WHAT’S IN A NAME?
IN THE NAME OF POP ( the ‘70s and ‘80s)
Source: www.speakup.com.br
Standard: B1 Lower Intermediate
Speaker: Justin Ratcliffe
In the late 1970s punk returned to the style of names beginning with “The Bands upset the establishment with their controversial attitudes. The Clash means conflict. The Damned means condemned . The Pogues’ name comes from the Irish for “kiss my arse.” The Sex Pistols, with their combination of sex and violence, created moral panic.
After punk, names became more varied – like the music. The Cure sounds like an antidote to punk aggression. Morrissey chose the most ordinary English name for his band: The Smiths. Drummer Stewart Copeland perhaps called his band The Police because his father was CIA agent, but he joked that the name gave them free publicity in every country.
INITIALS AND ACRONYMS
Glam rock and new wave names were of the inspired by literature: design and cinema. Others took names form song titles or lyrics.
Another fashion used acronyms, initials and numbers. ABBA means father in Hebrew, but it also stands for the band members: Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid (Frida). AC/DC means alternating current/direct current. The band chose it to suggest electrical power. They didn’t realise that it is also slang for bisexual. R.E.M means Rapid Eye Movement, the state of sleep when we dream.
Some initials form words when they are spoken. XTC sounds like ecstasy; INXS suggests “in excess.” Other bands shortened their names: Electric Light Orchestra to ELO; Orchestra Manoeuvres in the Dark to OMD. The origin of U2’ name is debated. It may be the classroom where the band met, or an Irish unemployment form, or a US spy plane shot down during the Cold War it also suggests interactivity: “you too.”
WEIRD AND WONDERFUL
The 1980s saw a resurgence of bizarre names. Some sound like corporations: Public Image Limited, the style Council. Other conjure up comical images of the band Super Furry Animals, Manic Street Preachers, Half Man Half Biscuit. There was new fashion for using complete sentences.
Heavy Metal favours metallic name (Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Metalica, dangerous names (Poison, Antrax, Guns’n’Roses), dark and biblical names (Black Sabbath, The Darkness, Exodus, Armageddon).
The ‘80s ended as the ‘70s began, with drug and dance culture flourishing in 1967’s Summer of Love. The Flowerpot Men mixed “flower power” with pot” (cannabis), although “Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men” was also the name of a famous children’s TV programme on the BBC.
In 1989’s Summer of Love. The Stone Roses were still combining flowers with getting “stoned.”
BAND NAMES FROM SONG TITLES AND LYRICS: (no audio available).
Rolling Stones is a Muddy Waters song. Simple Minds is a phrase in David Bowie’s song “Jean Genie.”
Sisters Of Mercy is a Leonard Cohen song, named after a religious order. The Small Faces were inspired by The Who’s song “I’m the Face.”
BANDS AND LITERATURE
The Velvet Underground is a book about sex by Michael Leigh (right). The Doors of Perception is a book about psychedelic drugs by Aldous Huxley.
Steppenwolf is a Herman Hesse novel. Supertramp: from Autobiography of a Super tramp by R.E.Davies.
The Birthday Party (Nick Cave) is a play by Harold Pinter. Joy Divison: from the novel The House of Dolls by “Ka-Tzetnik 135633.”
Marillion: from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Silmarillion. Savage Garden: from The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.
ART AND REVOLUNTION
Bauhaus was a school of architecture in Berlin’s Spandau Prison. Depeche Modele is a French fashion magazine.
Eurythmics: an art and movement therapy from the 1890s.
BANDS WHICH ARE COMPLETE SENTENCES
Pop Will Eat Itself/ Curiosity Killed the Cat Johnny Hates Jazz/ Dead Can Dance Yo La Tengo.
