I took a look at the cover to my Meat Loaf CD yesterday, and thought back to when I thought that Meat Loaf was a group, rather than a man.
The only thing that Meat Loaf does in the Bat out of Hell CD is the lead vocals. He doesn’t write the songs, doesn’t do background vocals, doesn’t play guitar or keyboard. Does he always perform with the same people, or does he look for new people for each song? Who would he tour with? The bio section on the web site I looked at is a little unclear about this all.
How is Aerosmith different? Steven Tyler wrote and performed most (all?) of the songs on his albums, but he doesn’t call his “group” Steven Tyler.
Van Halen lists their song credits in OU812 simply as: All songs written and performed by Eddie, Alex, Sammy, Mike. When I checked their official web site, they list as band members Michael Anthony on Bass Guitar, Alex Van Halen on drums, and Edward Van Halen on guitars and keyboards. Do they just have floating lead singers? Who decides who will sing and when? I discovered that David Lee Roth is suing them and that relations between Sammy Hagar and Van Halen are not great either.
There’s very little difference. There are plenty of groups which are effectively single-person ventures, with the possible use of session musicians for recording and hired musicians for touring. There are a number of singers releasing material under a group name but effectively solo acts, like Hammell on Trial and Joie/Dead Blonde Girlfriend. Also there are many techno/dance/electronica acts that are single-person ventures where the difference between person and group is tricky: like Sash, Fatboy Slim, Aphex Twin, Mirwais.
Then there are groups which use additional musicians for touring and recording: obviously vocal groups like NSync and Westlife, and small groups with some musicians but no drummer like Busted and Ty Cobb.
And, as guava says, there are singers who tend to work with the same backing band or collaborators.
It’s determined by the International Commission on Band and Artist Names, a division of the World Court.
Essentially, when a group starts out, they decide how their named. It’s more common to name the group and work together until the ego problems tear things apart. Sometimes there is a legal agreement.
Solo acts often work with the same side musicians for years (for instance, Elton John has worked with Nigel Olsson since at least 1970). But the person who came into prominance was the headliner, and if there is a dispute, the sidemen walk and the headliner finds replacements.
With a band, the leader usually comes to prominence once the group becomes successful. By that time, the name of the group is what’s on people’s minds, so it’s in everyone’s interest to use that name. If the leader goes solo, the rest of the band keeps the name going.
However, there are dozens of exceptions to the general rules. There are also many examples of lawsuits over the use of the band name (the Doors, recently).
Fatboy Slim is clearly just a pseudonym and Norman Cook has never pretended otherwise. Indeed, I don’t think other artists (apart from those that he has sampled, or those billed as guests) appear on his albums. Aphex Twin is similar; it is simply the name Richard D James uses on his various musical endeavours.
Where it really gets blurry is with groups like Dashboard Confessional, Bright Eyes or Nine Inch Nails. All are presented as a ‘band,’ but the band members change completely from album to album with only one member carrying on the name (Chris Carraba, Conor Oberst and Trent Reznor respectively). This differs from artists such as Meatloaf, though; Meatloaf was a pseudonym for the artist, whereas (say) Conor Oberst never claimed to be ‘Bright Eyes.’ He is just the sole member of Bright Eyes.
Regarding Bat Out of Hell, the choice to use the name “Meat Loaf” was made by the record company…much to the dismay of Jim Steinman, who only got a small “Songs By” credit on the front cover. The effect of this choice is obvious – ask 100 people if they’ve heard of Meat Loaf or Jim Steinman, and see how they compare!
There are also cases where the band name becomes so closely identified with the frontman that they become interchangeable – “The Alice Cooper Band”, for instance.
What about bands which are named by their frontman, followed by the band’s name? Examples include Huey Lewis and the News, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Tommy Petty and the Heartbreakers, etc. If the lead person in each of these groups were to break it off could the remaining band go on to perform without the billing of the name of their former leader? (i.e. could “The Heartbreakers” exist as a band without Tom Petty and be known as such?) I’ve never heard of such a case myself, but it seems possible.
Actually, Tyler is primarily responsible for writing the lyrics and occasional percussion and keyboards. Joe Perry does a lot of the music wiritng. And for the last few albums, the group has had help from various professional songwriters.
Sure, the Heartbreakers could exist as a band without Tom Petty, and they could probably tour without him, but if they did they couldn’t call themselves Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers unless they got legal clearence and permission from Tom Petty to do so.
Also, they would get truckloads more money if they toured with Petty then without him, so why do it without him.
After Smokey Robinson left Smokey Robinson & The Miracles they were just known as The Miracles.