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When the production team making a show can't afford a ''real'' band to act as a collective [[Celebrity Star]] or [[Special Guest]], they just build one out of whatever actors Central Casting has handy, and pretend that they are the hot new thing in the world of the program. "Evidence" of their talent is either non-existent, or provided by anonymous studio musicians to whose performance the actors lipsync. (Rarely does the '''Fake Band''' actually have real musicians in it, save for the truly [[Post Modernism|postmodern]] moments when a real band is masquerading as a '''Fake Band'''—which ''has'' been known to happen.). The otherwise anonymous studio musicians will never be used as the band either, not merely because they can't act (though this is a factor) but because getting around the union regulations to allow them to act is a nightmare nobody wants to deal with.
In a few examples, the '''Fake Band''' actually releases ''[[Defictionalized|real]]'' music, usually as a shameless media tie-in. For a ''really'' shameless tie-in, or if a developer wants to throw in a [[Shout-Out]], get the music into ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' or ''[[Rock Band]]''.
'''Fake Band''' music is either a soulless imitation of the latest trends, or (more frequently) mindless bubblegum pop. Sometimes it tries to be ''both''. Even if the fake band has some actual talent, expect [[Suspiciously Apropos Music]].
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* The titular band of ''[[Detroit Metal City]]'' is the most popular heavy metal band in Japan and one of the most popular musical acts, beating out rival bands Kintama Girls and Tetra-pot Melon Tea, and rapper MC Kiva. For [[The Movie]], all four released singles (DMC's ''two'' singles also featured the light-hearted J-Pop songs by lead singer's alterego Soichi Negishi) and DMC released a full-length 10-track album.
* The manga series ''[[Idol no Akahon]]'' is about a (fictional) [[Idol Singer]] group called Triple Booking, and the OP song from ''[[Seitokai Yakuindomo]]'' (by the same author) is credited to Triple Booking.
* <s>After-School</s> [[Insistent Terminology|Hokago]] Tea Time and Death Devil from ''[[K-On!]]'' can qualify. The voice actresses sing the lyrics for basically every vocalized song in the series, but the music is done by others. Albums of the openings, endings, and a number of the insert songs have topped Japan sales charts at least once.
** The seiyuu who comprised
=== Comedy ===
* Brazilian heavy metal band Massacration is composed by the [[Five-Man Band]] that forms the comedy group Banana Mecânica. The band appeared as a skit back in their own MTV program, when they were known as Hermes & Renato (sharing the name with said program). They are a downright stereotype of every heavy metal cliché in the book, from being dressed on denim and [[Hell-Bent for Leather|leather]] to singing in <s>English</s> [[Engrish]] to being [[Rock Me, Asmodeus|devil worshippers]], but the joke made so much of a success among viewers, they have two albums out, which are pretty good, [[MST3K Mantra|as long as you don't take it all too seriously]]. Oh, and they also helped make heavy metal more popular among Brazilian teens, along with ''[[Guitar Hero]]''. To understand what their backstory is about, check the [[wikipedia:Massacration|article]] on [[That Other Wiki]]. Think Dethklok, but in a more exaggerated (and [[Reality Is Unrealistic|blatantly lying]]) way.
** Their second album, ''Good Blood Headbanguers'' (intentional misspelling) was produced by none other than ''Roy Z''. How's that for status in the metal community?
=== Fan Works ===
* Inverted in ''[[Undocumented Features]]'' with The Art of Noise, a band in the 25th century named for the 20th century electronic music group in much the same way that singer Engelbert Humperdinck took his stage name from a classical composer. Author Ben "Gryphon" Hutchins has given numerous real songs by real groups such as [[Rush]] and [[They Might Be Giants (band)|They Might Be Giants]] to the fictional AON as their original compositions within the setting. Thanks to the magic of a [[Virtual Soundtrack]], it's possible to assemble at least one AON concert in its entirety for one's listening pleasure.
** More than a few other characters in ''UF'' take part in garage bands, doing cover versions of well-known songs.
** A special mention should go to ''Cthia.'' Described as "one of the hottest bands in galactic music", it is composed entirely of [[Star Trek|Vulcans]], playing enormously pretentious rock on traditional Vulcan instruments in perfect blank-face no-emotion style. One of their songs -- original lyrics written for the story they appear in -- is transcribed as part of describing their performance at a concert in one installment of the ''Symphony of the Sword'' cycle. As it turns out, they're a ''doubly'' Fake Band -- in that Cthia was created as a front by a band made up of non-Surakite Vulcans called the Illogics, to mock and parody followers of Surak. They never expected Cthia to become a massive hit.
