Fun with Acronyms/Music

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Fun with Acronyms in Music include:

  • The electronic band LMFAO. It sneaks in one profanity in it, but it's a big one. LMFAO stands for Laugh My Fucking Ass Off.
  • The Japan Animationsong Makers Project, a group of various anime theme song singers.
  • J-Pop band S.M.A.P stands for Sport and Music Assembly People. This isn't even an attempt to be funny.
  • The Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, whose acronym, according to John Lennon, is just a coincidence. Right...
    • No, really, it's just a coincidence. The Beatles were never shy about their drug use - it's unlikely that they would lie so adamantly and consistently (it was a drawing from John's son Julian, and the drawing exists, and it does in fact look like a girl flying in the sky surrounded by diamonds) for so long about a substance they'd already admitted using, and using regularly. Also, Julian Lennon and Lucy O'Donnell are not fictional people.
    • Come on, three superfluous words? One would be pushing it. This is about as likely as Douglas Adams making a joke in base 13.
    • The punk/metal band Life, Sex and Death used the same acronym.
    • As did the goth-pop outfit Love Spirals Downwards.
    • It also popped up in the Aloytah Haynes Jeremiah song "Lake Shore Drive", which is especially glaring because the Drive isn't generally called that.
    • The Flaming Lips' songs are published by Lovely Sorts of Death.
  • Korn had "A.D.I.D.A.S." (All Day I Dream About Sex).
    • While we're at it, although Adidas itself isn't an acronym, but a portmanteau (of its founder, Adolf "Adi" Dassler), a book about the brand is called All Day I Dream About Sports.
  • Detractors of hip hop music insist that "rap" stands for Retards Attempting Poetry. Fans may counter with Rhythmic American Poetry.
  • The Wu Tang Clan song "C. R. E. A. M" - "C"ash "R"ules "E"verything "A"round "M"e - CREAM, get the money - dollar dollar bill y'all."
    • The Clan seems to enjoy coming up with backronyms as well, such as "Witty Unpredictable Talent And Natural Game."
  • The name of R&B girl group TLC refers to its members T-Boz, Left Eye, and Chili, playing on the old phrase "Tender Love and Care".
  • Naughty By Nature rose to prominence with the song "O.P.P.", officially standing for Other People's Pussy (or Penis), but the last P was cleverly and intentionally Bowdlerized in the song itself to mean Property.
  • Ja Rule's name is supposed to stand for "Jeffrey Atkins Represents Unconditional Love's Existence, though in one magazine interview he said that it simply stands for Jeffrey Atkins Rule.
  • In a tongue-in-cheek video promoting a recent tour Tom Waits claims the route this tour takes was specifically chosen because the names of the towns he is performing at spell the word "PEHDSCKJMBA". "PEHDSCKJMBA" is then revealed to be an an acronym for People Envy Happiness. Dogs, Though, Sense Courage, Knowing Jubilation Means Better Assets.
  • Fall-Out Boy's album "From Under the Cork Tree"
  • In the mid-'90s, contemporary Christian artist Carman made an album called Righteous Invasion Of Truth, or R.I.O.T.
  • Former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown's single F.E.A.R takes this trope to an extreme.
  • The hardcore punk band MDC would change the meaning of the acronym for each release (e.g. Millions of Dead Cops, My Dead Child, MILFs Date Cougars, More Dead Cops)
  • Japanese Hardcore Punk group GISM stands for... actually, that seemed to change every five mminutes. One album cover credits it as "Guerilla Incidiery Sabotage Mutineers", but that's far from the only one.
  • And then there's Van Halen's 1991 album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge...
  • To some fans, Slayer jokingly stood for "Satan Laughs As You Eternally Rot".
  • Aerosmith's song "F.I.N.E. (Fucked-up, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional)".
  • Kevin Bloody Wilson's song D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F. (Do I Look Like I Give A Fuck?)
  • U.S.D.A. or United Streets Dopeboyz of America. I find that one rather entertaining, but much better is the Just Undeniably Some of The Illest Composers Ever. or J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League
