I know it will smack to some of creeping socialism and Donald Trump will make a point of joining just so he can flamboyantly withdraw from it, but the only answer is a UN-sponsored Global Central Band Name Registry Bureau. Vast computer banks personed by guys in lab coats with clipboards and straight-laced looking women in specs, who then do that whole hair thing when they take their glasses off.
It can be like they have for racehorses, where you’re not allowed to use the same or similar name of a registered horse for 10 years. Its not like it will make bands run out of creative names [I call ‘Splodgeness Abounds’, ‘The Wet Taxis’, ‘Slugfuckers’ as exhibits, your honor]. More likely it will push them to greater heights of band name creativity. Punitive measures can be issued against those bands who flout and flaunt the law, or some sort of horrific variety show regular spot. It would be like the ICJ in The Hague, but funkier.
The Carpenters were, of course, officially just “Carpenters.” But I don’t believe I’ve ever heard anyone but myself refer to them as anything but “The Carpenters.” I’d be very interested to learn if there’s any region that refers to them by their proper name. Maybe a non-English speaking country that has no problem losing the article?
I’m not sure that’s exactly a matter of not referring to them by their proper name - I think it’s a matter of certain band ( or other) names being sort of a plural form, and in those situations, in some constructions the name includes “The” and in others it doesn’t regardless of what the official name might be. If you were talking about Fleetwood Mac, you would say “I like Fleetwood Mac” but if you were talking about a concert , you would add the and refer to “the Fleetwood Mac concert” , the same as you would add the when referring to a concert or album of a solo artist. But that doesn’t work for names that include the - you say you like “The Rolling Stones” but you wouldn’t add a the and say you have tickets to “the The Rolling Stones concert”
There was a UK band called “Gypsy” that changed their name in the US to “English Gypsy” because there was an American Band by that name. Interestingly, the US version played progressive rock (which was primarily a UK genre) while “English Gypsy” played California surf rock.
The US version was more successful.
When I saw them in concert, Pink Floyd was billed at “The Pink Floyd.”
The fact that Odds and Carpenters are both plural probably accounts for much. What if Cheap Trick had called themselves “Cheap Tricks?” Might we talk about going to see THE Cheap Tricks?
I was almost positive I’d seen Yes referred to as The Yes in early media—not officially, but in reviews or articles from the early days. But I have to say, I was unable to come up with a cite.
I even—rare for me—enlisted the help of an AI (Duck.ai) and it swore that this was true, but when I followed up on its citations, they did not bear it out. (I think it was confused because one of their early albums was called The Yes Album.)
Both were official names for the group for some time.
They were founded as “The Sweetshop” in 1968, then changed their name to “The Sweet” a few months later, upon learning that there was another band called “Sweetshop.”
They went by “The Sweet” for several years, then shortened it to just “Sweet” in late 1973; all of their recordings released after then were credited to the shorter name.
I think this is true of The Eagles, too. I recently found out their actual name is “Eagles,” but I’ve almost never heard them referred to as anything but “The Eagles.”
I’m wondering how much this is band names and how much this is just normal rules of English construction.
E.g. What’s the famous older skyscraper in Manhattan? It’s the Empire State Building. The name doesn’t include “the” but is substantially never said or written without it.
The UK band Wrathchild used the name Wrathchild UK in the US, because there was a band named Wrathchild America (and that was because there was a Wrathchild in the UK)
I have a vivid memory of the record store I frequented in high school filing the first Cream album under “F”, apparently believing that the name of the band was the same as the album, Fresh Cream.
There was a record store just across my childhood house that had Led Zeppelin under ‘Z’ and Van Morrison under ‘V’. It also had “The Eagles Greatest Hits” in the “Metal” section, obviously because it had an (eagle’s) skull on the cover. You guessed it, the storekeeper was a moron without any knowledge about music. The store didn’t last long.
The guy had the small excuse that he was not a native English speaker (I doubt that he could speak any English at all), but as I said, he mostly was a moron.
ETA: another episode of his idiocy: I wanted to buy Lou Reed’s album “New York” but he didn’t have it in store, so I went to the counter to give an order for it. He replied enthusiastically “I know that. New York, New York, Frank Sinatra. Great song!” I told him “no, not that one, the album “New York” by Lou Reed”. His reply “Lou what? You have to spell that for me”. A really gifted record salesman.
