Sunday, December 03, 2006

The Umlaut

The Umlaut is not a band name, but if it was, I would give it a very high rating. The umlaut (those two little dots) is a typographic symbol that conveys a doubled sound for a vowel. For example, "cooperate" should properly have an umlaut. Without the umlaut, it would more correctly be pronounced with 3 syllables (coop-e-rate) instead of the accepted four-syllable pronunciation (co-op-e-rate).

The umlaut is the recessive genetic disease of the heavy metal bloodline. It probably first appeared in the name Blue Öyster Cult. It then propagated to Mötley Crüe, Motörhead, Queensrÿche, and jumped genres to infect punk band Hüsker Dü. Hüsker Dü is the only name above where an umlaut might possibly be used correctly from a pronunciation standpoint. But pronunciation isn't the point--the point seems to be to look Viking or something. I love how Spin(..)al Tap parodied this by placing an umlaut over a consonant.

Any band with an umlaut in its name is going to get marked down heavily by me, unless it's an obvious parody. Mötley Crüe, what's wrong with just calling yourselves Motley Crew?

Blue Öyster Cult: 3
Mötley Crüe: 2.2
Motörhead: 2.7
Queensrÿche: 1.5 (major pretentiousness going on here)
Hüsker Dü: 6.5
Spin(..)al Tap: 8.7 (good execution of multiple levels of parody)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am impressed with the superb research and thought that went into this post, but I must dissent with respect to a few of your conclusions. The heavy metal umlaut, when supported by a band that can carry it off, adds a sense of menace or obscure old world european/scandinavian connection that after all is part of some metal band's cachet. I think it's fairly accepted these days that Motörhead just wouldn't be Motörhead without the umlaut. Same with Hüsker Dü in the hardcore style where the name itself is Norwegian in origin. Of course a silly hair band with neither menace or obscurity such as Mötley Crüe cannot pull it off and the parodies are well deserved. An excellent analysis overall!
For further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_umlaut

hs

Amy said...

Lots of food for thought here. Maybe the umlaut is the equivalent of the "monster truck rally" voice. Menace is a great way to describe it. And what I really want to know is: how did you get the umlaut symbol to show up?

Anonymous said...

With my hëavy metäl keyboärd of course!

Anonymous said...

or this site will put Metal in your message:
http://www.rmhh.org.uk/ascii.html

hs

Amy said...

Röck ön!

Anonymous said...

umlault is actually the name of a finnish grindcore band. they are anarchists. haha.

Anonymous said...

Damn I was going to buy a new Hummer in late 2012 and drive around the country for a vacation, Now I am going to have to shave my head and join the Hari.s, Muslims, Jews, Jehovah s, Mormons, Christians, and a few other wing nut groups just to cover all my bases.
[url=http://2012earth.net/switch_to_consciousness_2012.html
]apocalypse 2012
[/url] - some truth about 2012