This article is about fake music.
By Stephanie Weber
Some of my favorite bands are fake. They’ve been created by geniuses in Hollywood, concocting the most creative music for the pleasure of viewers across the world. Although they’re fake, these artists are talented and treated as real, blurring the lines between fiction and reality. There are so many fake bands in existence, but there are a few that really stand out, each with their own unique story.
Daisy Jones & The Six
Published in 2019, Daisy Jones & The Six Taylor Jenkins Reid has garnered massive amounts of attention in bookish communities for its telling of the renowned 1970s rock group, Daisy Jones & The Six. It’s structured through interviews with band members, detailing the intertwining of love and passion in a seven-person group, chronicling their origin story and break-up on July 12, 1979. Think the dynamics of Fleetwood Mac, full of scandal and destruction. Unlike Fleetwood Mac, Daisy Jones & The Six are fake. The band isn’t real despite Reid’s cunning writing.
It’s so not real that Amazon Prime Video picked up a miniseries adaptation of the book, hiring actors and building sets to make the fake story a real one. In addition to the show, Daisy Jones & The Six’s album Aurora, “released” in 1977, is available to stream on various music platforms. Two singles were released prior to the album, “Regret Me” and “Look At Us Now (Honeycomb).” Theatrics aside, the album is pretty decent for it being fake. Acoustic guitars, harmonizing vocals, and 70s rock rhythms make it one to remember. You can hear pain, longing, and passion in songs like “The River” and “Please,” and can feel the strained dynamics between the band members despite the album being cohesive.
The band has amassed 1.5 million listeners on Spotify, with their most streamed song being “Regret Me” at just over 5 million clicks. With these accolades, Daisy Jones & The Six seems pretty real to me. This phenomenon isn’t new. Within the last couple decades, fake bands have had a big boom.
Spın̈al Tap
In 1984, there was Spın̈al Tap: a fictional heavy metal English band fronted by David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), with Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) on guitar, and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) on bass. McKean, Guest, and Shearer were American comedians and musicians, who debuted these characters on the pilot of The T.V. Show in 1979. The band has been active since 1984, playing world tours and are featured in the documentary This is Spinal Tap (1984). Two of their albums — This is Spinal Tap (1984) and Break Like The Wind (1992) — are available to stream. Spinal Tap is often labeled as “one of England’s loudest bands,” characterized by glam and hard rock sounds. They originally performed as a psychedelic pop band, but are versatile in their musical abilities; they’ve been able to play progressive rock, jazz fusion, funk, and reggae. Their last known performance was in 2019, when the band reunited at the Tribeca Film Festival to celebrate the 35th anniversary of their film.
Pink Slip from Freaky Friday
Starting in 1997 with Daria’s Mystik Spiral, fake bands came to the forefront of mainstream media. The early 2000s were full of Disney Channel originals rooted in fake artists like Hannah Montana, The Cheetah Girls, Lemonade Mouth (2011), and Connect 3 from Camp Rock (2008). Possibly the most appreciated is Freaky Friday (2003), with fake band Pink Slip with Anna (Lindsay Lohan) on guitar. “Take Me Away” plays near the end of the film, a closing to the climax that is switching brains with your mom. The only version of “Take Me Away” is found on YouTube although fans have begged Disney to make it available on streaming platforms. Even though accessibility to the band’s music is limited, both Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis were trained in guitar for their roles, only for the scene to be dubbed over by professional studio musicians in the final cut. “Take Me Away” is an original song, so it had to have been written by someone to use in the movie. All the elements of a real band are here, but it’s still fake.
Sex Bob-Omb from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
2010 saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, featuring Sex Bob-Omb, with protagonist Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) on bass. Original songs like “Garbage Truck” and “Threshold” are available to stream. Scott Pilgrim features not one but two fake artists, the second being Envy Adams (Brie Larson) covering Metric’s “Black Sheep.” The only difference between the cover and the original is the vocals. Both Michael Cera and Brie Larson have music backgrounds with fully released albums. Scott Pilgrim is unique in the sense that everything about this film is fake: it’s an adaptation of graphic novels with the same name. The film mimics this fictional universe immaculately; actors were instructed to not blink and move in specific ways to emulate a cartoonish feel. In this way, the fakeness of Scott Pilgrim is real.
Ian Rubbish and The Bizzarros
Some of these fake bands have comedic roots. Fred Armisen is no stranger to bending the rules of carefully crafted comedic skits. Armisen is a comedian and Saturday Night Live alum, but he’s a musician first. He was a drummer of 90s band Trenchmouth and you can find him using his wicked skills in his standup special Fred Armisen: Standup for Drummers (2018), where he performs on drums from each decade since the 1920s accompanied with hilarious jokes. He’s also fluent in guitar. His musical background helped him create an SNL character poignantly named Ian Rubbish. Rubbish is a burnt-out, helplessly British man from the 1970s and part of his band, Ian Rubbish and The Bizzarros. He’s punk, passionate about his craft, and angry. His voice is crass and harsh, singing about demolition and anti-capitalism, embodying everything that the British punk movement originally stood for, besides the fact he vehemently loves former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He and his bandmates provide an interesting retelling of punk history, have performed at the 18th Weeby Awards and created a short film about The Clash featuring interviews at Electric Lady Studios in New York City.
The Blue Jean Committee from Documentary Now!
In 2015, Armisen joined comedians Bill Hader and Seth Meyers to create mockumentary television series, Documentary Now! The four seasons include individual episodes that parody a real documentary. With well executed cinematography and introductions from icon Helen Mirren, Documentary Now! Gave prime time television something revolutionary. There have been four seasons, seven episodes in each. Various episodes revolve around fake bands like “Test Pattern” and the “Original Cast Album: Co-Op.” Yet, my favorite is “Gentle & Soft: The Story of The Blue Jean Committee, Parts 1 & 2.” Known as the BJC to fans, The Blue Jean Committee was one of the most popular bands of 1970s America, with similar compositions of The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. It started out in Chicago, only for band members Gene Allen (Fred Armisen) and Clark Honus (Bill Hader) to move to California to create their soft rock sound. In Chicago, they released two singles “Massachusetts Afternoon” and “Embrace Me,” as well as their two first albums St. Stanislaus’ Matinee and 221 Pulaski Parkway, both which failed miserably. But, it wasn’t until Catalina Breeze, that the BJC would make their mark on the music industry. Released sometime around 1974, Catalina Breeze was written in 72 grueling hours and garnered multi-platinum ratings. Years later, the BJC were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Catalina Breeze is available to stream, with my favorite songs being “Catalina Breeze,” “Gentle and Soft,” and “Going Out to Hollywood.”
Out of all the fake bands I’ve listed here, the most I want to be real is the BJC. Their origin story is captivating and their downfall is just as exciting as their formation. Hader’s soprano vocals over California surfer vibes is the perfect soundtrack to summer. I want to see the BJC love, particularly in their hey-day of the 1970s rock boom. Hader, Meyers, and Armisen tell such a creative story I am convinced is real.
Fake bands are awesome. They provide a unique way for music fans to delve further into niche artists, all of whom don’t actually exist. Putting BJC or Sex Bob-Omb on a playlist is so meta, questioning what really is music.