let alone MSTRKRFT, so I most often say the full words, albeit a little bit like my mouth is full of something.
5. Clubs
Examples: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Bombay Bicycle Club, Two Door Cinema Club, Tokyo Police Club, New Young Pony Club
Indie music is sometimes seen as pretentious or elitist, and having a slew of bands with “club” in their name probably doesn’t help with this perception. Sure, Culture Club with Boy George were big in the 80s, but apparently now you need at least two descriptors for your club to keep up. Some of these band names have reasonable enough origins – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is named after Marlon Brando’s gang in the movie The Wild One and Bombay Bicycle Club are named after an Indian restaurant chain – but this still doesn’t explain how many indie bands are “clubs.” I’m still waiting on a band to seize the opportunity to choose an ironic sandwich-based name here.
6. Repetition
Examples: Everything Everything, Blackbird Blackbird, Xiu Xiu, Frou Frou, Django Django, Ages and Ages, Tapes n’ Tapes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Who knew that Duran Duran were such trendsetters? These bands were given an endless lexicon to choose from when picking a name for themselves, but instead opted to pick one word and use it twice just like an early Ke$sha song song. Some of the artists named above went for the cut-and-dry double word, but others had the courtesy to add at least one word in between as to not cause a red error line to appear in Microsoft Word. Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a bit of an outlier here, but despite my love for their music, their name still involves saying the word “yeah” three times.
7. Joy
Examples: Vance Joy, Joy Divsion, the Joy Formidable, Little Joy, Joy Wants Eternity, Joywave
On a scale from the National to Matt & Kim, a lot of indie music can get pretty moody and isn’t exactly known for its sunny disposition. Therefore, it’s more than a little ironic than so many bands have “joy” in their names, reflecting an emotion relatively few bands in the scene embody. Then again, irony used to be a big part of hipsterdom, so maybe this is natural. I’m sure each of these bands has their own reason for including the word “joy” in their band name, but it is odd that there are so many “joy” bands relative to any other comparably intense feelings, like “misery” or “rage.”
8. Beaches
Examples: Beach House, Beach Fossils, Dirty Beaches, Beach Slang, Ghost Beach
More than any other landscape, indie bands seem to gravitate towards beaches. While the Beach Boys really lived up to their name with their songs full of fun fun surfing summer good vibrations parties, most of these bands are less literal about their namesakes. Maybe it’s all about the state of mind? Beach House, arguably the most popular of the bunch, are certainly are mellow enough to relax to, and only have one song called “Saltwater.” Still, there’s enough bands with “beach” in their name to make a poster like this possible, and that isn’t even counting other nautically-named bands like Yacht or Wavves.
9. Superlatives
Examples: The Tallest Man On Earth, the Whitest Boy Alive, the Last Shadow Puppets, the Boy Least Likely to, the Very Best
Much like a high school yearbook or the Guinness Book of World Records, there are a decent number of bands that include a superlative in their name. After all, it is pretty attention-grabbing to include a boast like this, much more so than naming your band “Among the Later Shadow Puppets.” The only issue that comes into play here is piquing listeners’ curiosity too much, and I really wonder how often Kristian Matsson of the Tallest Man on Earth gets asked about his height.
10. Exclamation Points!
Examples: The Go! Team, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Los Campesinos!, Holy Ghost!, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Hadouken!, ¡Forward, Russia!, !!!
Plenty of bands add punctuation marks to their name to stand out, from the aggressively mediocre fun. to the classic AC/DC. Yet for some reason, the exclamation mark seems to be the punctuation of choice among indie bands. Maybe they want to convey energy and excitement, which tends to sum up the Go! Team’s music. Other times, it’s a bit of punchline, like saying “Holy Ghost!” Or maybe they just really want to inconvenience you, like how ¡Forward, Russia! Is difficult to type without a Spanish keyboard or !!! is impossible to Google or otherwise discuss without knowing the name is pronounced “chk-chk-chk.” I can only assume these bands voted for Jeb!