=== Film ===
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*** And later Spinal Tap toured, with The Folksmen as their opening act—and at least once, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|''The Folksmen'' were booed off the stage]].
*** This was actually during [[Spinal Tap]]'s "Break Like The Wind" Tour in the early 1990's before The Folksmen appeared in ''[[A Mighty Wind]]''.
* The
** On a separate note, the movie was also [[Reverse Funny Aneurysm|eerily prescient]], foreshadowing the replacement of [[Boy Band]]s and pop princesses with power pop (Good Charlotte, Paramore) and singer-songwriters (Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne) following the [[Turn of the Millennium]]. (The movie was made in 2001. The following year, Avril Lavigne, Good Charlotte, and Simple Plan broke into the mainstream.) Maybe the producers recognized that people were getting tired of bubblegum pop?
* The title song from ''[[That Thing You Do]]'' became a chart-topping one-hit wonder, which utterly disrupts the lives of the formerly completely obscure band of protagonists (named, appropriately, the Wonders, originally the "Oneders"). The song, composed by Fountains of Wayne bassist Adam Schlesinger, actually did become fairly popular on Top 40 radio following the movie's release.
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=== Literature ===
* Be*Tween, from the ''[[Avalon: Web of Magic]]'' series, was a fake band whose songs were later performed by Debra Davis and released on the website.
* [[w:The Masked Marauders|The Masked Marauders]], a fictional supergroup spawned by a tongue-in-cheek ''Rolling Stones'' review of a non-existent bootleg double album. Allegedly a live album recorded in a "super session" by Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, George Harrison, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney, it was actually an elaborate hoax perpetrated by the magazine, culminating in an entire album recorded by an all-but-unknown group called the Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band. The [[Self-Titled Album]] reached no. 114 on the ''Billboard'' album chart in 1969, and its liner notes ''and'' final track contained more than enough clues to make it clear to even a casual listener that the entire thing was a gag.
{{quote|In a world of sham, the Masked Marauders, bless their hearts, are the genuine article.
|[[The Magic Christian|"T.M. Christian"]], "Masked Marauders" liner notes}}
=== Live-Action TV ===
* The ultimate Fake Bands actually were the [[MacGuffin]]s around which entire series were built: ''[[The Partridge Family]]'' (who save for two of them <ref>Shirley Jones was in [[Oklahoma!]]</ref> otherwise weren't musicians) and ''[[The Monkees (TV series)|The Monkees]]'' (some of whom ''were'', but weren't allowed to use their skills on the show during the first season).
* The 1977 [[Summer Replacement Series]] ''[[A Year at the Top]]'' was about a band (composed of Greg Evigan and Paul Shaffer -- yes, [[David Letterman|''that'' Paul Shaffer]]) who make a [[Deal with the Devil|deal with the son of the Devil]], and trade their souls for a year of fame and fortune.
* The short-lived series ''[[The Heights]]'' was centered around a band of the same name, formed for the show. A song from the show, "How Do You Talk To An Angel?" made it to #1 in the United States a [[Breakaway Pop Hit|few weeks after the show was canceled]] (only one cast member, Jamie Walters - who sang lead vocals - performs on the song).
* ''[[California Dreams]]'' features a Fake Band of the same name that also doubled as your standard teen comedy [[Six-Student Clique]].
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=== Newspaper Comics ===
* Literary twist: The comic strip ''[[Bloom County]]'' had several of its main characters as members of the group Billy and the Boingers (originally named Deathtöngue). The book "Billy and the Boingers Bootleg" actually included a floppy vinyl "45" containing two songs, "
=== Professional Wrestling ===
* The fake band/fake musician is a pretty standard character in [[Professional Wrestling]], with The Honky Tonk Man, "Double J" Jeff Jarrett, the West Texas Rednecks, and 3 Count all laying claim to the title. Most of them will produce real music, either in a live performance on the wrestling federation's television program, or a "music video" aired on the show (if we're lucky, the song will be lip-synced, and sung by somebody who actually knows what they're doing rather than the wrestler himself).
