Have you ever noticed the amount of rock bands beginning by “The” formed since a few years? If not, do not worry, the musical press have done it already: it has been about 5 years now since it comments the proliferation of bands in “The”…Strokes, White Stripes, Kills, Killers etc.
Surprised by this, several fundamental questions came to my mind: is there really a « The » invasion? Is it a fashion or a tendency? Is it only a specific rock issue? What should we do?
Filled by the desire to know the truth, I rolled up my sleeves and I did a little investigation. Forty working hours later, I came up with no more less than 1066 rock bands beginning with THE, formed between 1970 and 2006. This painstaking job finally let me bring to you two lessons for the benefit of the universal knowing:
1. There is not really a “the” explosion but a significant increase of bands from 1997 to 2003. The annual average of bands creation beginning with THE was 56 during that period, versus an annual average of 29 during the 20 years before (from 1976 to 1986).
2. The “THE phenomena” seems really to be more a fashion than a tendency as far as the annual average of bands creation decrease to 23 in 2004 and 19 in 2005.
The curious people and the musicologists interested by strategic matters will be pleased to find all the results from this study in this place called « THE project ». You may find also a synthesis here.
These first conclusions, very encouraging for the science of our time, led me to go further on the “THE project”: I am at present working on the 1930-1960 period. I also will take into account bands from any kind of music and not only rock stuff. To be continued…very soon.
