Fan Nickname/Music

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • The UK band McFly has names for the relationship between the band members. Danny Jonas and Tom Fletcher is known as Flones and Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd are known as Pudd. Fans of McFly are known as Galaxy Defenders, Star Girls, and McFans.
  • The MAFIAA (Music And Film Industry Associations of America) - "Affectionate" collective nickname for the RIAA and MPAA, which have many members in common and have much of their agendas in common. Used a lot on Slashdot.
  • Fans of Owl City tend to refer to Lights as the female-Owl City, and vice-versa.
  • The Area - while not a nickname for David Bowie, per se, it is the fan name for a certain bodily appendage of his that is best left unmentioned on this page and taken to Memetic Mutation levels regarding its appearance in Labyrinth. It now has a religion, Areaology.
  • Disco? Very! - Electric Light Orchestra's album Discovery. One listen to "Shine a Little Love" or "Last Train to London" should show you exactly how it got this name. May also be applied to the Daft Punk album of the same name, for similar reasons.
    • With the Daft Punk album, the wordplay is entirely intentional from the start, and it also serves as a Stealth Pun - DP explained that they chose the name after their memories of listening to music as kids (which obviously included disco).
  • The King - Not Jack Kirby, but Elvis Presley.
  • Beyoncé is often referred to as Beysus by her fans because she's like well...Jesus to them.
  • Silver - Starflyer 59's officially self-titled debut album, after its monochromatic silver cover (also in reference to their sophomore album, the also-monochromatic Gold). This caught on with the band and the record label, and was used as the official title when the album was rereleased with bonus tracks.
  • Related to The Beatles:
    • The White Album - almost universally used for the officially self-titled 1968 double album by The Beatles.
      • This set a standard for various other self-titled albums with one-colored covers: Metallica's 1991 self-titled album is called The Black Album and Weezer's three self-titled albums are called The Blue Album, The Green Album and The Red Album in respect to chronology.
        • Which is confusing given that 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 are often called The Red Album and The Blue Album.
    • Paulie: affectionate nickname for Paul McCartney. It has been used in A Hard Days Night, but isn't official.
    • Sir Paul: what the British media, and those following their lead, call Paul McCartney. When he was knighted, he accepted the title but made public that he didn't want to use it; MPL had other ideas.
      • "Macca" is also used at times.
    • Johnny: affectionate nickname for Joh Lennon, usually reserved for Fanfic. At least as old as Elton John's "Empty Garden."
    • Saint John, Martin Luther Lennon: names for Possession Sue versions of John.
    • Paul in pain: a Hurt/Comfort Fic starring Paul McCartney. First used in a magazine review of Run Devil Run ("Paul in pain gets back to where he once belonged"); popularized by Ms. Moonlight on her Indica's Attic Fanfic site when she used it to describe its contents. "X in pain" has been used for other Beatles as well.
    • Geo, Hari: Fan nicknames for George Harrison.
    • MDC: term for John Lennon's assassin, who is He Who Must Not Be Named.
      • You mean Mark David Chapman?
    • Macca: Fan nickname for Paul McCartney.
    • The Fifth Beatle: Many people, but most commonly George Martin, who served as Record Producer for every album of theirs save one and is recognised as playing a key role in helping them achieve their musical vision.
    • Not to mention the fan nicknames for the band itself, like the Fab Four and the Threetles (for their Putting the Band Back Together incarnation in The Nineties).
  • Smell the Glove - Actual title of Spinal Tap's real/fake album (with an all-black cover). Often used ironically to refer to Metallica's self-titled fifth album, also with an all-black cover (either the last "good" or first "bad" Metallica album, depending on who you ask).
    • The Black Album is also used to describe the same album in a less negative manner.
  • "Cletus" - A derisive term used to describe backup dancer/rapper/actor Kevin Federline, in reference to the Slack-Jawed Yokel from The Simpsons. By extension, his ex-wife Britney Spears has jokingly become known as "Brandine" to some in the wake of her Freak-Out after their divorce.
    • "Fed-Ex" is another term for him.
