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Naming Patterns in Popular Music
abridged from "What Names Reveal about the Music Style: A Study of Naming Patterns in Popular Music" Naming is a linguistic aspect of paramount importance in marketing, advertisement and cultural production. In today's semiotic overflow, choosing the "right name" is an important part of the distinct profile or corporate identity of a company, service or product. In achieving this goal, advertisement professionals generally follow a number of maximes in creating brand names: provide information on different aspects of the product, be rich in positive associations, faciliate memorability of the product/service, and be accepted by the target group. Beyond the market sphere, the view that there is a great deal of systematicity in names holds true for various domains of social life, such as house pets and race horses, streets and university buildings., However, naming patterns in these domains cannot be attributed to one single agency, but have to be regarded as constantly changing conventions. Moreover, names can be quite revealing about the ideology of a community or culture. Street names, for instance, can reflect a state's nationalistic ideology, and book titles for a specific target group can draw on social stereotypes of these groups. This study augments the evidence for the regularity and cultural motivation of naming by adding to this list the domain of band names or musiconyms. Previous research has showed that band names display a number of formal and semantic patterns. However, naming differences across different music genres as well as cultural motivations for band naming are not thoroughly understood yet. The aim of this study is to examine naming conventions in genres of popular music such as hip-hop, heavy metal, punk, and techno. The assumption that such conventions exist is supported by the fact that music fans often can tell a band's music style from the band's name alone. For instance, a band name such as Deep Space Network "sounds" like electronic music, whereas the band name Kingz of da streetz "sounds" like hip-hop music. In examining this kind of cultural knowledge, I will first suggest that the cue to a band's music style can be provided by semantic, formal or intertextual features of the band name. Further, I will demonstrate that different music styles draw their naming patterns from quite distinct source domains, and thet these source domains convey values associated with each music style. Thus band names are part of a music style's broader cultural profile. An adequate cultural grounding is essential in uncovering band naming patterns. Rather than talking about "pop and rock groups" in general, this study follows genre distinctions made by artists and fans themselves. In particular, four music styles are considered: (i) heavy metal (since the early 70s) is played with traditional instruments, it involves singing and the guitar plays the most salient part; (ii) punk/hardcore (since the late 70s) is based on traditional instruments and vocals as well, and has a distinctive political side and/or countercultural orientation; (iii) hip-hop (since the late 70s) is characterized by sampled sounds based on soul and funk music, record scratching and rap singing; (iv) techno (since the late 80s) is a high-beat dance music that is completely digitally produced and comes mostly without singing. All these music styles comprise numerous subgenres (e.g. heavy metal splits into thrash metal, speed metal, black metal, doom metal, etc.), and several crossover forms exist. However, the four genres are quite distinct in their overall music profiles. Moreover, each of them corresponds to a subculture or fan culture that involves specific beliefs, attitudes and patterns of expressive behaviour. It is precisely these subcultural focal concerns that are often reflected in band names. Band names are functionally related to brand and company names, in that they are carefully planned and adjusted to the band's target group. However, they are not part of a complex management plan, but are initially chosen by a band that is still unknown and without a record contract. Choosing a band name seems to involve two main motivations, i.e. an identifying and an associative one. On the one hand, the name is an individual band's "face", it reflects its originality and uniqueness. On the other hand, it can indicate the band's affiliation to a particular music style and cultural tradition. It is this second motivation that is important to this study. However, both motivations are closely connected. For instance, Tricia Rose regards names of hip-hop bands as "a form of reinvention and self-definition and as a source of prestige from below". While "self-definition" refers to the identifying function of band names, "prestige from below" is gained through the association of a name with certain subcultural values. As name creators attempt to combine originality with multiple cultural references, a band's naming strategy can involve complex and sometimes conflicting priorities. More than being cultural marketing instruments, band names have an everyday importance in text and talk about music. Ethnographic evidence suggests that they are a part of artistic concern and fan activities alike: Band interviews in music magazines frequently include comments as to how it came to the band's