Band names impeding enjoyment of music

L

lolard.

New member
I just thought of a pretty good example. Actually, I thought of it last night, but it was getting late even for unemployed people like myself. The Turkish black metal band ...Aaaarrghh... has what is easily one of the most ridiculous names I've ever heard. I mean, c'mon, it's not even a word, just a sound. You feel stupid even saying it, and it has so much unnecesary punctuation, I hate that. So pretencious. However, they are actually not a bad band. Not amazing stuff, mind you, but not without it's charm. Kindof the 1349 school of blastic straight forward bm, though for quality I'd rank them a bit higher, maybe with swedens fluke super group War (a band with the opposite problem with their name, something so indistinquished you wonder how much creativity actually went into it...). C'mon, ...Aaaarrghh...?! Just say it out loud, with the pauses and everything. Geez...
 
Do any of you have this problem I have? If a band has a silly band name, or an overly ridiculous image, I find I'm very unable to enjoy their music except under very unusual circumstances. Somehow, if I can't take them seriously on that most basic level as their name, I wonder how serious anything they put out can be on any level, be it music, idealogical, or whatever. I don't think this has actually prevented me from hearing anything good, so far, but who knows. I can't be the only guy like this, right?
 
Well sometimes band names put me off from checking them out (My Bloody Valentine) but they don't actually put me off the music when I hear it. Same goes for images.
 
Incubus is a cool name. What's better, though, is that there was a death/thrash band from Georgia called Incubus back in '86 and they were awesome. Much better than the transvestite alternative rock band of today. There was another death metal Incubus too, from Florida, but they weren't. And another NWOBHM Incubus, but that's getting really obscure.
 
A band's name doesn't usually discourage me from initially listening to their music, but sometimes later when I'm trying to tell someone about the band and I say their name outloud, I might realize how stupid it sounRAB and be discouraged from talking about it or listening to it openly. So I guess in that sense it impedes my enjoyment of their music.
 
The good thing in my case was that I would discover a nice song on the radio and then look for it or just listen and not see the videos so that I never was too influenced by this. If a song is good, I like it, I don't care what name does the group have.
 
Do you judge a book by its cover? I do sometimes I suppose. The same thing goes for banRAB with ridiculous names or vice versa. I couldn't wait to listen to Butthole Surfers, for example, because I thought their name was bad-ass.
 
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