Jewish band name shtick

Teruah has put together some highlights from a Twitter meme called #jewishbandnames. It's fairly amusing stuff, many of them based on outrageous puns: Matzah The Hoople, They Might Be Golems, and a Jewish death metal band name Jewcifer (in fact there is already a Jucifer). This is all part of the trend, particularly in Klezmer for shticky, punning band names in Jewish music. There's nothing especially wrong with this, but as I've argued before on this blog (I'm too lazy to dig out the link) it does reveal a kind of anxiety about Jewish contributions to popular music, as though we don't quite fit in this world so we need to make everything archly self-aware. Again, I'm all for irony but it can be rather limiting and can hold people back from an uninhibited exploration of the possibilities of Jewish music. We don't need to shtickify to make Jewish music - we can do it without apologies.

Comments

[Jack Zaientz]

Kieth, I have to disagree with you here. I think you're reading much to much into this list to claim that it "does reveal a kind of anxiety about Jewish contributions to popular music."

First of all, these names are suggested by non-musicians talking to non-musicians, it's not clear from the context (twitter) which of the authors are Jewish (though some clearly have some knowledge of Jewish culture. The humor of the names comes both from the silliness of juxtoposition of the Jewish terms in a non-Jewish context (a band name). This, I suppose, suggests that the authors are unaware that there are explicitly Jewish bands. It doesn't suggest that they are anxious about Jewish in music. Note that they didn't come up with the names of Jewish band members. Just bands.

Secondly, linking this phenomena with Klezmer is wrong-headed. It's quite true that klezmer bands often include some variant of "klez" in their name (e.g. The Klezmatics, Isle of Klezbos). This hardly unique to Klezmer bands. Traditional jazz bands do the same, as do ska, polka, and Irish ceiligh bands. Even musical genres that don't use this trick often evolve recognizable naming conventions. The phrases and imagery in metal bands area a great example. The phrase metal is common, as is the violent and/or death imagery. This is a marketing trick, a technique to self-identify to an audience that the band is part of a genre. Nothing more. I doubt you'd make the argument that Metallica was anxious about the role of heavy metal music or it's place in pop music in general when it chose it's name. Neither was the Klezmatics.

I do want to acknowledge, though, that there are folks, including many secular Jews, who are anxious about the existence of Jewish music and the role of Jews in pop music. Often they are in favor of Jewish in pop music, as long as they are not explicitly Jewish in presentation..something that is seen as backward or old fashioned or out of the mainstream. But the band names I cited are not examples of this.

[Keith Kahn-Harris]

You make a strong case Jack! I still maintain though that punning is particularly important in Jewish music than in other music scenes. I'd like to do some systematic comparative research on the subject but that will have to wait till I get a grant to do it!

[Jack Zaientz]

Keith...I'd love to see the result of the research! What fun.

[Jewish Music]

Great post. Then again you can get back into the whole argument about what makes Jewish music, Jewish? If you have a klezmer band that is played by non-Jews is it Jewish? The fact that the word "mazal tov" is a word in the song make it a Jewish song? No doubt Jewish music may mean different things to different people.
www.livejewishmusic.com

[cheap jordan]

It's funny, but I had to do practice this very thought today during my prayer time this morning