I tried to search, but it is kind of a specific peeve...

It pissed me off earlier today when the WKNC DJ referred to "The Arcade Fire," which isn't the name of the band.

Does this bother anyone else?
Bands where people add "the" all the time:

- Pixies
- Arcade Fire
- Talking Heads (their fucking live album is called "The Name of this Band is Talking Heads")
- Grateful Dead (though it is easy to do here)
- Animal Collective
- Smashing Pumpkins

or am i just being snobbish?

7/15/2008 10:49:10 AM

On the cover of MCatIS it says "The Smashing Pumpkins"

And there was an album from the band called "Death to the Pixies"

I'd say if they don't care, why should you?

7/15/2008 10:54:54 AM

bands who don't use the "the" on purpose are usually just being annoying for no reason

'cause people are going to use it whether they like it or not

and you're far too uptight about it

7/15/2008 10:55:16 AM

You are being snobbish. It is NOT incorrect to refer to the band as the "Arcade Fire" or the "Pixies" (notice how I used the but NOT in the title of the band).

it probably is incorrect "grammatically" (as in like MLA format crap) if you refer to a band as "The Pixies" in print when they are just the "pixies," however if someone is speaking you can rarely tell whether they think it is officially part of the band name or not so it should never annoy you If you're getting worked up about this detail then I think you're being a little too anal about it.

"The Smashing Pumpkins" is correct though. They used both themselves on their artwork and merch.

[Edited on July 15, 2008 at 11:01 AM. Reason : ]

7/15/2008 10:55:27 AM

OK

my smashing pumpkins ticket stub only has that, and I thought siamese dream has no "the"

only brought to my attention because the knc weblog said "The Arcade Fire"

you can close my thread. I'm being an uptight snob!
blame work.

7/15/2008 10:57:29 AM

http://gothamist.com/attachments/arts_jen/2007_07_arts_shepsmashing.jpg

I guess it doesn't really matter.

http://www.ilbaluardo.com/Cover/Audio/S%20-%20T%20-%20U/SMASHING%20PUMPKINS%20-%20Mellon%20Collie%20and%20the%20infinite%20sadness%20-%20Front.jpg

7/15/2008 10:58:27 AM

well they used both. some of their stuff just says smashing pumpkins. mellon collie, and its appropriate singles used 'the' though.

7/15/2008 10:59:00 AM

saw the Pixies in nyc couple years back and program said The Pixies. Guess it meant The "Pixies".

7/15/2008 10:59:06 AM

I have a poster that says "The Arcade Fire" on it.

And who in the world has ever said "The Animal Collective"?

7/15/2008 10:59:31 AM

trivial

7/15/2008 11:00:29 AM

I love The Weezer.

7/15/2008 11:02:51 AM

places where "the" should not be used: THE ohio state university. wtf is that crap about?

[Edited on July 15, 2008 at 11:05 AM. Reason : ]

7/15/2008 11:04:46 AM

On the demo tapes from 1988, it says "The Smashing Pumpkins" in Corgan's handwriting.

Win Butler has said you can use "the" or not. He doesn't care.

But whatever.

The US/UK is/are thing is a much more worthwhile argument if we're going to argue about band names.

7/15/2008 11:09:22 AM

i think i posted this in a similar thread for publications, but my dad is a technical writer and just from that stand point and also doing editing on the side he said that a lot of times when "the" is going to be used or may even be implied, places or groups (or in this case bands) will drop it for the sake of design or artwork or even just to sound professional without "the" in the official title - but they expect that it will get used.

I doubt bands put this much thought into it though

7/15/2008 11:12:39 AM

Deftones

7/15/2008 11:12:49 AM

some just don't sound right

Like "The Arcade Fire" sounds like "The Ohio State University"

sounds pretentious

7/15/2008 11:15:54 AM

yeah

i have a Foo Fighters shirt

i wonder which one they're/it is supposed to be

7/15/2008 11:20:28 AM

^^^ i almost used them as an example <3 deftones

7/15/2008 11:28:13 AM

Old: The misfits
New: Misfits

7/15/2008 12:50:17 PM

what about The Band?