  • Renaldo and The Loaf did "Meanings of W.E.I.R.D", with verses ranging from Whisper english intone religious dutch and White elephants injure repugnant dogs
    • The song was originally written as part of a contest to determine what the name of W.E.I.R.D., The Residents' fan club, would actually stand for: The winning entry was We Endorse Instant Residential Deification.
  • Gossip Girl's soundtrack album Original Music From Gossip Girl.
  • Lupe Fiasco 's upcoming album Lasers is a backronym for Love Always Shines, Everytime Remember 2 Smile.
  • The song 'S.H.E.' from IAMX's album The Alternative stands for "Secret Harmonic Emotion".
  • French metal band named T.A.N.K (Think of A New Kind).
  • Italian noise artist Fukte took advantage of this: A recent release was entitled "RAM", which could either mean "Raped And Murdered" (after the only track on the album) or "Random Access Memory." (It had a paint-covered RAM chip glued to the back)
  • My Chemical Romance is often shortened to MCR.
    • Their new album had Better Living Industries, or Blind.
  • When Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction co-headlined a tour together, they of course called it NINJA.
  • In 1970, there were rumours that Jimi Hendrix would be member of a new supergroup called Hendrix, Emerson, Lake & Palmer
  • In an little-known CD album from 1991 called "Sandi Patti and the Friendship Company: Open for Business", the characters are discussing a name for their new club (they eventually decide on "Friendship Company"). Infield says "I make a motion we call our club ?Kind Creatures Caring for Companionless Kids?! Zig invokes this trope when she says "I vote for the name ?Organization of International Nice Kids Erasing Reasons for Sadness?! It has a certain, oh, sound for sophistication!" A few seconds later, meaningful acronyms are forgotten when she suggests "The International Association of Nice Kids and Creatures in the Officinal Professional Business of Friendship... Incorporated," At which point she realizes that it's too long.
  • The short-lived supergroup XYZ: It stood for Ex Yes and Zeppelin, as the lineup consisted of Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin and Chris Squire and Alan White from Yes. They had wanted Robert Plant to join too, by the way.
  • Tech N 9 ne has a song called "F.U.N." It stands for Fuck U Niggas.
  • Post-hardcore band Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows.
  • Pink Floyd's live box set P.U.L.S.E. just has the periods in the title to look cool, and doesn't actually stand for anything. However, one fan-made FAQ jokes that, depending on how you feel about the David Gilmour-fronted incarnation of the band, it could either be "Pinkfloyd Ultimate Light & Sound Experience" or "Pretty Uninspired Light Show, Essentially"
    • Also their song Shine On You Crazy Diamond, in reference to former band member Syd Barrett.
  • The Hip Hop group Natas. The name is Nation Ahead of Time And Space. It's also "Satan" backwards.
  • Feminist rapper Monie Love had "Born to B.R.E.E.D. (Build Relationships where Education and Enlightenment Dominate)".
  • Vanilla Ice's Wisdom, Tenacity and Focus.
  • KMFDM's name was often thought to stand for "Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode", but it's actually "Kein Mehrheit fur die Mitleid" or "Kein Mitleid fur die Mehrheit".
  • 801, the occasional band created by Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera, is sometimes assumed to be based on an acronym of Eight Nought One. Eno has denied this, saying, "Ingenious, but...", and Manzanera has performed with 801 without Eno.
  • Sound Horizon's Elysion album features five songs with English titles that don't seem to be connected at all to El's story told in the other five. So why are they there? The final El song, "El's Paradise [Side: A]", offers a solution:

The fourth horizon, the true face of paradise.
Ark
Baroque
Yield
Sacrifice
Stardust
If one falls straight down, without being tempted by the four paradises ("El"s) in between, ABYSS is right there.

  • The Spinto Band were being pressured into adding lyrics to a brief wordless bridge in the song "Late", an idea they weren't too fond of. While the proper album version has the song as the band originally wrote it, some leaked promo copies do have these added lyrics. See if you notice anything unusual about them:

Trapped Here In Some Select Universe, Can't Keep Still...