I Am Not Shazam/Music: Difference between revisions

*** It's also implied in the movie that his name is Floyd Pinkerton. Which contradicts the phone call, although it could be that Floyd Pinkerton took the stage name of Pink Floyd. The kids in his youth call him, "Pinky".

** Referenced in the season 4 finale of [[Bones]].

* Jethro Tull often had the same problem. They took their name from the Englishman (1674-1741) who invented the seed drill.

** This was referenced in ''[[Armageddon]]'', when Oscar Choi (played by Owen Wilson) says to a NASA psychologist (played by the legendary Udo Kier), "I tell you one thing that really drives me nuts, is people who think that Jethro Tull is just a person in the band." (To which the psychologist replied, "Who is Jethro Tull?")

* Similarly, [[Franz Ferdinand]] named themselves after the archduke whose assassination served as a catalyst for [[World War I]]. However, surprisingly few people make the assumption that it's a person rather than a band, perhaps because "Franz" sounds like an unlikely name for a Scot and the archduke was a rather famous figure. Which still didn't stop at least one talk show host has asked them which was named Franz Ferdinand. And wasn't joking.

* Country band Sawyer Brown sometimes has this problem. They took their name from the road where they originally rehearsed.

* Nina Sky is also a pair of twins not one person.

** Also ''City and Colour.'' His real name is Dallas Green.

** The name, ''Hootie and the Blowfish'', was actually taken from Darius's friends ("Hootie" has round eyes, while "Blowfish" would puff up his cheeks like a blowfish).

*** The moral of this story: Never name a band (even partially) after someone whose nickname sounds like it could be a collective noun.

** Likewise, in early interviews in North America, the UK band [[Catherine Wheel]] were asked, "Who's Catherine?" The band was named for the British term for a firework that spins rapidly when lit, which in turn is named for the torture device allegedly used to martyr Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

* Coconut Records sounds like a record label. In fact, it's Jason Schwartzman's solo act. That's right; it's not even a band name, it's a ''pseudonym''.

* Similarly, there are only three people in Ben Folds Five. One of them, however, is actually Ben Folds. When asked why they go by the name "Ben Folds Five" when there were only three members, Folds replied "Because Ben Folds Three sounds dumb." Ben Folds has since broken up with the five, and tours with two other musicians under the name of ''Ben Folds''.

* [[Billy Talent]] contains no person named William Talent. They're named after a character from the Canadian ''[[This Is Spinal Tap]]'' homage ''[[Hard Core Logo]]''.

** The band is actually the Twisted Brown Trucker band.

** Before the band broke up, they referenced this trope in the song "Be My Lover":

* A similar example: when Robin Trower left [[Procol Harum]], he formed a new band. The band was named...Robin Trower. No real difference in practical terms, though it might be surprising to find their albums under "R" instead of "T".

* Alternately, [[Marilyn Manson]] is the name of ''both'' a band and its [[Face of the Band|infinitely more well known]] lead singer (and no, not one of the albums credited to "Marilyn Manson" is a solo effort by their singer, despite the fact he's the last remaining original member of the band at this point).

** [[Aphex Twin|Aphex]] ''[[Aphex Twin|Twin]]'' is the of ''one'' man, Richard David James. However, according to [[The Other Wiki]], the "twin" refers to his twin brother who died at birth.

** Similarly, M-Project is not, in fact, two people, but is just another pseudonym for DJ Chucky, although in this case it's intentional.

 

* Salt-N-Pepa consisted of Cheryl "Salt" James, Sandra "Pepa" Denton... and, um, Deidra "DJ Spinderella" Roper.

*** And, [[Funny Aneurysm Moment|tragically]], Jay was the first to go.

* "Cascada" refers to the German eurodance band, not the singer. The singer's name is Natalie Horler, and the rest of the band consists of producers Manuel Reuter ("DJ Manian") and Yann Piefer ("Yanou").

* Strangely, many people think [[Roxette]] is the stage name of female performer Marie Fredriksson rather than the name of the band she is in. This is despite the fact that her partner Per Gessle sings lead on almost half the band's hits.

* Country Joe and the Fish had a member named Joe and the band was named. Later on, as the band broke up and there were only two remaining members, he became known as Country Joe McDonald and the other guy as The Fish.

* None of the members of The Marshall Tucker Band were named Marshall Tucker. They found the name on a discarded receipt in a bar.

** The real Marshall Tucker was a blind piano tuner.

** On the other hand, it was an accurate name: it's the band started by the Allman Brothers.

* None of The Statler Brothers were named Statler and just 2 of them were actually brothers.

* Never mind that [[Jamiroquai]] is basically [[I Am the Band|lead singer Jay Kay's show]]. It's the name of the ''band'', not the guy in the [[Nice Hat|fuzzy chapeau]].

