Heavy metal umlaut

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A heavy metal umlaut is an umlaut over a letter in the name of a heavy metal band. 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.

Heavy metal umlauts have been parodied in film and fiction. In the mockumentary film This Is Spin̈al 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."

[edit] 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 several languages, such as Azeri, Estonian, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Brazilian Portuguese, Swedish, 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, Catalan, Welsh, Dutch and Afrikaans, 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.)

[edit] 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 diaereses 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] Conversely, Black Sabbath, on a rare 7" single version of Paranoid (with the b-side Rat Salad), for no forthcoming reason, renamed the single "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 DEA˝D". To add to the variation, Danish and Norwegian letters Ø and 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 " A˝ " 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 and Mötley Crüe then followed. (American hardcore punk band Hüsker Dü debuted in January of 1978.) The umlaut in Motörhead was contributed by the graphic designer of the band's first album cover. In the words of Lemmy, Motörhead's front man: "I only put it in there to look mean."^[6] (Interestingly, the standard German pronunciation of Motör is similar to the standard English pronunciation of "motor", the umlaut over the second "o" requiring, in German, the fronting of the vowel. The French equivalent, moteur, is genuinely pronounced that way.) For the Crüe (according to Vince Neil in the band's Behind the Music edition), the inspiration came from a Löwenbräu bottle. At one Mötley Crüe performance in Germany, the entire audience started chanting "Meutley Crew-eh" - a pronunciation often used in Hungary as well.

Queensrÿche went further by putting the umlaut over the Y in their name. (In French, the ÿ is used very rarely, e.g. in the name of the Belgian-French composer Eugène Ysaÿe [iza'i], in the placename L'Haÿ-les-Roses [la'ilɛRoz],^[7] etc. In handwriting, the symbol ÿ can be indistinguishable to the Dutch digraph ij.) 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 image of the band, as it was feared that the original spelling, Queensreich, might be misconstrued as having neo-nazi connotations.^[8]

Hawkwind-influenced 1980s space rock band Underground Zerø used a variation on the concept, using 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 neither pronounced blof nor bløf. Outside of rock, electronic music artist William Orbit has recently used the "Ø" in his surname.

The spoof band Spın̈al Tap raised the stakes in 1984 by using an umlaut over the letter N, a consonant (it also makes use of a dotless i). This is a construction found only in the Jacaltec language of Guatemala and in some orthographies of Malagasy, a language of Madagascar, although it is uncertain whether the writers of This Is Spın̈al Tap knew this at the time.

[edit] The gratuitous umlaut in other popular literature

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 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 Swed̈ish Chef.^[9] As with Spin̈al Tap, this marks one of the rare instances of an umlaut being used over a consonant.

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".

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 with 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 Guðmundsdóttir, whose diacritical marks are genuine.