7/15/2008 1:00:01 PM

The Bush

7/15/2008 1:02:34 PM

the electric light orchestra

7/15/2008 1:11:29 PM

The Ohio State University

7/15/2008 1:14:51 PM

As much as I hate iTunes, I think it was the first player to ignore "the" when listing bands alphabetically.

I really, really appreciated that.

7/15/2008 2:22:38 PM

my windows media player does this

7/15/2008 2:24:16 PM

The The

7/15/2008 7:02:14 PM

The Spoon

7/15/2008 7:05:40 PM

The Used

7/15/2008 7:23:27 PM

These occur to me right now.

Bands that have and need "The":

The Tragically Hip
The Cure

Band that doesn't have "The" but probably should:

Eels

7/15/2008 7:28:46 PM

The Bravery

7/15/2008 7:32:30 PM

The Muse hahahah

7/15/2008 7:44:48 PM

yeah, SP dropped "The". I'm a huge fan of all of Billy Corgan's work so I don't correct people or even get bothered when people still say "The Smashing Pumpkins".

7/15/2008 8:15:20 PM

and I dont think you should correct them because I dont think either is 100% correct.

I dont know about them ever officially "dropping" it... i mean they used "The smashing pumpkins" on some old old stuff. then they just used "Smashing Pumpkins" on Gish and Siamese Dream. And then they went BACK to using "The Smashing Pumpkins" on mellon collie, and earphoria, adore etc. and the singles along with those albums all the way up to their breakup (and beyond with stuff like earphoria).

and then they came back with zeitgeist and the name is just "smashing pumpkins" on the album cover, and the billboard for their asheville shows said just "SP" but the tickets said "the". And in fact, the ad he took out when he wanted to reform them said "my heart is in The Smashing Pumpkins." (notice the capital T)

I think in conclusion its like I said before it doesnt really even matter, its semantics, "the" is an article and I personally (although I could be dead wrong) doubt that billy corgan put thought into whether their band title has "the" in it or not. They have used it interchangeably over the years and I dont see any reason to believe they ever "officially" dropped it. It seems to be whatever they feel like at the time they design an album cover or merch. I think its completely correct either way...except that the SP heart logo doesnt work with the "the" I think people overthink this stuff! I suppose you could say I did, but I was just pointing out that either way is correct so its not worth "correcting" someone over because there is nothing to correct.


[Edited on July 15, 2008 at 9:09 PM. Reason : ]

7/15/2008 9:01:57 PM

The Tool

7/15/2008 9:39:34 PM

Jackson 5

Bush

Linkin Park

Eminem

Led Zeppelin

Cream

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

[Edited on July 15, 2008 at 10:11 PM. Reason : l]

7/15/2008 10:10:49 PM

this thread is the stupid

7/15/2008 10:12:02 PM

what a waste of bandwidth.

seriously? you're angry about this?

really?

seriously?

this is a bother?

i'm so glad i'm a music purist, and it's actually about the music for me.

7/15/2008 10:31:44 PM

The Saves The Day

7/15/2008 10:38:46 PM

The Da Band

7/15/2008 10:42:47 PM

I've never heard anyone say "The Talking Heads."

Just saying "Pixies" is fucking annoying and breaks your speech rhythm.

The Grateful Dead suck.

All the others are so far from mattering I don't even feel like continu

7/15/2008 10:47:39 PM

the "Band"

7/15/2008 11:06:37 PM

The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The

Is only the most awesome band ever. That must really sting

7/15/2008 11:30:42 PM

I would probably be annoyed if people went around saying "The Ben Folds Five" all the time.

7/16/2008 3:03:14 AM

7/16/2008 5:45:04 AM

THE DOORS

7/16/2008 7:01:52 AM

Quote :

"The Da Band"

I loled

7/16/2008 8:35:29 AM

my friend jimmy calls them "The David Matthews Five"

7/16/2008 8:53:46 AM

doves

7/17/2008 6:46:38 PM

The Ween

7/17/2008 11:15:34 PM

I thought I read somewhere that Corgan said the "smashing" in the name was not meant as a verb (smashing, crushing, etc), but rather the chiefly British adjective ("that's smashing!").

But I could be crazy.

7/17/2008 11:19:37 PM