naming. Record reviewers sometimes comment that a band plays the music style that is suggested by its name, or that the name mistakenly led them to expect a certain style, thus reaffirming the fact that style expectations are also based on naming. A recent edition of German pop magazine "Intro" (issue 72) featured a special section on band names, including groups of names sorted according to semantic or formal criteria (e.g. terms from food, politics, drugs, color terms; names with numbers, with a dot or with special signs). A web search for "band names" yields collections of weird band names, discussions about funny or outrageous names, legal advise for name copyright, band name registries, and band name generators (see links at the end of this paper). In view of these examples, competence in band naming matters could probably be seen as a kind of subcultural capital, i.e. an informally acquired cultural knowledge that has a certain exchange value in the field of popular music. The affiliation of a band to a particular music style can be conveyed through genre cues in the band's name. Three types of genre cues are introduced in this section: semantic features, formal features, and intertextual references. Semantic cues are split into literal and evocative ones, the latter being the more important type. A literal cue points to a band's music style by virtue of its referential or metonymic connection to this style. The most obvious case is using the style label itself (e.g. a punk band called Little Fucking Punks) or a formally related item (e.g. Metallica points to heavy metal). Many literal cues are instances of metonymy, i.e. they either refer to another aspect of this music culture (as in Headbanger's Club, whereby headbanging is the dance style of heavy metal music) or are metonymic with regard to the style label (e.g. Iron Curtain suggests heavy metal music due to the metonymic relation of "iron" to "metal"). Moreover, an ethnic group label may function as a literal genre cue to the extent that a music style is tightly bound to a particular ethnic group. For instance, band name Niggaz with Attitude not only denotes the ethnic adherence of the band members, but is also recognized as the name of a hip hop band due to the fact that hip-hop is essentially an African-American form of art in the US. An evocative cue points to a music style by expressing a value or concept that is associated with this style, and is described in terms of a source domain. Previous research identified some widely known source domains (semantic categories) of rock band names, such as death, drugs, weapons, and abnormality. Relevant source domains are identified with regard to a particular music style, e.g. the name Deep Space Network instantiates the source domain of "space" which is specific to techno music. In addition, two semantic patterns in band naming that are not genre specific will be mentioned. Firstly, the use of a personal name or nickname as an artistic name is quite frequent, but not indicative of particular genres, unless it co-occurs with certain role markers such as MC (e.g. MC Ren) and DJ (e.g. DJ Craig G). Secondly, generic terms such as band, combo, quartet etc. hardly occur in the music styles dealt with here. However, hip-hop names include a number of metaphorical items with roughly the same referential value (e.g. crew, clique, or family). A formal pattern can be stylistically distinctive to the extent that it exclusively or predominantly occurs in band names of a particular genre. This can be the case with: (i) syntagmatic patterns, e.g. the sequence DJ + initial (e.g. DJ E, DJ G, DJ T) or DJ + first name + initial (DJ Mike Dee, DJ Ellis Dee) which are characteristic of hip-hop and electronic dance music; (ii) word formation types such as particular suffixes, acronyms or other patterns that may be popular in the names of a music style; (iii) graphemic means such as phonetic spellings (e.g. Lost Boyz, Da King) or grapheme substitutions (e.g. the numeral 2 for the word 'to' in Hard 2 Obtain); these are attention-attracting devices and can be read as "loyalty markers" to vernacular language and culture. A third kind of genre cue is reference or allusion, i.e. to another artist, a public figure, a fictional character etc. References from different domains can be combined in a single name. For instance, German punk band Becks Pistols combine the traditions of classic 70s punk (Sex Pistols) and German beer culture (Beck's Beer). In a second case, a band called Skunk Anansie links itself to the Afro-American cultural tradition through reference to Ananse, the spider figure of traditional African tales. Consider also techno act name Cybordelics, i.e. a blend of cyborg and psychedelics, indicates perhaps a fusion of two cultural eras, i.e. 60's psychedelics culture and the futuristic visions of 90's techno generation. Multiple references can be encoded in a single band name, resulting in multiple, and sometimes conflicting, associations and readings. The East German rock band name Harzrock that simultaneously cues the band's music style (by phonetic association to the style label hard rock) and its local origin (through the place name Harz as first constituent). Thus the intended reading of Harzrock is 'hard rock from the Harz'. An example from my own data is rap artist name Cocoa Brovaz, which combines three different genre cues that are quite typical for rap