** The Double J example is actually a ''triple'' subversion, as they ran a story admitting that Jarrett wasn't singing his tune... then claimed another wrestler (now known as B.G. James, at the time, playing Jarrett's roadie) actually sang it... which he had in real life, and not badly either!
** However, actual bands formed by wrestlers,
=== Video Games ===
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=== Web Comics ===
* [[MS Paint Adventures]] has introduced one of these, [https://web.archive.org/web/20131104184555/http://homestuck.bandcamp.com/album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead-2 Midnight Crew], with an entire album of dark jazz music. The creator has suggested that there will be other fake bands in the future.
** The Midnight Crew's nemeses, the Felt, have apparently formed [https://web.archive.org/web/20131104183044/http://homestuck.bandcamp.com/album/the-felt an electric-orchestral band with temporal effects], or "temporelechrestal", in the words of the author.
* ''[[Questionable Content]]'' has Deathmøle, the male lead's band, with him as guitarist. They have released several albums of actual music, composed entirely by author Jeph Jacques.
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* And speaking of Archie and the Riverdale gang, they also formed a fictional band, the Archies. (Which, while generally less famous than Josie and the Pussycats in their shared milieu, produced the real-world #1 hit, "Sugar, Sugar".)
* The short-lived cartoon ''[[Generation O!]]'' had as its short-lived, somewhat creepy and frightening premise that an eight-year-old girl known to the media as "Molly-O" is the world's most popular rock star. The titular band was portrayed by the real-life band Letters to Cleo, whose lead vocalist, Kay Hanley, apparently really can sound eight years old if she tries. (Hanley was also the singing voice for Josie in the ''Josie and the Pussycats'' movie.)
* ''[[Soul Music (novel)|Soul Music]]'': The animated version of
* The Subdigitals of ''[[Code Lyoko]]'' (known as the "Subsonics" in Season 2, but renamed as there was already a real band with that name) not only have a pretty heavy presence in the series proper, but an actual album released in English and French. It's above-average French pop, though it is worth note that the English release is not so much a "translation" as a complete rewrite with varying levels of success. The song "S'envoler/Break Away" is adapted from the show's ending theme, and it and "Planet Net" are featured in the episode "Music to Soothe the Savage Beast."
* [[Gorillaz]], an animated band fronting for a group of real musicians.
=== Anime and Manga ===
* "C-Drive" from ''[[GEAR Fighter Dendoh]]'', which was a popular band in the show - at least, the protagonist, a loud-mouthed martial artist, loved them... even if they did play a lot of 'girlie' tunes. Though, they were quite good and their songs were sometimes used as alternate theme songs.
* ''[[The Legend of Black Heaven]]'' is about a band called Black Heaven getting back together years after they split up. The band was supposedly extremely popular and famous before their career ended. [[One-Hit Wonder|They only ever play variations of one song]], and it's been shown that other songs are ''just not good enough'' for the ultimate weapon.
=== Comic Books ===
* The Maniaks, a fictional band from [[DC Comics]]. They first appeared in ''Showcase'' #68 (May 1967) through issue 71, and like [[The Monkees (TV series)|The Monkees]] had wacky adventures centered around their gigs. Members of the band would appear intermittently in other DC comics over the next fifty years, but after their brief run in ''Showcase'' never reappeared together as a band.
=== Literature ===
* ''[[Snow Crash]]'' has Vitaly Chernobyl and the Meltdowns, who start their own genre of music called "nuclear glow-fuzz". Their number one hit is "My Love is a Smoking Hole in the Ground".
