Bands and song titles

Is it necessary that your WIP feature real bands and real songs? Inventing your own has the advantages of never sounding dated and of avoiding accidentally using something that ruins the effect you're going for, for those people who know the subject.

Two cheers for the Garden State...

Right now, there seems to be a new wave of punk-sounding rock bands coming out of New Jersey... Senses Fail. My Chemical Romance. Saves the Day. Armor for Sleep. Thursday.

If you're looking for something circa late 1980s/early 1990s - Cinderella, Skid Row, Trixter. They're straight up pop metal and they pretty much sound the best if you're seventeen.

Sorry. I must've posted while you were editing.... And just to get it out of my system, the "cool" alternate Garden State bands from the 80s were bands like the Feelies, the Smitereens and Yo La Tango.

JerseyGirl1962 said:

Anyway, I was looking more along the lines of Poison, et al. Any sites that list these types of bands?

Click to expand...

Poison is not heavy metal. They were Pop Metal. If your story takes place in the late eighties, heavy metal consists of Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, Dokken, Ozzy Osbourne, Motorhead, Corrosion of Conformity and Iron Maiden. Pop Metal is Poison, Cinderella, Winger, Skid Row and Bon Jovi.

If your story takes place today, heavy metal bands that would be good to use are Metallica, Godsmack, System of a Down, Papa Roach, Staind, and the Disturbed. Also bear in mind that a lot of the new punk is a blend of pop metal and punk with some Emo thrown in, like My Chemical Romance, Fallout Boy, The Killers, the Used, and Avenged Sevenfold.

PattiTheWicked said:

If your story takes place today, heavy metal bands that would be good to use are Metallica, Godsmack, System of a Down, Papa Roach, Staind, and the Disturbed. .

Click to expand...

Patti pretty much covered the big ones. Throw in Marilyn Manson and Tool too.

And if you go to damn near any strip club, you'll hear the most popular metal and hip-hop. Seems those girls really like angry music.

Please do not forget
Nine Inch Nails.
or Pantera.

(though I certainly wouldn't class NIN as heavy metal now...it's more like background music...and Metallica isn't really heavy anymore either...but both of these bands were!)

and System of a Down is the best-selling metal band out there at the moment. It really depends on the time period.

Don't know if this helps, but I couldn't resist replying. If you need further help, my husband is a metal junkie...he could supply lists of heavy metal bands if I put a keyboard under his fingers.

(and I'm sorry, I can't help it...has anyone else seen Jani, from Warrant, on the Celebrity Fit Club? Gotta love the hair bands)...

rowriter said:

and Metallica isn't really heavy anymore either...but both of these bands were!)

Click to expand...

Metallica hasn't put out anything heavy since James Hetfield sobered up. They did kick *** in concert last September, though, when I saw them on tour with Godsmack. I watched Some Kind Of Monster and to see Lars and Hetfield sitting there talking about their feelings and how they needed to validate things and be all understanding and caring was just too freakin' weird. I thought, where the heck are the guys that sang Creeping Death? Or Disposable Heroes? Who are these Dr. Phil/Oprah watching people, and what have they done with the real Lars??

rowriter said:

(and I'm sorry, I can't help it...has anyone else seen Jani, from Warrant, on the Celebrity Fit Club? Gotta love the hair bands)...

Click to expand...

Oh, man, he looks AWFUL. I guess twenty years of being intoxicated will do that to you. Yuck. Even if he does lose the weight -- which he doesn't really have much to lose -- he'll still need some serious help.

Speaking of badly aging metal gods, am I the only one who thinks Vince Neil has started to look like Jon Lovitz?

PattiTheWicked said:

Speaking of badly aging metal gods, am I the only one who thinks Vince Neil has started to look like Jon Lovitz?

Click to expand...

OMG, the whole neighborhood heard me laughing on that one!! and you're right....this is scarey.

Alice Cooper is right up there for me. He looks so refined in his plaid golf pants. He's damn good at golf, though! Sure looks like Mr. Nice Guy to me, lol.

Now...Sebastian Bach still looks pretty hot if I may say so myself, but he's still pretty young.

rowriter said:

Now...Sebastian Bach still looks pretty hot if I may say so myself, but he's still pretty young.

Click to expand...

He came to town a couple of years ago in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar. He was just awful. Apparently no one told him it wasn't a Skid Row concert. I remember the lady next to me saying, "Is Jesus supposed to be sticking his groin out at us like that?"

I rather suspected he shouldn't have been.

britwrit said:

Sorry. I must've posted while you were editing.... And just to get it out of my system, the "cool" alternate Garden State bands from the 80s were bands like the Feelies, the Smitereens and Yo La Tango.

Click to expand...

You've just named my best friend's three favorite bands. You don't write for the Simpsons, do you?

PattiTheWicked said:

Metallica hasn't put out anything heavy since James Hetfield sobered up. They did kick *** in concert last September, though, when I saw them on tour with Godsmack. I watched Some Kind Of Monster and to see Lars and Hetfield sitting there talking about their feelings and how they needed to validate things and be all understanding and caring was just too freakin' weird. I thought, where the heck are the guys that sang Creeping Death? Or Disposable Heroes? Who are these Dr. Phil/Oprah watching people, and what have they done with the real Lars??

Click to expand...

Exactly. I couldn't believe watching that junk. They do put on a good show though, you're right about that!

Allmusic.com is a great reference for (you guessed it) all things commercial music--bands, genres, labels, etc.

MTF

I should send this to my wife. She was in junior high in New Jersey in the late 80s. She could probably reel off more bubblegum metal bands in one breath than most people could name states of the union. In fact, we just had a warm fuzzy moment this morning when I (a guy raised on jazz and classical music) admitted to her that I could identify "Dr. Feelgood" by Motley Crüe (please note the proper use of the umlaut) in three notes.

Of course, I will never tell my parents about that. It would just about kill them.

JerseyGirl1962 said:

Didn't think this thread would be so popular, heh heh.

And it's interesting that people picked up on the New Jersey thing. Seems like everyone's lived here at one point in their lives.

~Nancy

Click to expand...

I spent my childhood in Ringwood, NJ.

Random Fact: We moved to Ohio when I was 12, and I got to fly back that summer for a week to visit with my best friend. On the plane from Cleveland to Newark I sat across the aisle from a young musician who was just starting to become popular and had even booked a separate seat for his guitar. His name was Bruce Springsteen, and being from Jersey I knew EXACTLY who he was. Not only was the Boss across the aisle, but I sat right next to Miami Steve VanZandt.

Tres cool, indeed.

Sadly, I grew up in New York, where our favorite past time was making fun of just the kind of people from Jersey we're talking about. Then I went and married one.

Mea culpa.

I enjoyed this book, Bang your Head: The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal, by David Konow. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0609807323/qid=1124393418/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-5939118-1132601

It covers every nuance from hardcore metal to the bubliest bubble gum metal and everything in between. I read it just for fun, but it is a good reference for ideas, you can see how bands rose to fame and how they are structured and even how they die out. I personally don't think Heavy Metal fell, so much as it is on a low swing on the pendulum, just like every genre. A lot of exciting things are happening now and happened through the 90's and he writes under the premise that Nirvana killed metal. I carried my torch for metal long after NIrvana faded away.

May I say, too...I have to take up for my fave here, Def Leppard laid the groundwork for the metal scene with Pyromania, and don't get credit for it. I don't get why they get ignored. Okay, I'll shut up now.

Not that I'm trying to derail the thread or anything....

Speaking of Motley Crüe, anybody else laugh themselves silly watching the premiere of "Tommy Goes to College" this week?

Funniest thing I've seen on TV in years.