artict naming: cocoa metaphorically stands for the artist's ethnic origin; brothers stands for a team or collective; and the phonetic spellings This section provides evidence for the fact that each music genre has a number of widely recognized, stereotypical naming patterns. In particular, a selection of names is used to illustrate evocative naming patterns for three genres, i.e. heavy metal, punk, and techno. Heavy metal names often come from the domain of (Christian and Jewish) religious, sacral and occult terms, including angels, witches, and demons. Examples include: Anathema, Exodus, Testament, Kreator, Cathedral, Armored Saint, Morbid Angel, Sabbat, Black Sabbath, Helloween, Demon, Possessed. A second source domain, i.e. death and disease, is especially salient for death metal and grindcore: Napalm Death, Sepultura, Entombed, Cadaver Corpse, Chronic Death, Megadeth, Overkill, Slayer, Suffocation, Dark Funeral, Ulcerus Phlegm, Tumor, Dysentery, Pyogenesis, Poison, Venom. Still other names focus on war, violence and destruction: Morgoth, Manowar, Nuclear Assault, Whiplash, Celtic Frost. Intertextual references in heavy metal naming include the middle ages, gothic and celtic culture. By contrast, punk names often express an "anti" stance, involving resistance to authorities, establishment critique and revolutionary allusions. Examples include Antiworld, Anti-Social, Against the World, Born Against, Black Flag, The Clash, Conflict, Nations on Fire, Cynic System, The Dirty Politicians, Common Disorder. A second domain is social rejection, involving the use of stigmatized social labels: Avoided, The Arrested, Cockney Rejects, The Exploited, Victims of the System, Access:denied, Beauty School Dropout, The Creeps, Criminal Youth, The Burnouts, The Abnormalities, Abnormal, Circle Jerks, The Asthmatics, The Disliked. Punk's "no future" attitude is further coded in names expressing anger and nihilism, such as Sick of it All, Dead End Generation, Teenage Rage, Lost Cause, Nihilistics. Typical domains f techno names are futurism, space and science fiction, including keywords such as alien, cosmic, future, and astronomy terms: Deep Space Network, Cosmic Baby, Space Navigator, Space Planet, Alien Factory, Cybordelics, Psychonaut, Plastikman, Cosmosis, Cosmix, The Orb, Orbital, Infinity, Future Sound of London, The Future Generation, Phuture, Electric Universe, etc. Other names include references to music/rhythm and hallucinogenic drugs, as in E-Dancer, Ecstacy Club, Acid Jesus, D.O.P.E. Disc Jockeys sometimes present themselves as powerful actors who lead their public into ecstatic states, cf. Hypnotist, Grooverider, Shamen. However, the use of proper names is very common as well. Overall, 306 items or 42% of the names have not been classified to any of the six motifs. Although this amount may be partly bettered by drawing on additional expert knowledge, it probably also reflects a tendency to choose original, individual names. For instance, the name of famous rapper Ice-T is "a nickname which combined the Ice from Iceberg [Iceberg Slim, a legendary Afro-American convict] with the T from his own first name". The result does conform to a formal pattern that is typical for hip-hop names, i.e. the combination of name/nickname and initial, but is semantically too individual to be counted to an established source domain. Using the terminology of cognitive linguistics, I suggest that each music culture develops a particular set of conceptual metaphors. As is well known, conceptual metaphors represent ways of thinking that are rooted in social practice. The metaphors of a community or culture are related to its typical ways of thinking and living, its history, physical environment etc. These metaphors are expressed in different parts of this culture's discourse, both verbally (e.g. in record titles, song titles and lyrics) and visually (e.g. covers, booklets, video-clips, flyers). To be sure, band names are a quite prominent site for the expression of cultural values, due to the pragmatic force of names in general, and the multiple reproduction forms of band names in particular (e.g. as logos, stickers, badges). However, the argument remains that naming conventions are just one symbolic manifestation of a music culture's identity, and that they are best understood this way. Note that the cultural grounding of naming patterns is not contradicted by the presence of non-classifiable names, because expressing cultural affiliation is not the only motivation in band naming. Many band names in each style are simply too individualistic or draw on metaphors that are not systematically used by a music culture. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that popular music can be added to the domains of cultural production in which naming conventions have emerged. However, these conventions are important to specific sub-domains, i.e. music genres, than to pop/rock music as a whole. Compared to previous research, the present study presents a refined picture of band names and their cultural motivations. Its central finding is the existence of "local traditions" in band naming: Particular music genres show distinctive name patterns. These are mostly of an associative and metaphorical kind, to a lesser extent they also include formal and intertextual features. Methodologically, it seems that no exhaustive classification of band names is possible. Jannis K. Androutsopoulos |