* Nobody in the band Herman's Hermits was named Herman. The guy people usually refer to as Herman is actually lead singer Peter Noone.

** Plus, they all lived in modern dwellings, and made regular public appearances.

* Mark "his name is not Sugar Ray" McGrath. He once did a commercial in which people kept mistakenly calling him by his band's name. At least he has a sense of humor about it.

* Most people thought that after making it big, former ''[[American Idol]]'' contestant Chris Daughtry had dropped his first name. Uh, no. ''He's'' still Chris Daughtry; ''his band'' is Daughtry. Extremely confusing because we ''know'' that it is, in fact, named for the lead singer, the natural assumption is that he's a solo artist, which he apparently isn't.

* Many people are shocked to discover that Gnarls Barkley is a group (or rather, a duo), rather than the name of a large African-American singer.

* The Japanese band [[Angela]] has a name that is a common given name in many places, leading to people mistakenly believing that singer Atsuko Yamashita is named Angela.

* When [[Procol Harum]] performed on a talk show, they were naturally asked which one was Procol.

* [[Daniel Amos]] is not the name of anyone in the band, but rather two books of the Bible.

* Even though most/all members of Eisley are related, their shared last name is [[Du Pree]], not Eisley. The name is just a holdover from the band's former name, Moss Eisley, a barely disguised ''[[Star Wars]]'' reference.

** To further complicate things, Oberst has both a solo career and another band, The Mystic Valley Band.

*** Both of these are more recent, and in part likely due to Oberst's frustration at being called Bright Eyes, especially given that Walcott is also a member of The Mystic Valley Band. On the other hand, the confusion is somewhat understandable given that several solo Oberst songs were released under the Bright Eyes name, most notably the single "Lua", on account of how Oberst drizzled them out over time and just put them on Bright Eyes albums (not exactly unusual, especially given that a lot of these are basically your nigh-obligatory "lead singer with acoustic guitar" tracks that pretty much every band of that sort puts out).

* Alice Deejay was a trio, and the [[Face of the Band]]'s name was Judy.

* Ayla was a trance project of DJ Tandu(Ingo Kunzi), who sometimes collaborated with DJ Taucher(Ralph Armand Beck), he named it after a Turkish woman he met while recording the first song of the project, which he also named after her.

* There is a parody of this trope in ''[[Date Night]]'', where [[Tina Fey]]'s character recognises Will I Am in a fancy restaraunt and identifies him as "the guy from Fergie."

* Matt Bianco was the name of a pop group, even if you can occasionally hear a guy singing.

* The Doobie Brothers are neither siblings, nor does anyone in the band have the last name Doobie.

* [[Keane]] (originally "Cherry Keane") does not derive its band name from any of its members, but from a family friend of lead singer Tom Chaplin who left them money in her will.

* Gogol Bordello is the name of the band, not the frontman. His name is Eugene Hütz.

* [[Gorillaz]]'s song "Clint Eastwood" is often referred to as "Sunshine In A Bag", due to the repeated main bit of the chorus, as well as the band just [[You Didn't Ask|never realizing no one knew it's name.]]

* Richmond Fontaine is an alt-country band. They are named after an American expat that had helped bassist Dave Harding when his car was stuck in the desert.

* No one in Rainer Maria was named Rainer or Maria. The name came from the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, and was chosen as it was unisex sounding.

* Cheap Girls are all male. The name simply to refers to the premise of "easy to get" girls, not any member of the band, hence referring to them as "The Cheap Girls" is [[Gannon Banned|not a good idea around a fan.]]

* There is no Eli Young in the Eli Young Band. There are, however, a Mike Eli and a James Young. (Jon Jones and Chris Thompson are the others.) The name stems from the fact that Eli and Young used to be just a duo, and added the other two members later on.

* Now that country trio [[Lady Antebellum]] is having crossover success, the misconception that there's a brunette singer named "Lady Antebellum" backed by a couple of dudes is spreading rapidly. Her name is actually Hillary Scott.

* [[Bon Iver]] is a band, not the name of the lead singer. That's Justin Vernon. This confusion is probably because Vernon recorded most of his debut album, ''For Emma, Forever Ago'' by himself and thus people assumed that Bon Iver was a stage name.

* Miike Snow is a Swedish band. Also the name came from someone they knew named "Mike Snow" and replacing it with the "Miike" from [[Takashi Miike]]. But it's still pronounced like "Mike" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JUd_Ek1woZ4 (at least, according to the band)]

* In an episode of [[Mad TV]], [[Insane Clown Posse]] get this treatment from a character played by [[Alex Borstein]] when she greets the two. [[Played for Laughs]]. She refers to Violent J as "Mr. Insane" and Shaggy 2 Dope as "Mr. Clown Posse".

 

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