    • Don't forget "K-Fed".
  • Led Zeppelin IV - much like the previous White Album example, near-universally used to refer to Led Zeppelin's symbolically titled fourth album.
    • Also commonly known as ZOSO, after one of the aforementioned odd symbols.
      • Which is in itself ironic, because Page has repeatedly stated that ZOSO is not intended to be pronounced as a word.
    • "The Object" for the black motif on the 'Presence' album artwork
    • "Zep" or "Led Zep", for the band. "The Hammer of the Gods", borrowed from a lyric in "Immigrant Song", later became the title of a biography.
    • Apparently there are nicknames for the rest of the members. Drummer John Bonham was affectionately known as "Bonzo," Jimmy Page is "Pagey", Robert Plant is "Percy" (I have no clue why), and John Paul Jones is "Jonesy" (which is actually very handy when you have to differentiate him from the other member named John).
      • Their album 'Coda' has a drums-only track entitled "Bonzo's Montreux."
  • Big Four of Thrash Metal: Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, and Megadeth.
  • The Big Four of Grunge: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains.
  • The Boss - Bruce Springsteen
  • The Bards - Blind Guardian
  • No-Talent Ass-Clown - Michael Bolton, thanks to a quote from an unfortunately named character from Office Space. When asked why he doesn't just go by "Mike", he responds with, "Why should I? He's the one who sucks!"
  • John Deacon of Queen is often (affectionately) referred to as 'Deaky'.
    • While "The Guv'nor" refers to Brian May (the appellation came before the song).
  • The Artist, TAFKAP - Prince; during the period where he changed his stage name to an (intentionally unpronouncable) symbol because his old record label held the rights to "Prince", the media and fans eventually settled for referring to him as "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince".
  • Akka-Dakka: Australian nickname/pronounciation for ACDC.
  • Keef - Keith Richards, of The Rolling Stones.
  • Although only really known within the fan community, the heart-eyed dinosaur on the cover of Lemon Demon's "Dinosaurchestra" album is typically referred to as Goodsie, after a very strange dream had by one of the community members.
  • Van Hagar - Van Halen after Sammy Hagar replaced David Lee Roth.
    • Van Horrible - same as above, when Gary Cherone replaced Sammy Hagar.
    • For the bandmembers, "Diamond Dave" and "DLR" for David Lee Roth, and "The Red Rocker" for Sammy Hagar.
  • "Wacko Jacko" for Michael Jackson. Granted it's a mean tabloid name but who HASN'T called him that at some point?
    • His famous dance move (where he glides smoothly across the floor backwards), was nicknamed the "moonwalk" by the media and not by Jackson himself, but when he made his 1988 anthology film Moonwalker, Jackson did choose the name for the movie (all according to The Other Wiki).
    • "The Gloved One", after the trademark single white glove he wore during the 1980s.
    • He was also called "The Thriller", especially back in the '80s. When he was part of the J5 he was some times called "Little Michael" by fans.
    • "The King of Pop" is an odd case in that it was Jackson's handlers who pushed it into common usage rather than his fans or the press, supposedly creating the nickname because Jackson was jealous that Elvis Presley had the nickname "The King". Fox and MTV had to agree to use the phrase if they wanted to air videos from Dangerous in 1991; rumors flew that the VJs on the latter had to use it whenever he was mentioned. While Jackson's fans and his publicity machine still use this one unironically, in his final years it was common for entertainment journalists to qualify it as "self-proclaimed King of Pop".
  • James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul" and "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business."
  • Aretha Franklin, the "Queen of Soul"
    • Perhaps in reference to the above, Mary J. Blige has been called the "Queen of Hip-Hop Soul".
