That was the gist of a Cox News Service story by Scott Benarde back in 1992! It was sort of a scare that didn't materialize, rather like the U.S. Patent Office back sometime in the 1800s announcing the Patent Office would close because everything that could be invented had been.
There are no statistics that I know of, but just listing such musical group names shows that pretty much all the cool names with animals, colors, letter combinations, et al, have been used. Bands by '92 had already used up alphabet names from ABC to XYZ, including APB, ATC, BCH, BTO, CIA, DAD, DBX, DOA, DOC, EIEIO, EU, EMF, EPMD, ESP, INXS, FOC, FM, KGB, KLF, KMC, KMFDM, K-YZE, NWA, NRBQ, OTB, RTZ, TKA, TSOL, UTFO, UFO, ZTC and REO Speedwagon. If you remember but a handfull of them, don't fret. You're about average, along with me. Most of them didn't move our music to new heights.
But those are only the start of our list. Look at the mess of numbers once used: One, 2 Deep, 2 In A Room, 2 Nu, 2 Live Crew, 2 Smooth MCs, 2 Bigg MC, 2 Nasty 4 Radio, Three Grand, 3 Merry Widows, 3 Mustaphas 3, 4 Way, 4-Sure, Take 6, 7 Seconds, After 7, Crazy 8's, 9 Ways to Sunday, ll, 13 Engines, 21 Guns, Catch 22, 24-7 Spyz, 29 Palms, 38 Special, Level 42, the 49ers, 54-40, Highway 101, 101 North, 220 Volt, 808 State, 1927, Oaktown-3-5-7, 10,000 Maniacs, and The Millions. Some crews combined letters and numbers, like B-52s, U2, UB40, L7, K9 Posse, and WWIII.
They all probably h;ad a reason for the names chosen, but I don't (can't) explain them. I just report them.
And don't think we are done. Colors were used, but black seemed to be the favorite. Included were Black, Black Bambi, Black Box, Black Britain, Black Crowes, Blackfoot, and Black Velvet. The other colors are even harder to remember. I can't think of any still working.
For some reason the term "Big" was used a lot: Big Audio Dynamite, Big Brother and Holding Company, Big Country, Big Car, Big Bam Boo, Big Bang Theory, Big Daddy Kane, Big Dipper, Big Dish, Big Pig, Big Drill Car, Big Shoulders, Big Wheel, Big Youth, Mr. Big, and Bigga. "Ice" was also a favorite, judging from Icehouse, Ice-T, Ice Cube, Vanilla Ice, Ice MC, Ice Cream Tee, Icicle Works, and Ice Capades. Tribe" too got considerable play with Tribe After Tribe, A Tribe Called Quest, Rhythm Tribe, Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., Tribe, and Tribal Tech.
Names using Club, Gang, Posse, Boys, Crew and Def were close to overkill. And space doesn't permit even getting into place names (Boston, Chicago, etc) used. But names of living creatures offered a little welcome imagination, like White Lion and the Iguanas, along with some fish - An Emotional Fish, School of Fish, Fishbone, Kingfish and Phish.
It got so newcomer outfits were using complete sentences to identify themselves. Maybe you will remember They Might Be Giants, We Are Going to Eat You, What Makes Donna Twirl?, They Eat Their Own, Pop Will Eat Itself, I See Why and I Don't Know.
Back to our original sentence. Seems we shouldn't have worried. It was soon discovered that the English language is infinite when it comes to music groups and their images they think describe themselves and sets them apart. In just this morning's entertainment pages I noticed several new group names all due over the weekend at a local Rendezvous in the Park showcase: Blue Funk Jailbreak, The Hoodoo Two, Yellow Dog Flats, An American Forest, Dawn of Life and Genius in Remission. On another page I found more: Chastity Belt, Smashclub, Blackwater Prophet, Youryoungbody, Childbirth, Bread and Circus, and Diazepam. And, like I said, I don't explain 'em, I'm just reportkng 'em.
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