To come at this from a different perspective, since I’ve had 23 years to think about it, I do believe that if Happy Rhodes had used a different name from the start of her career, she’d probably be as well-known and revered among music lovers and musicians as she deserves to be (and will be, one day).
Not that it’s the only thing that’s held her back. Her shyness and disgust at self-promotion, her unwillingness to chuck her home life to tour endlessly, and her complete disregard for making the changes/compromises that major labels wanted her to make when they offered to sign her (she’s gotten several offers over the years). One being to make her music more “peppy” and commercial. Another was to ditch her love of monsters and other creepy things. Another was to give up the rights to/control of her music. And to change her name.
She basically said ‘to hell with all that noise, I’ll do what I want in my own way’ which is admirable and will be one of the things that people in the future will highly respect, but has at times been frustrating to those fans who hate to see her so ignored (I’m not the only one).
Back to her name. She was born Kimberley Tyler Rhodes but her toddler brother couldn’t pronounce “Kimberley” and since she smiled at him he called her “Happy” and it became her nickname, which then became her name. From birth her entire family and all her friends called her Happy. The only people who didn’t were teachers who often tend to hate nicknames and love to use “proper” names. But as far as Happy and everyone who knew her were concerned, her name was Happy, from the day she was born. When she was 16 she had her name legally changed to Happy Tyler Rhodes.
People who don’t know her very well are always put off by her name. For the completely uninitiated it just seems weird, though I don’t know why it’s any different than someone named Joy or Grace or Sunny or Merry. Plus it’s not like there haven’t been other well-known people named Happy. To those who just know a little bit about her music and album covers, it seems completely incongruous because so much of her music is very very dark since a lot of it, especially her older work, is very Horror/Science Fiction-inspired. She loved to write songs about monsters, death, suicide, aliens, ghosts, demons, vampires, and all manner of lurking evil. Her “happy” name and her angelic voice don’t seem to fit with her often creepy lyrics.
But for those who love her voice and music and lyrics (I swear I’m NOT the only one, she has a worldwide cult following and several famous people are fans), and know her backstory, and accept her the way she is, her name is unique and sets her apart. She’s not just Happy Rhodes: a nobody with a weird name. She’s HAPPY RHODES!: brilliant artist with a phenomenal voice, great music, interesting lyrics, and a funny, humane person with her own mind and way of living her life, to hell with the “industry” and their attempts to change her.
While I do believe that if she had gone by “Kimberly Rhodes” or “Tyler Rhodes” for her professional career more people would have taken her seriously as an artist, enough to actually listen closely to her music and voice, in the end it won’t matter. If (when) she gains fame (among those interested in music, not the general public) it’ll have been on her own terms, using her own name.
And that has to count for something.
and couldn’t even get interested in listening to the song.