“The” Bands
Have you ever noticed a trend in band names? I had never even thought about it until one of my friends brought it up. Most everything, including food, clothes, music, hobbies, doctors, shows, design, etc, comes in trends. Why can’t band names?
I’m not sure if I agree with him, but my friend believes that during the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s, almost every band had a “the” in front of it. For example: TheBeatles, The Rolling Stones, The Monkeys, The Eagles, or The Doors. Then from the 70’s to the 90’s, bands started to drop the “Thes.” We got AC/DC, Boston, Led Zeppelin, N’Sync, and Blue Oyster Cult. My friend followed this storyline with a resurgence of “The.” This would include The Fray, TheDecemberists, The Shins, The Killers, and The Almost.
His timeline reminds me of the German Zeitgeist that I learned about in school. A zeitgeist is the spirit of a time. It’s suppose to embody a generation and be the antithesis of the previous one. And because each generation tries to be different from its predecessor, it echos its grandfather zeitgeist. This is one explanation why Forever 21 sells stuff that my grandma would like.
Anyways, there are so many “the” bands during the 80’s and 90’s and “non-the” bands before and after that time, that I disregarded my friend’s theory. I did however think about cool band names that use the “the.” I love the band names The Band and The Who. Their names inspired me to make the band “The Thes.”
What do you think? I think it has a good ring to it. Either way, I decided to make an album cover for them. Being that their name is so generic, I liked the idea of questioning identity to be in the cover. That’s why I used masking on Anirudh Koul’s AC DC Concert Stage (Montreal) – Colorful Lights and nichibek’s Gray Sky.