* ''[[The Illuminatus Trilogy]]'' has the bands Clark Kent and his Supermen and The American Medical Association {{spoiler|the latter of which turns out to be evil immortal Nazis}}
** Also [[Long List|The Fillet of Soul, The Wrathful Visions, The Cockroaches, The Senate and the People of Rome, The Ultra-Violet Hippopotamus, The Thing on the Doorstep, Science and Health, Key to the Scriptures, The Glue Sniffers, King Kong and his Skull Island Dinosaurs, The Howard Johnson Hamburger, The Riot in Cell Block Ten, The House of Frankenstein, The Signifying Monkey, The Damned Thing, The Orange Moose, The Indigo Banana, The Pink Elephant, Frodo Baggins and his Ring, The Mouse That Roars, The Crew of the Flying Saucer, The Magnificent Ambersons, The House I Live In, The Sound Of One Hand, The Territorial Imperative, The Druids of Stonehenge, The Heads of Easter Island, The Lost Continent of Mu, Bugs Bunny and his Fourteen Carrots, The Gospel According to Marx, The Card-Carrying Members, The Sands Of Mars, The Erection, The Association, The Amalgamation, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, The Climax, The Broad Jumpers, The Pubic Heirs, The Freeks, The Windows, The Trashers (headed by Mick Jagger), The Roofs, Moses and Monotheism, Steppenwolf, Civilization and its Discontents, Poor Richard and his Rosicrucian Secrets, The Wrist Watch ,The Nova Express, The Father of Waters, The Human Beings, The Washington Monument, The Thalidomide Babies, The Strangers in a Strange Land, Dr. John the Night Tripper, The Dead Man's Hand, Joker and the One-Eyed Jacks, Peyote Woman ,The Heavenly Blues, The Golems, The Supreme Awakening, The Seven Types of Ambiguity, The Cold War, The Street Fighters, The Bank Burners, The Slaves of Satan, The Domino Theory, Maxwell and his Demons, The Acapulco Gold-Diggers, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Second Law of Thermodynamics, Dracula and his Brides, The Iron Curtain, The Noisy Minority, The International Debt, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, The Cloud of Unknowing, The Birth of a Nation, The Zombies, Attila and his Huns, Nihilism, The Catatonics, The Thorndale Jag Offs, The Haymarket Bomb, The Head of a Dead Cat, The Shadow Out Of Time, The Sirens of Titan, The Player Piano, The Streets of Laredo, The Space Odyssey, The Blue Moonies, The Crabs, The Dose, The Grassy Knoll, The Latent Image, The Wheel of Karma, The Communion of Saints, The City of God, General Indefinite Wobble, The Left-Handed Monkey Wrench, The Thorn in the Flesh, The Rising Podge, SHAZAM, The Miniature Sled, The 23rd Appendix, The Other Cheek, The Occidental Ox, Ms. and the Chairperson, Cohen Cohen Cohen and Kahn, The Joint Phenomenon, The Wonders of the Invisible World, Maule's Curse, The Jesus Head Trip, Ahab and his Amputation, The Horseless Headsmen, The Leaves of Grass, The Gettysburg Address, The Rosy-Fingered Dawn, The Wine-Dark Sea, The Net of Jewels, Here Comes Everybody, The Pisan Cantos, The Snows of Yesteryear, The Pink Dimension, The Goose in the Bottle, The Incredible Hulk, The Third Bardo, Aversion Therapy, The Irresistible Force, MC Squared, The Enclosure Acts, Perpetual Emotion, The 99-Year Lease, The Immovable Object, Spaceship Earth, The Radiocarbon Method, The Rebel Yell, The Clenched Fist, The Doomsday Machine, The Rand Scenario, The United States Commitment, The Entwives, The Players of Null-A, The Prelude to Space, Thunder and Roses, Armageddon, The Time Machine, The Mason Word, Monkey Business, The Works, The Eight of Swords, Gorilla Warfare, The Box Lunch, The Primate Kingdom, The New Aeon, The Enola Gay, The Octet Truss, The Stochastic Process, The Fluxions, The Burning House, The Phantom Captain, The Decline of the West, The Duelists, The Call of the Wild, Consciousness III, The Reorganized Church of the Latter-Day Saints, Standard Oil Of Ohio, The Zig-Zag Men, The Rubble Risers, The Children of Ra, TNT, Acceptable Radiation, The Pollution Level, The Great Beast, The Whores of Babylon, The Waste Land, The Ugly Truth, The Final Diagnosis, Solution Unsatisfactory, The Heat Death of the Universe, Mere Noise, I Opening, The Nine Unknown Men, The Horse of Another Color, The Falling Rock Zone, The Ascent of the Serpent, Reddy Willing and Unable, The Civic Monster, Hercules and the Tortoise, The Middle Pillar, The Deleted Expletive, Deep Quote, LuCiFeR, The Dog Star, Nuthin' Sirius, and Preparation H]]
=== Live-Action TV ===
* "Jessie Cochraine and the Rippers" (later "Jessie and the Rippers" when the character's last name was [[retcon]]ned) in ''[[Full House]]''.
