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We’ve all heard the phrase “Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.” And while in some ways the idea may be something of the past as more and more people are realizing that trashing hotel rooms and getting black-out drunk isn’t the move, there is still a lot of the s-e-x in popular music and popular performance. From Miley Cyrus to Megan the Stallion, sex still sells.
For another example of this, look no further than the below list of eight prominent bands. Here, we will dive into a group of acts who put it all out there from the moment anyone hears their name.
1. Thunderpussy
Not only does this modern Seattle-born rock band contribute excellent music to the world (along with album titles like Greatest Tits) but they’ve changed the world when it comes to copyright and moniker terminology. Indeed, Thunderpussy took their cause all the way to the United States Supreme Court. When challenged by the U.S. Patent Office on whether they could patent their band name—critics claimed the moniker was too lewd—Thunderpussy challenged it. And won. Now they’re free to strut their stuff and shake what their mamas gave them while flaunting the band name they love.
2. Sex Pistols
On the face of it, this name could mean those objects of the male anatomy that, well, resemble guns. But there is a bit more to it than that. Originally the group, formed in the 1970s, had considered many other monikers, from Le Bomb to Subterraneans to the Damned, Beyond, Teenage Novel, Kid Gladlove, and Crème de la Crème. But they ultimately decided on Sex Pistols with the group’s manager Malcolm McLaren saying the name came “from the idea of a pistol, a pin-up, a young thing, a better-looking assassin.”
3. Steely Dan
As American Songwriter shared here, the band name for this group was derived from literature, specifically from the book Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs. In that book, the term Steely Dan is used for a dildo. And, well, that made for a perfect band name according to the members that would comprise the American 1970s-born rock group. The dildo, named “Steely Dan III from Yokohama,” is a steam-powered strap-on worn by one of the book’s characters (Mary) during a very sexually explicit scene in the book, which itself has many sexually explicit scenes.
4. Whitesnake
Originally, the group, formed in the late ’70s, was called David Coverdale’s Whitesnake, incorporating the name of its lead singer, who was known at the time. Later, they were just known as Whitesnake. Coverdale had originally wanted the group to go just by this one name but that took some time for people to get to know them. In a 2009 interview with Metro, the singer said that the name was a euphemism for his, well, penis, noting, “If I had been from Africa it would have been Blacksnake.” He then explained that the name was actually taken from a song he wrote “in the dying embers of Deep Purple.” Deep Purple was the rock band he fronted for a short stint from 1973 until 1976. Coverdale even had a song called “Whitesnake” on his first solo record.
5. Pussy Riot
A group born of political protest as much as musicality, Pussy Riot is a modern Russian art collective known for taking the piss out of the country oligarch Vladimir Putin. As such, the band’s name is as much a nod to female power and empowerment as it is toward the shocking. In the end, the name speaks to the feminist mission of the band and also its fervency to make a change and gain attention. Overall, it seems like they’ve succeeded in their mission.
6. Limp Bizkit
A rather raunchy name explained deeper here. But urban dictionary aside, the ’90s group’s frontman, Fred Durst, said he originally wanted the band to have this name so that it would push away listeners or those people who wouldn’t take the band seriously anyway. “The name is there to turn people’s heads away,” said the rap-rocker. “A lot of people pick up the disc and go, ‘Limp Bizkit. Oh, they must suck.’ Those are the people that we don’t even want listening to our music.” And according to lore, other names that were considered include Gimp Disco, Split Dickslit, Bitch Piglet, and Blood Fart. As one might imagine, record label execs wanted different names, but eventually, Limp Bizkit stuck.
7. Flaming Lips
Another raunchy name that has several theories as to how the Oklahoma rockers took on this moniker. Some thought it came from a 1953 movie in which one character singles a song called “Flaming Lips.” Others thought it came from the 1964 movie, which is called Flaming Lips, starring Gene Kelly. But band members told Rolling Stone in 1993 that the name came to them after they heard a rumor about a classmate who contracted genital herpes after oral sex.
“When Mark and I were in, I think it was Junior Year in High School, there was a rumor about this girl who got herpes from this guy at a party,” said frontman Wayne Coyne. “He went down on her with a cold sore. I don’t think we knew the girl, and I’m not sure if she even existed, you know how kids just spread bullshit. But when we were thinking of band names one night over a pack of Schlitz and some left-handed cigarettes and remembered how we joked that they both had ‘Flaming Lips’ and it just stuck.”
8. Hole
Hole is a pretty general term. There are lots of kinds of holes. So, this ’90s rock group took advantage of that when coming up with their own moniker. Frontwoman Courtney Love talked about it in an interview in 1995 on Later… with Jools Holland, saying “In Euripides‘ Medea when she kills the bride and her own child, she says, ‘There’s a hole that pierces my soul.’ [And] my mother’s this kind of new age psychologist, and I said ‘You know, I had this terrible childhood,’ and she said, ‘Well, you can’t have a hole running through you all the time, Courtney.’ You know, and then [there’s] the genital reference, go ahead and make it if you will.
Photo by Ke.Mazur/WireImage
