Your Band Name Matters More Than You Know
Time and time again it has been proven that band names don’t have to be good, or even make any sense, in order to stick; but even so, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t care to give it some serious thought anyway.
The struggle to reach the upper echelon of the music industry is one that is already difficult enough, but for a great many bands, it would seem that they desire to make it even more difficult than it already is, by choosing both ridiculous and severely unmarketable names.
This isn’t about placing socially acceptable shackles on your artistic free-bird wings, but if you want to fund your dream of living off music, then you might want to consider not using the name “Bleeding Aborted Christ Fu#$@r”. Of course using an offensive name to gather attention is not a new idea, I am sure a few of you have heard of the bands “Butthole Surfers” or “Funeral Rape”, but I am not surprised if you haven’t either. These are not names to be spoken in public, not names that even listeners can say with a straight face to their friends and family, and ultimately, not names that can gather a large portion of the markets support.
The truth is, you can have a dumb name (Smashing Pumpkins, Right Said Fred, Orgy), and you can still succeed on many different levels financially, but a name that offends people, that will drag your sales down every single time.
I get that we are existing in a time where almost all opinions and actions are considered offensive, but you know exactly what can be placed on a public poster, shown on the news, or raised up on the Marquee.
Yes, if you love Norwegian death metal, and you have no desire to play beyond your backyard, you can be the talk of the town with a good name involving words like, Satan, death, rape, or potentially all of those used together; but if you want to expand your musical reach and help to further build your musical empire, then you must play by at least a few of the rules.
There is another side to this cautionary tale, and that is to choose a name that is highly marketable, a name that not only sounds good, but looks great on a shirt. We all know a few bands that knock it out of the park, its as if they themselves new that their logo was destined to be stamped on merchandise worldwide. Nine Inch Nails, TOOL, Alice In Chains, Nirvana and many more, chose correctly. They combined both a deep artistic meaning to their sound, and a memorable graphic design to boot; and the end product is something we can wear proudly among the masses.
Many artists believe that considering the opinions and feelings of others first is inauthentic, or god forbid, considering a true financial gain from their art is sincere artistic suicide at its finest; but I assure you that it is not. We are all in the service industry or in an industry that sells products, and for musicians, they are in both industries, all the time.
Place your ego on the shelf for a minute or two, and consider that you might be creating art, but it is also a sellable product, and for your music itself, it is a true and beautiful service to humanity that you create it. I am by no means telling the artists around the world to change their artistic vision in the hopes to reach a larger audience, but I am telling you that there is nothing wrong with considering how easy you will make it for your fans to support you publicly; not to mention, for music promoters like myself, you make it so much easier for us to help you when you take the time to create a name that we can actually promote.
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