* "The Molly Phillips Band" in ''[[So Weird]]'', itself the offspring of the backstory "Phillips-Kane Band", which may have been a [[Fictional Counterpart]] of [[Fleetwood Mac]].
* ''[[Kids Incorporated]]'', in the series of the same name.
* The Ikemens in ''[[Kamen Rider Kiva]]'', of which Kengo (master of [[The Power of Rock]]) and Wataru (withdrawn hero) are a part of. Since Wataru's actor sings as part of the ''real'' band TETRA-FANG to produce the show's insert battle songs, the line between the Ikemens and TETRA-FANG is a thin one indeed.
* ''[[Chuck]]'' has Jeffster, with show's resident [[Cloudcuckoolander]] Jeff & [[Small Name, Big Ego]] Lester performing a variety of covers. Whilst Scott Krinsky (Jeff) is miming on instruments, Vik Sahay (Lester) records the vocals & then lip syncs whilst filming.
* ''[[The Steve Harvey Show]]'' has Steve Hightower and the Hi-Tops. They reunite and perform during the show's early seasons. When the band breaks up for good, Steve and Cedric form another Fake Band called The Soul Teachers. Steve manages a girl group called Barely Legal, until Regina's feminist meddling causes the group to break up and pursue worthier goals.
* ''[[That's So Raven]]'' had The Boyz 'N' Motion. They appear in two different episodes.
{{quote|BOYS! We are the boys in motion, we give you our devotion}}
=== Tabletop Games ===
* ''[[Tech Infantry]]'' has Volkskrieg Overdrive and Gun Metal Grey. The first is mainly mentioned in passing as being a popular act of the era, the second is a major part of the plot in Miro Creed's arc.
=== Web Original ===
* ''[[Frilly Shirt]]'' has barbershop trio The Three Swell Chaps, art-rockers The Commissioners of Lunacy, and electronic outfits Bourbon Versailles and Electro-Magnates.
=== Western Animation ===
* Grey Star on ''[[Jimmy Neutron]]'' made several appearances on the show, even once or twice as background characters.
* Also from ''[[Metalocalypse]]'', "Snakes 'n Barrels", the '80s era hair metal band that Dethklok's drummer, Pickles, used to front.
* A three band show: ''[[Jem]]'' with ''Jem And The Holograms'' ('80s pop), ''The Misfits'' ('80s new wave) and ''The Stingers'' ('80s hard metal.)
* ''[[Arthur (animation)|Arthur]]'' had "Binky", a foreign band who had unexpectedly become very popular out of nowhere with their mysteriously catchy music. Their guerrilla marketing tactics caused a conflict with an actual Binky, and later on the band was revealed to ''literally'' be fake; their producers had used hologram generators and computer-synthesized vocals!
** And then we have "The Squabs" (Who performed "Boogie Woogie Christmas" in ''Arthur's Perfect Christmas'').
* ''[[Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids]]''
* ''[[Growing Up Creepie]]'': In Season 2, Episode 8: Going For Brogue, The 3 Goth Kids formed their own rockband calling themselves "Plaid Vapors", with Raven the guitarist, Misery the pianist, & Morpheus the drummer. Their chance to play at the school dance may have got canceled due to it's bagpipers gone batty, but believe it or not their 1st gig was a huge success. This was in large part in their friend Creepie Creecher & her mastery of the bagpipes, Raven Mcfadden herself was so proud of her that night. What she also told Creepie that the bagpipes itself contain the ghost of her great great great great great grandfather Angus Mcfadden, born in Scotland no doubt.
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' has an entire episode focusing on getting a Fake Band from [[The Eighties]] named "Love Handel" back together for the titular characters' parents' anniversary. Other than that episode, they're only present in cameos. Another episode featured Candace and Stacy winning a contest to spend a day with their favorite girl-rock band, The Bettys.
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{{quote|'''Lawrence''': But how can I be a rock star if nobody's heard of me?
'''Phineas''': We're not trying to make you into a rock star, we're trying to make you into a has-been! That's much easier! }}
* The short-lived cartoon ''[[The Bremen Avenue Experience]]'' updates the medieval story "[[The Bremen Town Musicians]]" by starring a [[Garage Band]] made of [[Funny Animal]]s.
