Unfortunate Band Names that hold a band back from mass appeal.

'Hi, we're Gaye Bikers on Acid. Where would you like us to set up?'

Also, I thought My Bloody Valentine was a poor choice.

 

Named after a community in Colorado. They did ok

 

I didn't see it yet....and I could of missed it.
The Canadian Band, F'ed Up. They are quite prolific in their single releases!

 

Goblin cock

 

Paul Revere & The Raiders. What a great band but imho that name did not allow them to progress

 

Don't get me wrong- I also think it's a great band name! I think most people just didn't "get it"!

 

Filthy McNasty... anyone?

 

Sign of the times. They're hypersenstive and easily offended.

 

Cool alt-rock band. I used to buy a lot of great '60s 45s from Chuck Cleaver when he did record lists in the '80s.

 

Thread bump.

Saw a punk band in a pub years back called UK Vomit. I laughed but they sure weren't going to get played on the radio with a name like that!

 

...there's a pretty good rock/stoner rock band called Black Pu**y (as in "cat" ).

 

Not a mass appeal group but Dead Can Dance threw me off for years 'n' years. Given their name I thought they were a goth dance electromusic group, not the ethereal world (?) music thing. Whoops!

Of course I also thought the Grateful Dead - since hippies listened to them - was going to be some acid drenched super psychedelic band, not Americana. Whoops again!

 

I thought Portugal. The Man would have trouble getting mass appeal but apparently selling out solved that problem for them.

 

Suicide.

I realize that their name was intentionally dark, off-putting and anti-commercial. Still, band names like that are awkward to bring up in mixed company. I think, given more ambition to be famous/commercial, they could've become a mainstream success with some of their poppier tunes. That isn't to say they made a mistake in intentionally avoiding wide commercial appeal, only that there was some potential for it in their music, had they sought such a thing. Especially given that they were right on the edge of an explosion in popular electronic-based music (Italo-Disco, New Wave, Post-Punk, Electro, quite a lot of Funk music).

 

Megadeth. Dave Mustaine acknowledged as much himself years ago but was unwilling to change the band name at that point.

Personally, I think it sounds cool.

 

Chk Chk Chk is a great band name. It's designed to weed out the morons.

 

Very annoying, pretentious millennial trend.

 

agreed...they've been around for quite a while too.

 

You don't hear much about The Reach Around Rodeo Clowns much these days.

 

10,ooo Maniacs

 

Pick any of JG Thirlwell's musical monikers:

Foetus Under Glass
You've Got Foetus on Your Breath
Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel
The Foetus Symphony Orchestra
or just plain ol' Foetus

 

They were one of the biggest groups in America at their peak. But being on TV in those silly uniforms and adopting the Monkees' policy of using studio players at the very point the counter culture was seeking "authenticity" and rejecting that kind of show biz move is what hurt them.

 

I think it was their album titles that hurt them.

 

So true! When I taught units on folk literature, we always met a character who was deceased. When he was treated kindly and respectfully, he was grateful. "OK, kids, here we have the grateful dead!" They were wide-eyed at that! I know of no country or area of the world whose folk tales do not have the grateful dead character. A great choice for a band name and, for the most part, the name reflects their songs./lyrics.

 

That reminds me of "You broke my heart so I broke your face" by Wehrmacht, who also have an unfortunate name, although I'm not convinced their music would have mass appeal anyway.