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Metal umlaut

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File:Motorhead Umlaut.jpg
Motörhead's self-titled debut album

The heavy metal umlaut, or "rock dots", is an umlaut over letters in the name of a heavy metal band, such as Mötley Crüe or Motörhead. The use of umlauts and other diacritics with a blackletter style typeface is a form of foreign branding intended to give a band's logo a Teutonic quality. It is a form of marketing that evokes stereotypes of boldness and strength commonly attributed to peoples such as the Vikings; author Reebee Garofalo has attributed its use to a desire for a "Gothic horror" feel.[1] The heavy metal umlaut is never referred to by the term diaeresis in this usage, nor is it intended to affect the pronunciation of the band's name, with the exception of Green Jellÿ.

Heavy metal umlauts have been parodied in film and fiction. In the mockumentary film {{This Is Spın̈al Tap]]}} (spelled with an umlaut over the n), fictional rocker David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) opines, "It's like a pair of eyes. You're looking at the umlaut, and it's looking at you." In 2002, Spin magazine referred to the heavy metal umlaut as "the diacritical mark of the beast."

Umlauts and diaereses

The German word Umlaut roughly means change of pronunciation or sound shift, as it is composed of um-, "around", and Laut, "sound". Adding an umlaut indeed changes the pronunciation of a vowel in standard (i.e. not heavy-metal) usage; the letters u and ü represent distinct sounds, as do o vs. ö and a vs. ä.

Umlauts, or visually similar graphemes, are used in many languages, including Brazilian Portuguese, Estonian, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. The sounds represented by the umlauted letters in these languages are typically front vowels (front rounded vowels in the case of ü and ö). Ironically, these sounds tend to be perceived as "weaker" or "lighter" than the vowels represented by un-umlauted u, o, and a, and thus in the languages which use it normally, the umlaut does not evoke the impression of strength and darkness which its sensational use in English is intended to convey.

The English word diaeresis refers to a diacritic graphically similar to the umlaut; the name comes from a Greek word meaning "divide or distinguish". This diacritic is used in languages such as Greek, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Brazilian Portuguese with varying purposes. Occasionally English employs a diaeresis to indicate that two vowels are to be pronounced separately, as in the name "Chloë" or the word "naïve", or in the obsolete spellings reënact and coöperate.

History

The German progressive rock band Amon Düül II (aka Amon Duul II) released their first album in 1969. However, their name came from "Amon, an Egyptian sun god, and Düül, a character from Turkish fiction",[2] so this use of umlauts was not gratuitous. The third part of Yes's progressive rock epic "Starship Trooper" is entitled "Würm" (on The Yes Album, released 1971). However, this again is probably not gratuitous, seemingly coming from the Würm glaciation.

The first gratuitous use appears to have been either by Blue Öyster Cult or by Black Sabbath, both in 1970. Blue Öyster Cult's website states it was added by guitarist and keyboardist Allen Lanier,[3] but rock critic Richard Meltzer claims to have suggested it to their producer and manager Sandy Pearlman just after Pearlman came up with the name: "I said, 'How about an umlaut over the O?' Metal had a Wagnerian aspect anyway."[4] In that same year, Black Sabbath's record label, on a rare picture-sleeve 7" single version of Paranoid (with the b-side Rat Salad), for no apparent reason, retitled the song "Paranoïd" with a diaeresis above the "i".[5] (In French, the words paranoïa, paranoïaque, paranoïde properly have the trema.)

On their second album In Search of Space (1971), Hawkwind wrote on the backside of the cover: "TECHNICIÄNS ÖF SPÅCE SHIP EÅRTH THIS IS YÖÜR CÄPTÅIN SPEÄKING YÖÜR ØÅPTÅIN IS DEA̋D". To add to the variation, Danish and Norwegian letter Ø and Danish/Norwegian/Swedish letter Å are added. While the Å being a separate letter sounding like the word "Oh", the Danish Ø is actually pronounced exactly like the German and Turkish Ö. And also the diacritical mark on the last " A̋ " is the "Hungarian umlaut" or double acute accent ( ˝ )—two short lines slanting up and to the right rather like a right double-quote mark—instead of dots (Hungarian uses neither the ( ˝ ) nor the traditional German umlaut ("Ä") over the letter "A", though, and ( ˝ ) is used only on the letters "Ő" and "Ű"). This was before Lemmy, later of Motörhead, had become a member of the group.

Motörhead followed in 1975. The idea for the umlaut came from Lemmy, the group's lead singer, who said, "I only put it in there to look mean."[6] (Interestingly, the German pronunciation of Motör, a word that does not exist in German, would be similar to French equivalent, moteur. "Motor", the correct German spelling, is pronounced similarly to "motor" in English, except with the emphasis on the second syllable.) The band Hüsker Dü debuted in January of 1978, though they were based in punk and not heavy metal, and their use of the umlaut was not gratuitous; it affects the pronunciation of the vowels. Mötley Crüe formed in 1980; according to Vince Neil in the band's Behind the Music edition, the inspiration came from a Löwenbräu bottle. They subsequently decided to name their record label "Leathür Records". At one Mötley Crüe performance in Germany, the entire audience started chanting "Meutley Crew-eh" (IPA: [møːt.liː kʁyː.ə]) — a pronunciation often used in Hungary as well.