* ''Mystik Spiral'' from the MTV cartoon, ''[[Daria]]''. [[Running Gag|But they might have changed their name...]]
* The Bedrock Rockers from ''[[The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show]]''.
== Real bands masquerading as fake bands ==
=== Anime and Manga ===
* The J-Rock band "Hummingbird" appeared as ''[[Macross 7]]''{{'}}s band "Fire Bomber," whose music and adventures (including live performances aboard [[Transforming Mecha]] controlled by guitars) were at the center of the series. The band released a number of real albums as "Fire Bomber", including an entire fake tribute album to another fictional singer in the ''[[Macross]]'' [[Myth Arc]].
** Notable that at this point,{{when}} there have been 13 "Fire Bomber" albums so far, many of which have songs that never were in the anime.
* In an episode of ''[[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', Haruhi and Yuki stand in for members of a fake band called ENOZ — a [[Sdrawkcab Name]] [[Shout-Out]] to a real-life band named ZONE. Meanwhile Haruhi's voice actress is a real singer, who released her songs from this episode as singles.
** Many Japanese ''seiyuu'' double as singers, singing theme songs for the characters they portray.
* Two different J-Pop artists were pressed into service as the fake bands from ''[[Nana]]''
=== Film ===
* "The Weird Sisters" in ''[[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)|Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire]]'' included Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey of Pulp, Phil Selway and Jonny Greenwood of [[Radiohead]], Steve Claydon of Add N to (X), and electronica artist Jason Buckle, who has worked with Jarvis Cocker in their side-project Relaxed Muscle.
* Particularly mind-blowing example: In ''[[The Blues Brothers]] 2000'', the titular band enters the "[[Battle of the Bands]]", and has to go head to head with '[[wikipedia:The Louisiana Gator Boys|The Louisiana Gator Boys]]'... which is basically a collection of all the most legendary blues musicians alive at the time of filming, including [[B.B. King]], [[Eric Clapton]], [[Bo Diddley]], [[Isaac Hayes]] and [[Dr. John]].
* In the climax of the 1986 film ''[[Crossroads]]'', the protagonist (Ralph Macchio) enters a guitar duel to save his soul. He faces off against the Devil's guitarist, Jack Butler, played by legendary guitar wizard Steve Vai (Vai played both parts of the duel; Macchio's parts in the rest of the film were played by legendary slide guitarist Ry Cooder).
* The Soggy Bottom Boys from the film ''[[O Brother, Where Art Thou?]]'' is a mishmash of either bluegrass musicians or musicians who could copy the style well, including Ralph Stanley, John Hartford, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, and Dan Tyminski. The exception is Tim Blake Nelson, the actor for Delmar O'Donnell, who sang his own lines for "In the Jailhouse Now," in case you couldn't tell.
* In the 2008 film ''[[St.
* The Glenn Miller Band's two appearances on film were as Phil Corey's Orchestra in ''Sun Valley Serenade'' and Gene Morrison's Orchestra in ''Orchestra Wives''.
=== Live-Action TV ===
* In ''[[Scrubs]]'', Ted's band "The Worthless Peons" is the actual a cappella band The Blanks, who have released a CD with several catchy tunes.
* From ''[[Who's The Boss?]]'', the doo-wop group "Tony and the Dreamtones" is played by actual doo-wop group "The Mighty Echoes" (plus, of course, Tony Danza). (They did have Ray Charles play himself in another ep, however, even replacing the usual "Brand New Life" end-credit instrumental with a song Charles and the other cast members performed.)
* ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'' has featured the members of electro-punk group [[Robots In Disguise]] on several occasions, once in a band called [[Kraftwerk]] [[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|Orange]], along with Vince and "Johnny Two Hats."
** The Horrors also appear in the third series as the Black Tubes.
* Four Star Mary stood in for Oz's fictional band, Dingoes Ate My Baby, on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]].''
* There's an episode of ''[[Home Movies]]'' in which a pair of camp counselors named Mike and Miguel write a bunch of songs. The songs are played, and the characters voiced, by Johns Flansburgh and Linnell of [[They Might Be Giants (band)|They Might Be Giants]].
* [[The Jonas Brothers]] on ''[[Jonas]]''.
