The song may be awful, but what a great band name

Choosing a band name should be peaches and cream. All you need is something cool, something catchy, that reflects your music style, something memorable, got to be unique, something no one else has got and maybe one, two, three words - OK, not so easy then.

Which brings me to the first point. Take your time in choosing. You may have to live with this name a long time, you may make a lot of money with its help, you may even fight over it in court - so give it a decent shot, play around with it, test it out on friends. This is your title after all, it's how you will be known by everyone else and, though you may think its great, if all around you say it sucks then - think again. You can live with getting it wrong but it really does help to get it right.

This is just a short guide into picking that all-important name and what you need to do to make sure it becomes yours and stays yours. I'll be touching on legal stuff and making it clear now - I'm no legal expert and don't quote me if things go belly up. This is just a general guide and if you want legal advice get it from those qualified to give it. So, let's look at how to go about getting kitted up.

1. How many words in the band name?

It's worth getting this one out of the way early on as it narrows the field right away. Not so long ago single word band names were not in favour. That's not to say they don't work. There are any number of single word bands that have hit the big time - Radiohead, Coldplay etc - but, it's just a fact of life - nowhere near as many as those with two or three words.

Now if it's soap powder - Persil, Daz, Aerial - it's one word. If it's cars - Vectra, Modeo, Humvee - it's one word but if it's bands people prefer two words. Why? Who knows? Maybe they associate band with people and people have two names.

Also bear in mind that a single word is much more likely to have been snapped up by someone else. You may remember the wrangle between rock band Blue and boy band Blue in the 80s. When it reached the courts there were another 29 acts registered worldwide as having the same name Blue.

2. Getting band name inspiration

Inspiration for a band name can come from anywhere. Famous bands have picked up the name from everything from a cereal packet to a best friend's sister's middle name. A lot of bands mix up members' initials - such as N SYNC or use names of places where they met. Other names arrived in more bizarre ways. One band got into drunken argument one night over finding a good name until someone sneered at one suggestion - "sounds as intelligent as calling it corn" - and Korn was born. Sugarcult got its name from seven lesbians who lived across the hall and Steam was inspired by real steam from a manhole on the way home from a 5am recording session. But if a name fails to fall out of the sky and bounce off your head there are places to turn to:

Movies: A rich source of inspiration, especially if the band has a favourite. And you are in good company. Black Sabbath lifted the name from a 1963 horror movie starring Boris Karloff and Duran Duran is a villain in the 1967 cult classic Barbarella. Bad Company comes from a 1972 movie staring Jeff Bridges and Faster Pussycat from a 1966 Russ Myer 'B' movie.

Books:
OK so you never read a book, but you are missing out. Titles, characters and even the author can inspire. Moby's real name for example is Richard Melville Hall and Herman Melville wrote the novel Moby Dick. Others are more direct, Primal Scream was a psychological best seller by Arthur Janov, the band Collective Soul took its name from a passage in Ayn Rand's book 'The Fountainhead', Mungo Jerry was a cat in TS Eliot's 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats' and Coldplay comes from a collection of poetry.

Song titles:
These are a popular source along with album names as are the names of other singer, although trademark laws can make this area a little tricky. Radiohead famously named themselves after a 'Talking Head' song, Lovin' Spoonful comes from the lyrics of John Hurt's 'Coffee Blues' and Simple Minds is taken from the David Bowie classic 'Jean Genie'.

House and home:
Keep your eyes open and a name may be staring at you from the breakfast table. After all, Jesus and Mary Chain was taken from an offer on a breakfast cereal packet. OK, you don't do breakfast but there are plenty of other ordinary household items to rely on. A member of AC/DC saw the initials on a vacuum cleaner. The band didn't know it was also slang for bisexual. Creedence Clearwater Revival were inspired by a beer can label while Cheap Trick even asked an Ouiji board for advice.

Wherever your band name comes from, it's good idea to dream up a few good cover stories on how you got it. If you should get a hit record every hack will, at some time other, ask the question - 'So where did the band get its name?' and it's a good idea to have a few wild stories to put about - the more the better as then there will be claims and counter claims over who is right and that is what it is all about - publicity. How you got your name is always worth a few column inches if the story is wacky enough.

But take note, if you have the makings of a big time hit you may find yourself with no choice anyway. Record companies can get really picky about band names. They have their own label to think about. Hot Tuna's original name, for example, was 'Hot Shit' until the record label made them change it. Blur on the other hand started out as boring 'Seymour', and a condition of a record deal was that they pick a new name from a list. Blur, starting with B, was near the top and Blur it was.