Queensrÿche, who took on that name in 1981, went further by putting the umlaut over the Y in their name. (In French, the ÿ is used very rarely, e.g. in the placename L'Haÿ-les-Roses (IPA: [la.ˈi.lɛ.ʀoz]),[7] etc. Queensrÿche frontman Geoff Tate stated, "The umlaut over the 'y' has haunted us for years. We spent eleven years trying to explain how to pronounce it."[4] In contrast to other examples, the spelling of Queensrÿche was chosen to soften the band's image, as it was feared that the original spelling, Queensreich, might be misconstrued as having neo-nazi connotations.[8]

File:Spinal Tap logo.jpg
The mockumentary This is Spinal Tap parodies the Heavy Metal Umlaut by putting an umlaut on the "n" in Spinal Tap

1980's space rock band Underground Zerø used a variation on the concept, taking the Scandinavian vowel ø in their name. This may have been inspired by computer systems of the time, many of which used the slashed zero as a glyph for the digit 0 to distinguish it from the letter O and thus resembled ø. The Dutch band Bløf also uses ø in its name, even though the letter is not used in Dutch; ironically, Bløf is pronounced neither blof nor bløf.

The spoof band Spın̈al Tap raised the stakes in 1984 by using an umlaut over the letter n, i.e. over a consonant (it also makes use of a dotless i). This construction is in fact found in the Jakaltec language of Guatemala and in some orthographies of Malagasy, a language of Madagascar, although the creators of the band name were probably not aware of this.

The 1974 film Blazing Saddles included Madeline Kahn's German-accented Marlene Dietrich-style chanteuse character "Lili Von Shtupp" (according to the credits). She is announced on a poster outside the music hall as "Lili von Shtüpp"; the film's characters pronounce the name without any change to the vowel. In the mid-1980s, cartoonist Berkeley Breathed parodied the heavy metal umlaut in the comic strip Bloom County with the fictional group Deathtöngue. Breathed eventually had Deathtöngue change their name to the umlaut-free Billy and the Boingers following pressure, in the strip, from congressional hearings on "porn rock."

In 1988, Jim Henson and General Foods released a breakfast cereal, Cröonchy Stars, based on the popular Swedish Chef muppet. In addition to the gratuitous umlaut in Cröonchy, most of the cereal's labelling and promotional material used the idiosyncratic spelling "Swedïsh Chef".[9] The novel Zodiac (1988) by Neal Stephenson features a fictional metal band called Pöyzen Böyzen, which one character describes as "not bad for a two-umlaut band".[10]

In 1997, parody newspaper The Onion published an article called "Ünited Stätes Toughens Image With Umlauts", about a congressional attempt to add umlauts to the name of the United States of America to make it seem "bad-assed and scary in a quasi-heavy metal manner". Journalist and author Steve Almond coined the term "spandex and umlaut circuit" in 2002 to describe the heavy metal touring scene. Rock critic Chuck Klosterman subtitled his 2001 book Fargo Rock City, A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural Nörth Daköta.

Webcomic artist Scott Kurtz drew a series of cartoons about a fake band called Djörk in his PvP Online webcomic. Apart from satirizing the heavy metal umlaut (the original band name was to be Umlaüt), this name also refers to the Icelandic singer/songwriter Björk, whose diacritical marks are genuine. The term nu metal is sometimes spelled as "nü metal". The video game Guitar Hero 2 contains the character "Lars Ümlaüt". In the 2006 book "To Air Is Human", New York Times writer Dan Crane describes competing in the 2003 Air Guitar World Championships under the name Björn Türoque (a play on "Born to rock"). In October 2007, LucasArts alumnus Tim Schafer announced his newest project, the heavy metal adventure game Brütal Legend.

Band or album name examples

Umlaut

Mötley Crüe's album Shout at the Devil

Other characters

  • Danish musical project Leæther Strip
  • German punk band Die Ärzte used three dots over the "A" in Ärzte on their 2003 album Geräusch
  • A three-dot "umlaut" has also been seen in artwork for King Creosote, over the i, as Ki⃛ng Cresote.
  • American jam band Rusted Root uses a three-dot umlaut over the "e" in its logo, as seen on its album covers[18].
  • American thrash band Lååz Rockit
  • Death metal band DÅÅTH
  • French electronica band Rinôçérôse
  • The dark folk / experimental / occult band Death In June used umlauts and accented "e"s in the original releases of their albums The Wörld Thät Sümmer (1985) and Thé Wäll Öf Säcrificé (1989) - and, on these releases, also in the band name, leading to Deäth In Jüne and Déäth In Jüné, respectively.
  • the Japanese rock group BOØWY.
  • American Hard-Rock band Tool's highly successful album Ænima

Non-gratuitous umlauts

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Garofalo, pg. 292 Some groups, for example Blue Öyster Cult and Motörhead, added gratuitous umlauts to their names to conjure up a more generic gothic horror, a practice that continued into the 1980s with Mötley Crüe and others.
  2. ^ "allmusic (((Amon Düül > Overview)))". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "BÖC Retrospectively". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ a b "HELL HOLES: Spin̈al Tap's main man explains the importance of the umlaut". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ Paroid/Rat Salad cover
  6. ^ Motorhead Madman
  7. ^ L'Haÿ-les-Roses in French Wikipedia
  8. ^ Queensrÿche FAQ
  9. ^ Crooncy Stars Cereal - General Food Corps 1988
  10. ^ Stephenson, N. (1988). Zodiac, p. 105. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-4315-6
  11. ^ http://www2.motley.com/
  12. ^ http://www.imotorhead.com/
  13. ^ http://world.std.com/~thirdave/hd.html
  14. ^ http://www.magodeoz.com/
  15. ^ http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/green_jelly/artist.jhtml
  16. ^ http://www.myspace.com/beowulfbwf
  17. ^ http://www.amazon.com/L%C3%A4ther-Frank-Zappa/dp/B0000009TT
  18. ^ http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000001E5Z.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
  19. ^ LEO D-E Ergebnisse für "läppisch"

Sources

  • Garofalo, Rebee (1997). Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA. Allyn & Bacon. ISBN 0-205-13703-2.
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