  • American Idol winner Ruben Studdard has been called the "Velvet Teddy Bear"
  • Tim "Ripper" Owens is known by some of his fans as The Man of a Thousand Bands due to his relatively large number of projects he's worked on (and been fired from.) So far, he's worked with British Steel, a Judas Priest tribute band, Judas Priest themselves (who fired him to make room for his predecessor, Rob Halford,) Iced Earth (who fired him to make room for his predecessor, Matt Barlow,) Brainicide, Winter's Bane (who he left to join Iced Earth,) Beyond Fear, Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force and his solo project. He lampshaded his tendency to get fired from bands to make room for old vocalists in an interview with That Metal Show, first by joking that he started his solo project so he could have a band he couldn't be fired from, then by joking that his solo band tried to fire him.
  • Judas Priest: The Gods of Metal
  • Frank Sinatra - "The Chairman of the Board" and/or "Ol' Blue Eyes."
  • Disturbed's Mascot, officially known as "The Guy", has been dubbed Morbus by the fanbase (Latin for "Sickness").
  • American thrash revival band Municipal Waste go by the nickname "The 'Waste".
  • The band members of X Japan have a few: Yoshiki has been stuck with "Yo-chan" (after what his biggest fan called him), "Yoyo," and the not-quite-flattering "Pony" (because some people say his face reminds them of a pony.) hide is often called "Pink Spider," again after a name Yoshiki called him due to his wild pink hair, that he referenced in his last song. Sugizo is occasionally referred to as Sugi.
    • Also, Yoshiki referred to his same certain bodily appendage as a 'rocket' in a couple of songs, and it got picked up by fans. It Gets Better for those into Ho Yay (or the occasional cheap laugh). hide, the late guitarist, wrote and performed a song called "Rocket Dive" and once drunkenly yelled in an interview "Rocket dive to my spread beaver!" He was talking about his song and his solo band....
  • John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' self-titled album with Eric Clapton is often nicknamed "The Beano Album," for the magazine Clapton is reading on the cover.
    • Clapton himself has a bunch, most famously "Slowhand" and "God."
  • Duane Allman of the The Allman Brothers was nicknamed "Skydog".
  • Ted Nugent: the Nuge or the Motor City Madman. Also acceptable are Sweaty Uncle Teddy, or simply, Uncle Ted.
  • Lacuna Coil: The Coil
  • Dragon Force (video game)= "DragonFarce" or "Studioforce" to the Hatedom.
  • Ozzy Osbourne has been called the "Prince of Darkness" by his fans. I couldn't find anything about the bat though...
  • "Lady Caca" is often used by haters as a derogatory nickname for Lady Gaga.
    • And her fans refer to her as "Godga".
    • Another detractor nickname: Lady GAGa.
    • but you can't forget Mama Monster, the Lady of Gagalupe, Gagaloo, Lady Dada
  • The Killers lead singer Brandon Flowers was called Queen Brenda or Princess Brenda during his 2005 makeup phase
    • Their guitarist's hair is also known as Godfrey.
  • Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath is known as "The Godfather" amongst metalheads, due to his role in the creation of heavy metal, since (while there is some debate) most people generally classify Black Sabbath as being the first heavy metal band ever.
  • Justin Bieber has tons of 'em. Notable ones include "Justin Beaver", "Justine Bieber", "Biebus", and "Jason Booby".
    • Or Justin Biberon in french. A "biberon" is a baby bottle.
  • Ray Charles got "the Genius".
  • Van Morrison is Van the Man, and occasionally the Belfast Cowboy, both names Robbie Robertson used for him in The Last Waltz. Robertson first coined Belfast Cowboy in the lyrics to the 1971 Band song "4% Pantomime", which featured a guest vocal by Morrison.
  • Madness were "the Nutty Boys in The Eighties.
  • "The Gentle Giant", Don Williams.
  • Country music great Vern Gosdin was known as "The Voice".
  • One of the bagpipe players in the German medieval rock band Saltatio Mortis chose the (pretty badass) stage name "El Silbador". Fans immediately decided to nickname him "Elsi" - which usually is a diminuitive form of "Elisabeth" used for little girls...
    • The band itself ended up with the nickname "The boyband of mittelalterbands", courtesy of their good friends Schelmish (who are, themselves, "The fattest mittelalterband ever").
  • A Memetic Mutation video Gag Dub of an interview ended up causing former Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore to be referred to as "Kevin Murr" in the fanbase.