* An early ''[[Happy Days]]'' episode concerned the rock band Johnny Fish and the Fins (Richie knew the keyboard player back in grade school), played by 50s [[Tribute Band]] Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids (now just known as Flash Cadillac).
** They also appeared in ''[[American Graffiti]]'' as Herbie and the Heartbreakers.
* [[Devo]] supply the music for Cube Squared, a fictional Swedish band from the film ''Tapeheads'': While they aren't played by Devo themselves, the actors mime a Swedish-language version of "Baby Doll". Similarly, "Mr. MX-7", supposedly performed by a metal band called Blender Children in film, is actually by Stiv Bators And The Zeroes, [[Pop Star Composer]]s Fishbone have a cameo as a country band called Ranchbone, and real life soul-singers Sam Moore (of Sam And Dave) and Junior Walker portray fictional soul duo The Swanky Modes. Full songs by The Swanky Modes, Cube Squared, and Ranchbone were on the soundtrack.
* Banjo & Sullivan from ''[[The Devil's Rejects]]'' are kind of an unusual example: None of their music actually appeared in the movie (although the characters were established as country musicians), but a supposed [[Greatest Hits]] was released as a tie-in, with the music actually provided by country singer Jesse Dayton.
* [[Fountains of Wayne]] has basically made a career out of standing in as a Fake Band, and Kay Hanley has made a career out of standing in as a Fake Vocalist. They performed together to provide the music for the [[Josie and the Pussycats (film)|''Josie and the Pussycats'' film]]. Fountains of Wayne also wrote and performed the titular Fake Song of ''[[That Thing You Do]]'', and Hanley provided the singing voice of Molly-O from the cartoon ''[[Generation O!]]'' (her band was portrayed by Hanley's band at the time, Letters to Cleo). Fountains of Wayne appeared as animated versions of themselves in the cartoon ''Hey Joel'', regularly contributing [[Suspiciously Apropos Music]] to the show.
** The lead vocals of "That Thing You Do"—and all the other singing by Johnathon Schaech's character—were performed by Adam Schlesinger's friend Mike Viola of The Candy Butchers.
=== Music ===
* [[The Residents]] had ''The Big Bubble'', a band of Zinkenites whose "album" was the conclusion of ''The Mole Trilogy''.
* During one of [[They Might Be Giants (band)|They Might Be Giants]]'s tours, they had a very strange opening band, Sapphire Bullets, who played cover versions of the songs from the ''Flood'' album, in their entirety, in order. Made even more strange by the fact that Sapphire Bullets really ''was'' They Might Be Giants, disguised as a fake band, playing cover versions of ''their own songs''.
* The members of [[The Traveling Wilburys]] have some impressive alter egos ([[Bob Dylan]], [[The Beatles (band)|George Harrison]], Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and [[Electric Light Orchestra|Jeff Lynne]]).
* The plot of [[Daft Punk]]'s ''Interstella 5555'' revolves around the "Crescendolls", a fake band who supposedly recorded Daft Punk's "One More Time." The band is fake on more than one level, because they don't exist in real life and they aren't really who they appear to be in the film either.
<!-- * [[K Pop]] group The Wonder Girls. For their 'English Debut' they released a film on Teen Nick, called 'The Wonder Girls'. they also had a cameo in 'The Last Godfather'. MOD: How does releasing a song under their own name make them a fake band? Likewise a cameo? -->
=== Video Games ===
* Radio host Pat Maine in the game ''[[Alan Wake]]'' can't quite put his finger on why [[Poets of the Fall]] remind him so much of Bright Falls' local rock legends, the Old Gods of Asgard.
== Real Life ==
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* [[Milli Vanilli]]. Nothing more to be said.
* Similarly, [[Boney M]] has been accused of being a Fake Band.
* Occasionally during the 70s and 80s, when [[Blue
* On March 4, 1977, "The Cockroaches" played [[Toronto]]'s El Mocambo nightclub. You might know the group better as {{spoiler|[[The Rolling Stones]], who hadn't performed live for 14 years before that show.}}
* The [[wikipedia:Ohio Express|Ohio Express]] were more of a record company's marketing identity than a real band, and consisted of whatever musicians were available at the time. [[The Eagles|Joe Walsh]] is suspected to have been a member of an early version, and the final version eventually became the "classic" lineup of [[10cc]].
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