[edit] Other usages of diacritics in band or album naming

[edit] Umlaut

• Mötley Crüe
• Beowülf
• The Norwegian Hard Rock band Hell Dörmer
• Frank Zappa used an umlaut in the title of the album Läther (pronounced Leather)
• The German Death-Metal Band Spalthammer Öf Satan who actually pronounce the umlaut
• Motörhead
• Dälek, NJ hip-hop trio and also the group founder
• The novelty rock band Green Jellÿ kept the umlaut after changing their name from "Green Jellö". This was after the manufacturers of Jell-O threatened to sue over the use of their trademarked name; the band maintained that the "ÿ" was pronounced like a long "o", therefore the written name of the band changed, but the pronounced name did not.
• The Scottish NWOBHM band Holocaust spelled their name Hölöcäust on their first 7", "Heavy Metal Mania".
• Norwegian electronica duo Röyksopp spell their name with a Swedish-influenced ö rather than the proper Norwegian spelling "Røyksopp". The umlaut is gratuitous, and the band have stated that it is a direct reference to Motörhead.^[10]
• The Norwegian hardrock band Svölk.
• The Canadian thrash metal band Infernäl Mäjesty.
• The Australian thrash/black metal band Deströyer 666.
• The French black metal band Mütiilation. Technically this umlaut is superfluous - this "u" is already pronounced as the German "ü".
• The Czech death metal band Hypnös formerly known as Hypnos
• The Danish heavy metal band Handlebar Möustache.
• The Melbourne based avant-metal-jam-band Cünt Brigade.
• The hardcore/ska-punk band Leftöver Crack.
• Dürty Nelly's Pub, a rock bar in Charlottesville, Virginia.
• Peoria, Illinois band Mudvayne listed their members on one release as Chüd, Güüg, R-üD and Spüg.
• Minneapolis crust/hardcore punk band Stāte of Feär
• The Spanish band Mägo de Oz.
• The term "nü-metal", used to describe nu metal with added umlautness.
• Gay heavy metal band/cabaret act Pink Stëël have two consecutive gratuitous umlauts, the first such instance in a band name.
• The library/scifi metal band Blöödhag also have consecutive gratuitous umlauts.
• Seattle Spaz-core band BLOÜD WÜLF.
• The Devin Townsend punk parody project Punky Brüster.
• The Canadian thrash band Voïvod's second album from 1986 was titled Rrröööaaarrr. This album title actually has three consecutive gratuitous umlauts. The band's name has an umlaut over the I, but this may be acting as a diæresis. Their fourth album was entitled Dimension Hatröss, placing another umlaut in the title.
• The Finnish hardcore punk band Ümlaut (this use is almost a self-reference).
• Zee, a short-lived band formed by Pink Floyd keyboard player Richard Wright and Dave Harris, made excessive use of gratuitous umlauts on their 1984 album Identity which included song titles such as "Cönfüsiön" and "Höw Dö Yöü Dö It".
• The kibology inspired, Usenet-based quasi-band Interröbang Cartel, containing, in addition to its heavy metal umlaut, another exotic typographical reference, to the interrobang character.
• The Spanish EBM duo Culture Kultür.
• The album "Paradÿsso", recorded by Spanish rock band Sôber, who added a gratuitous circumflex after changing their name from Sober Stoned.
• Chuck Dukowski of Black Flag was previously in Würm
• Heavy Metal spoofers Insidiöus Törment revitalize the umlaut by placing it at strategically hard to pronounce vowels.
• Experimental group Grotus spell their name with an umlaut over each consonant, leaving the vowels unembellished.
• The dance music record label nocturnal groove has an umlaut on the n.
• Hungarian black n' roll band Korog has a gratuitous umlaut over the letter r in their name, which actually means "it rumbles" and is a verb that is used exclusively to describe the sound of a hungry person's stomach.
• Italian metal band Labyrinth used to call themselves Labÿrinth until 2003.
• Minneapolis punk pioneers of the 1980s, Hüsker Dü, whose name comes from a Danish board game (the original game does not have umlauts). The name of the board game comes from the Danish interrogative clause "Husker du?" (without Umlaut), which means "Do you remember?" ('you' = second person singular, not plural).
• English ceilidh band Stömp^[11] has an umlaut on the o. According to the band's website^[12] this is to avoid confusion with the Stomp dance troupe.^[13]
• The Spanish pop band Nosoträsh.
• Seattle "splatter rock" band The Accüsed.
• The spine of the DVD A Long Days Night reads Blue Oÿster Cult.
• The Florida spoof/cover band, "George Cunninghäm änd the Devästätors", best known for their songs "Bäd to the Boner".
• The Norwegian thrash metal band Infernö.
• During the 80's the intellectual SoCal-based art-rock band Daniel Amos changed its name twice, first to DA, then to Da, and when their album Kalhöun was released in 1991, the band changed their name once again, this time to dä.
• The Northern Virginia metal band Wärhammer.
• The guitar player Lüpüs Thünder, from the comedic American rapcore synth-pop band Bloodhound Gang.
• Midwestern U.S. rock band Nördik Träk.
• Long Island garage punk band Ünusable Signal added the umlaut after countless other bands shared the original name, sans-umlaut.
• South African metal band Rhütz.
• American rock/metal group Ïnvaders, however their umlaut represents the pronunciation of their name.
• US rock band Stärvätıønbøx
• The correctly umlauted name of the German folk band Bläck Fööss means bare feet in Kölsch, a German dialect.
• The character Lars Ümlaüt in the video game Guitar Hero 2
• In the book "To Air Is Human", there is a character named Björn Türoque, a play on "Born to rock."
• Gwar gutiarst Balsac has insisted for years there are umlauts over both the a's in the spelling of his name and often signs his autograph as such

