Like the definite article some 30 years ago, words themselves seem to be deserting the humble band name.
In their place, a series of mathematical symbols, religious iconography and the varying results of when a bunch of half-wit fashionistas press a letter in combination with the ‘command’ or ‘control’ keys on their keyboards seem to be taking over.
This struck me as I walked through Manchester the other day and saw a gig poster with this: †, followed by a stage time. Although, the thought has been brewing ever since I managed to download an early Alt J/triangle EP; and possibly even earlier than that, since I started seeing all those idiots with diamonds tattooed in various places.
“Oh, a diamond/cross/triangle!” I thought. “That’s reasonably innovative/quant/cultish.”
Time was when a music group could quite easily get along by calling themselves The Something Or Others, but not now. Maybe it was down to post-punk, maybe glam rock. Either way, somewhere along the rocky road to stardom, things got all rowdy, laconic and electronic. Guitars were thrown out proverbial windows and The The became the most knowing band name there ever was.
All of a sudden, your group name had to be monosyllabic if it was to survive or gain credence among the people whose opinions mattered most to you. Your name was coy, enigmatic, and by its very pronunciation it had to give a small indication as to what exactly your sound encompassed. You might be known by a single noun, you might even be called Noun, or even an antonym if you were that way inclined. It had to leave the door open to a bit of mystery. Like the word ‘Cathedral’, which I always think would be a good name for a band.
Then the 90s happened…
But now, I reckon we’re in a third wave. No spurious music-fashion hybrid bullshit argument would be complete if it didn’t include some tenuous connection to the technological revolution, and this spurious music-fashion hybrid bullshit argument will not be any different. So, because of the proliferation of home computing, potential musical wonder-kids have no need of expelling and wasting their precious mental creative juices on an actual name and can focus instead on writing songs. A simple tap on the keyboard will suffice.
On a second and highly related tangent, I also think the likes of this is to blame:
No, I’m as puzzled as the rest. And I’m not even a practicing Christian. The best ones are the upside down crosses. No greater t-shirt symbolises the collapse of Christianity and its replacement in society by the god of shit fashion sense more than that fucking t-shirt.
I also saw a Cross of Lorraine one once. It was superimposed over an idyllic hazy summer quasi-Instagram background of some American beach. I mean, I know prints are ‘in’, but Jesus. Well, no, not Jesus at all. The boy wearing it was not Jean of Arc, or even De Gaulle for that matter, and just like how I imagine Charles de Gaulle to be like when he was alive, the boy didn’t even have the courtesy to laugh when I took the piss out of him for wearing it.
(That was a joke about post-war Anglo-French relations.)
All this is not to say that the likes of † and Alt J/triangle’s way of doing things are in any way maverick, radical or new. The relationship between music, fashion and graphic symbols, in tandem with the ancient links between music and religious iconography, is very old.
What strikes me about these recent examples is that, unlike in the past where your music preference dictated your fashion sense, the process is now the opposite way round: where silly t-shirts flogged by high street chain-stores are influencing the independent music ‘scene’.
And that vexes me greatly.
Nervous Tension 