So Russ tells me this is the place to come to attempt to claim my very own gigabyte of free email service. He already has. I'm jealous of never having to clean out my email account ever again, AND escaping the evils of Hotmail, but I feel like to should be wary of this "read your messages and attach contextual advertising" concept.

bryna's question:

and why is it that so many rock and roll bands stick to the same naming formula:
the _________

examples:
the beatles
the hollies
the darkness
the strokes
the watchmen (and the walkmen)
the music
the clash
the doors
the offspring
the shins

and some have two words after "the"

the guess who
the white stripes
the tragically hip
the rolling stones

it's very strange. i have waaay more examples but this is already getting a bit lengthy. can you explain this to me please?

thank you.
bryna

rick's response:

The naming convention for these various bands conforms to Article 2433.78 section 4 of International Band Names Union 1946...
and the rules of the English language, which confir a referential collectivity to an item preceeded by "the" and puralised.

beatle < the creature
beatles < a collective of beatle
the beatle < connoting a single specifically identifiable creature
the beatles < connoting a collective of specifically identifiable creatures

Why these individuals would choose to associate thier artistic endeavours with a-human beings and concepts is fairly comprehensable. Socially, there exists a greater universality to items and experiences shared; darkness, doors and shins.

The two-word formula is really a simple extension of the first, with verbage that simply complements or emphasises the featured noun, typically, the adjective. The Stones and The Hip are common simplifications of these popular band names. The fact that they are Rolling and Tragically, describes in greater detail the status of the items. This increased specificity permits a higher degree of identity, copyright and often, simply pretentiousness.