3. Check out the band name

Once you've agreed on a name, check it out before you start using it. Just because you dreamed it up doesn't mean you own it. Rights to a name, like trademarks, are only established through actual commercial use. It falls at the first fence if another band is already using it.
First try entering it into a few internet search engines. If it's more than one word, put double quote marks around it to force a search on the exact phrase. Narrow the results by adding keywords like band, mp3 or gig outside the quotes. You could try putting the band name in the browser address bar. Stick www on the front and add .com or .co.uk on the end.

Looking good? Do a trademark search in case the name is registered. If it is, they can stop you using it. Band names are in a legal grey mist - not strictly copyright, more a property trademark thing. For starters anyway go to the Patent Office web site: http://webdb4.patent.gov.uk/tm/text/ in Britain or the US Office of Patents and Trademarks http://www.uspto.gov.

Still OK? Then register it yourself. If you are confident of commercial success get a solicitor or trademark attorney to do a full search. Trouble is, that's not cheap. Registering your name as a trademark can cost thousands. Why bother? Well, you may need it for other uses than playing music, and in different countries too. You might want to see your name on T-shirts or mugs for example. A US tour might get you a Stateside album so it pays to take pains over international use. It's fine to have same-name bands in different countries - as long as they stay home. Several UK bands are forced to release records in the US under a different name for that very reason - Suede for example are London Suede in the States.

4. Changing the band name

And there is still no guarantee with trademarks. They can be challenged, though in practice that's unlikely once it is registered. And it's not to say you can't use an obvious brand name anyway. Oasis, for example, took their name from a sports centre and share it with a fashion retailer and soft drinks maker. But as a rule of thumb, if a name looks like causing problems the best solution if often just swallowing your pride and picking another one. There are also several places you can register your band name - www.bandname.com and www.bandreg.com are just two. Registering on these sites doesn't bring any legal rights but it can help in a dispute if you can show you had your name posted there first. And in disputes it is often wise just to back off and think of something else. After a polite exchange of solicitors' letters you should be thinking of a settlement unless you want to make some rich lawyers super rich.

Of course, changing the band name doesn't have to be that drastic. Liberty X is a case in point. The original runners up in a UK TV pop star show wanted to call themselves Liberty but the name had been snapped up by a relatively unknown band with a couple of medium size hits. The case went to court, with TV bosses claiming the band with the big TV exposure took precedence. The judge disagreed. The TV band got around it by adding the letter X. Blink 182 added their numbers after finding the first choice taken. But the legal landscape is littered with the corpses of lost litigants so take note, this guide is intended as a general overview and no substitute for proper legal advice.

5. Keeping the band name

So you got your name. It's legal, it's unique and it's yours. OK, so who is 'yours' exactly? The guy who thought it up? The girl who registered it? The whole band? And what if the band breaks up? Worse, what if it reforms with different members? Where does that leave the original line-up? How long can you hang onto a name if you don't use it? See how easily legal megabucks are made - you should have listened to your dad and stuck it out at Law School.

In general, all band members have rights to the name though in some cases, this has led to lengthy litigation. In one notable case a court ruled that each member of The Dramatics had a legal right to use it but in another the judge said Rare Earth's name was owned by the head of the corporation that controlled them. Crosby, Stills & Nash chose that name so the others couldn't use the name if one of them quit. And in yet another ruling a band name was deemed to be owned by the manager as he "exerted influence over the style and content of the group's act".
If a manager or company owns the band name they can hire and fire band members at will. And band members who are fired, no matter how influential in the original line-up, will be unable to perform under the original name. One noted example is Fleetwood Mac's former manager who sent an entirely different Fleetwood Mac on a US tour in the early 1970s.

It's also worth noting here that you don't need to have even one single hit to make money out of your band's name. If a successful US band arrives on British soil to find you have rights to their name in the UK, they will have to buy the name off you. After all, it saves them having to reprint all those posters.

And rights to a name can last a long time. In a case involving the 1960s pop band The Buckinghams a court ruled that although that group had long broken up, another band was not entitled to the name. The original band continued to receive royalties from old record sales, and the court ruled this sufficient to prove the name was still a commercial property right.

And it all seemed so easy didn't it? Think up a name, buy a guitar, learn three chords, write a song and order the Rolls-Royce. Now it's back to the thesaurus or worse - band name generators that litter the web these days stringing incoherent word together in the hope that they might sound off the wall enough to sound cool when all they do is sound like they came out of a web band name generator. Previously found at Europe City Breaks.

Thinking up a cool band name is just hard. It's as hard as Bruce Springsteen said about trying to write a hit song. It's just like 'Dancing In The Dark'. That's it! Great name for a band. Only two things - 1. It sucks 2. It's already taken.

Article Source: http://www.orbitaloc.com/

Bob Cartwright writes for TravelSavvy Europe: Europe City Breaks.

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