[edit] Other characters

• The Danish musical project Leæther Strip, uses the letter æ insted of a to spell the word "leather".
• The German punk band Die Ärzte used three dots over the "A" in Ärzte on their 2003 album Geräusch, to distinguish from its normal spelling with "Ä" (double dot) umlaut. This can be represented in Unicode: Die A⃛rzte. The three dots may stand for the three band members. However, the "Ä" in the band name is not a heavy metal umlaut but the correct German spelling (meaning "The Doctors").
• A three-dot umlaut has also been seen in artwork for King Creosote, over the i, as Ki⃛ng Cresote.
• The American thrash band Lååz Rockit actually used the letter "å" gratuitously in their logo, but the umlaut ("Lääz Rockit") in some press releases.
• The death metal band DÅÅTH also use two Å's in their name.
• The French band Magma used a fictional language, the Kobaïan, for its lyrics. The umlaut appeared in several album titles, such as Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh and Köhntarkösz. However, this umlaut does affect pronunciation, and thus cannot be considered gratuitous. Kobaian also uses a three-dot diacritic over some letters in song titles, and an original letter that seems to be a cursive ligature of "ie", which never appears without an umlaut.
• The English indie rock band Maxïmo Park also uses a double dotted "i" in its name. It is pronounced "max-ee-moh".
• The accents and cedilla in the name of the French electronica band Rinôçérôse are also gratuitous, except the "é".
• William Ørbit.
• 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.
• The Irish electro band Klëft (also spelt with a backwards f and an inverted cross as the T)
• Sisqó (born Mark Althavan Andrews) an R&B singer and actor.

[edit] Non-gratuitous umlauts

• The umlaut in Die Ärzte is correct German orthography: It's the plural of "Arzt" (doctor) and not related to the heavy metal umlaut.
• The heavy metal band Trojan used umlauts in their name on the 1985 release Chasing the Storm. For Swedes the tour T-shirts from this time are particularly amusing, as "Tröjan" in Swedish translates as "the shirt".
• The Rhode Island "futurock" band Grüvis Malt have an umlaut in their name, but it may not be gratuitous, since it clarifies the pronunciation as "oo" rather than "uh".
• Another Rhode Island "Viking Synth Metal" band Vänhørwick use an umlaut pronounced with a strong "aan". Though the band has Swedish, it uses a Norweigian ø to be funny.
• The San Francisco band Children of Umlaut do not in fact have an umlaut in their name.
• The Icelandic artist Björk Guðmundsdóttir is using her birth name.
• The Ä in the Finnish heavily Manowar-influenced heavy metal band Teräsbetoni (reinforced concrete) is not gratuitous; while teräs means steel in Finnish, teras is not even a word.
• The Japanese rock band Lä-ppisch derives its name from the German colloquialism läppisch, meaning "foolish" or "wishy-washy".^[14]
• The Danish spoof band Insidiöus Törment feature 2 umlauts in their name, though whether they are gratuitous or not is up for debate. The first functions as the umlaut in Motörhead, arguably indicating the use of the schwa (ə) in pronunciation (in both names), whereas the second -— contrary to common practice —- influences the pronunciation of "torment" so that it becomes "tørment"—using the Danish, Norwegian or Faroese vowel of ø.
• The Haïti Twoubadou current in Haitian music represents a legitimate use of diacritics in a musical title, because it indicates separate pronunciation of two adjacent vowels. However, this makes it not an umlaut but a diaeresis. (In Haitian Creole, Haïti is pronounced ah-ee-tee or ah-ee-tsee, with the former also being the standard French pronunciation.)
• Another German band, Einstürzende Neubauten (collapsing new buildings), features an umlaut where, in German, there ought to be one.
• German band Metal/Oi band Störkraft
• Faroese progressive Viking band Týr use the correct Faroese spelling of the Viking god of Tyr.

[edit] See also

• Foreign branding (Häagen-Dazs, Fahrvergnügen)
• Devil horns heavy metal hand signal
• Faux Cyrillic (Faцx Cyяillic)
• Kurvi-Tasch
• Word play
• Sensational spelling
• Über

[edit] Notes

[edit] Sources

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

[edit] External links and references

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More spoken articles

   

• Hell Holes: Spin̈al Tap's main man explains the importance of the umlaut (Lisa Gidley, CMJ, 2000)
• My Life in Heavy Metal by Steve Almond (excerpt)
• The Döts (Dave Krinsky)
• Would you like umlauts with that? (PDF) by Bruce Campbell
• PvP Online: Djörk
• Heavy Metal Umlaut: The Movie Story of this page (by Jon Udell)
• The Heavy Metal Umlaut in the Liff Dictionary