Re: (TV) Television: the name

["Mark G. Ryan" <mgryan@cruzio.com>]

"Michael Olcsvary" <olcsvary@icehouse.net> wrote:
> 
> Let's see.  Just off the top of my head, there's The Cars, Boston, the
> Chocolate Watchband, Stawberry Alarm Clock, Talking Heads, 13th Floor
> Elevators, Jefferson Airplane, and the tragically mispelled Beatles, Byrds
> and Limp Bizkit - hell, why *not* call a band Television?

Just as a practical matter, "The Televisions" might be better than
"Television".  At least it sound more like the name of a rock group. 

Names need to work on two levels: connotation (what it means or how it
sounds) and denotation (what it denotes). The latter is where "Television"
may run into problems.

Names like "Television" and "Boston" are hard to search for and confusing
because they may turn up in other contexts, e.g. "The Boston Pops".  If
you didn't know any better, "The Boston Pops" sounds like an orchestral 
incarnation of the rock group Boston (which some people say is not too 
far from what it is--he he he).

Misspelling is actually good from a practical standpoint because it
makes the name unique.  It is often done in trademarks, e.g., Toys-R-Us 
or Compaq.  Big corporations spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to 
come up with names for themselves and their products, such as Agilent 
and Avaya (ugh!).

But nobody should despair. There are bands with far worse names than
Television, for example, "The For Carnation" (clever, but awful).  
Names like this remind me of the old Abbot and Costello routine, 
"Who's on First?"  (And of course "The Who" was a great name).

In case Mr. Verlaine ever wants to get a new band together, here are 
some nominations for the worst possible names for a band (some are not 
original, alas):  No Cover, Out of Stock, Free Beer, Bad Pressing, With, 
The The, Boxed Set, All Ages, No Show, Cancelled, Click to Continue.  
Any one of of these names will make your record label wish they had 
never heard of you.

Mark
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