  • Dick Dale is called "the king of the surf guitar" (also the title of one of his albums).
  • Waking The Cadaver's massive Hatedom have given them the name "Wanking The Cadaver."
  • "J-Lo" for Jennifer Lopez. Initially resisted then embraced by the singer to the extent that she used it for a album title.
  • Linkin Ball Z - A Dragonball Z Fan Vid set to Linkin Park. So common they've got a nickname.
  • Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton and Kitty Wells have all been called "The Queen of Country."
  • Anna Nalick's fans know her, and constantly refer to her, as AnNa (a contraction due to the fact that the second and third syllables of her name are the same). Interesting in that she originated the nickname herself, making this something of a case of Memetic Mutation. Anna's other nickname, also used frequently by both fans and Anna herself, is "The Lullaby Singer", which is the title of her first comeback single.
  • Alice in Chains' self-titled final album, which has a picture of a three-legged dog on the cover, has been referred to by such names as Tripod and Lucky (based on an old joke about a three-legged, one-eared, one-eyed dog named "Lucky").
  • Fans of They Might Be Giants often refer to John Flansburgh as Flans or Flansy, and he sometimes calls himself this.
  • Gackt's fans and staff sometimes refer to him as Mau-sama. Which is Japanese for Devil King.
    • He is also known as "Gacchan," "Gakkun" and other such variations, particularly by his Japanese fans.
  • Iamamiwhoami is an Anonymous Band, so at least at first the main participants were unknown. iamamiwhoami (Jonna Lee) is known as Iam or Mandragora; the main male figure (probably Claes Björklund) is referred to as Captain Underpants, CP, or the Knight. The German fan in the concert, known only by his YouTube name ShootUpTheStation is SUTS for short.
  • Fall Out Boy had Pwentz, Pstump, and Joetroh; Panic! at the Disco has Bden, and had Ryro and Jwalk. Decaydance fandom seems to enjoy first+last name portmanteau nicknames.
  • Dimmu Borgir are commonly called "Demon Burger" or "Dummy Burger" by detractors.
  • Emilie Autumn's fans are refered to as "Muffins" and "Plague Rats."
    • And the fans tend to just call her "EA"
  • Morrissey of The Smiths is sometimes referred to as "Moz".
  • Paul Weller, formerly of The Jam, is pretty much universally called "The Modfather" for his pivotal role in the 70's/80's Mod revival.
  • My Bloody Valentine fans call the middle part of "You Made Me Realise" "the Holocaust section".
  • Biffy Clyro often get called The Biff, and a not uncommon shout is "Mon the Biff!" (Come on the Biff!)
  • Green Day fans often call the bromance pairing of Billie Joe and Mike as "Bike." The fans themselves, the newer generation ones at least, go by the term "idiots." It's even the fan club name.
  • Sunstroke Project's saxophonist is referred to by American fans as "Epic Sax Guy."
  • Britney Spears has a lot of nicknames, ranging from Godney and Legendney to Armney and Walkney (based upon interpretations of her dancing), basically add "Ney" on to a descriptive word or a complimentary word. (Fierceney)
  • Christina Aguilera is called Legendtina almost exclusively by her fans, the negative side of this is that her Hatedom and people who just aren't fond of her call her Floptina..
  • Evanescence is called "Ev" on their online community.
  • Iron Maiden has Arry for Lead Bassist Steve Harris, and "H" for Adrian Smith (say it with a British accent to understand). Bruce Dickinson is also known as "Bruce Bruce" and "Air raid siren".
  • The Grateful Dead's iconic but terrible live album, Steal Your Face, is referred to as "Steal Your Money".
  • Trumpeter Al Hirt (1922-99) was affectionately known as "Jumbo" and "The Round Mound of Sound" by his fans.
  • Fans of the a capella quintet Pentatonix refer to themselves as "Pentaholics", and they have a term for the look of incredulity and amazement nearly everyone gets on their faces the first time they hear Mitch Grassi's ultra-high tenor voice: "Mitch-slapped".
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