History Main / FaceoftheBand

!This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16898640960.76977300 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.

[[quoteright:300:[[Music/{{Delain}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DelainAprilRain.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:The [[SplashOfColor Color]] [[SpotlightStealingSquad Stealing Squad]] in action.]]

->''"Ziggy played guitar\\
Jammin' good with Weird and Gilly\\
And the Spiders from Mars\\
He played it left hand\\
But made it too far\\
Became the special man, then we were Ziggy's band"''
-->-- '''Music/DavidBowie''', "[[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars Ziggy Stardust]]"

In most cases, whenever a high-profile band becomes well known, most casual fans can only identify one particular band member by name. Usually it's the lead singer. Sure, there are a few other people playing the drums, guitar and bass, but who cares about them? They're just background noise, so they don't get much of the publicity, if any at all. One possible explanation for this involves the rise of the music video. For the most part, when a band makes a music video, the camera tends to focus on the person singing, thereby giving a lead singer much more camera time than the rest of the band. In extreme cases, the lead singer ''will be the only one in the music video''.

This is especially prevalent in bands that are named for one or more of the founding members (Santana, Gladys Knight and the Pips), bands with rotating casts aside from one or two consistent members, or [[TheSmurfettePrinciple bands with one female member]] (even in the rare case where she doesn't sing lead, which is a sure-fire clincher of "face" status, she'll at least be the ''other'' Face Of The Band simply by virtue of being TheHeart). It's also rather fascinating just how often this tends to be a rare human-specific case of WhatMeasureIsANonCute.

Depending on the genre, the person linked to the band will inevitably go solo, and the rest of the band will often fade into obscurity afterwards. And in a few cases, this is enforced from the get-go, where the "face" actually owns the name.[[note]]For example, "Five for Fighting" sure ''sounds'' like the name of a band, but it's actually the stage name of singer-songwriter Jon Ondrasik. Anyone else who happens to be playing with him is just a hired musician.[[/note]]

The two-person version of this trope, and also its opposite (where one band member is much more forgettable than the others) is the LesserStar. Taken to its LogicalExtreme, becomes IAmNotShazam. See also IAmTheBand and SpotlightStealingTitle. When a group tries to carry on after losing its most prominent member(s), the result is TheBandMinusTheFace. Can occur even on a LongRunnerLineUp. Not to be confused with TheFace but the roles can overlap if the one member everyone knows is also the most social. Quite common if [[EgocentricTeamNaming the band is named after the guy]], and in almost all cases of ArtistAndTheBand names.

Also, no points are given out to tropers for knowing the names of all the band members who are NOT the Face of the Band, so don't list them. This trope refers to the general public, of course ''you'' can probably name all the members of your favorite band, but casual fans usually don't. This is not a game of "[[Administrivia/ConversationInTheMainPage Hahaha, I can name all the members of The Moody Blues and you can't, so I'm superior!]]" So [[Administrivia/JustifyingEdit don't add that stuff in, please]].


----
!!Examples:

[[index]]
* FaceOfTheBand/ElectronicMusic
* FaceOfTheBand/HipHop
* FaceOfTheBand/{{Metal}}
* FaceOfTheBand/{{Pop}}
* FaceOfTheBand/RhythmAndBlues
* FaceOfTheBand/RockMusic
[[/index]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Christian]]
* Mark Hall of Casting Crowns.
* Music/DCTalk is Toby "[=TobyMac=]" [=McKeehan=], [[Music/{{Newsboys}} Michael Tait]], and... uh... that guy who became an exvangelical (Kevin Max).
* At the height of their popularity (roughly 1998-2002), Music/{{Newsboys}} were Peter Furler, Phil Joel and three other guys. The [[https://www.newsboys.com/sites/g/files/aaj13186/f/styles/suzuki_breakpoints_image_mobile-lg_sq/public/release/202105/ab67616d0000b2739a46ea73432f4c9d5534b3ca.jpg?itok=EB9X7Txt cover art]] for ''Step Up to the Microphone'' made this abundantly clear.
* Mac Powell of Third Day.
* John Cooper of Music/{{Skillet}} would be a perfect example -- if not for the fact that there are ''two'' female members in the band (John's wife Korey and drummer Jen Ledger, who also [[VocalTagTeam provides co-lead vocals]]). This ultimately leaves the band's guitarist as its least known member.
* Jon Foreman of Music/{{Switchfoot}}.
* Music/{{Stryper}} is Michael Sweet and three other guys. Guitar geeks are more likely to name Oz Fox in addition to Sweet.
* [=MercyMe=] is Bart Millard and his backing band.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Classical]]
* The Three Tenors:
** A ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode pokes fun at the fact that two of the Three (Pavarotti and Domingo) are considerably better known than the third (Jose Carreras). Of course, at the end of the episode they find someone who knows of Carreras "and those other two guys".
** ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' also made fun of this, during a Greatest Hits game. Colin said to Ryan, "I love the Three Tenors; Pavarotti, Domingo... and the other guy. So I guess I only like two."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comedy / Parody]]
* A lot of people don't even know that Music/WeirdAlYankovic has a real, honest-to-God band that he's been recording and touring with for decades.
** Of which most people can only name the drummer (Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, but only because he's Yankovic's official band historian).
** Notable in that, with the exception of Ruben Valtierra (who got started doing keyboards for Al during concert), [[LongRunnerLineup the band has been the exact same since Al's first album]].
* Fans of The Nick Atoms can usually name all three members, but fans of The Nick Atoms tend to be pretty far and few in between...
* Music/MitchBenn and the Distractions. Dedicated fans can name Kirsty Newton, but might take a bit longer for either drummer (Tasha Bayliss and Ivan Shepherd).
* While the members of Music/TheLonelyIsland generally appear on their songs and videos more or less equally, the casual viewer / listener is more likely to recognize Andy Samberg due to his being a cast member on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' and his starring role in ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'', among other projects. Akiva Schaffer generally only does backstage work and Jorma Taccone hasn't really scored a major role.
* Music/TenaciousD is Creator/JackBlack and a guy who isn't one of the most popular comedy actors of all time.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Country]]
* Union Station consists of Alison Krauss and, um... maybe Dan Tyminski, known as Creator/GeorgeClooney's singing voice in ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou'' and for singing Music/{{Avicii}}'s "Hey Brother".
* Sugarland is Jennifer Nettles and that guy with the guitar. Apparently, they used to be a trio, too.
* The Pistol Annies are Miranda Lambert and a couple other girls. Their first CD even had an insert ad for Lambert's solo albums.
* How many members does the Zac Brown Band have now?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Folk]]
* For Russian folk-rock band Music/OtavaYo, band leader Alexei Belkin does most of the talking-to-the-audience in between songs and takes the lead in interviews. However, quite a few fans will assign the Face Of The Band role to [[TheSmurfettePrinciple violin player Yulia Usava]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* Russian indie band PALC is Taya Paltseva and...some other people.
[[/folder]]

!!Examples from other media:

[[folder:Advertising]]
* The Kelloggs "Special K" breakfast food is aimed at women who want to stay healthy, regular and slim. The adverts tend to use groups of happy, shapely, unconstipated-looking women. Swimming costumes, post-bath towels or skimpy summer clothes feature a lot, just to make the point that Special K keeps you slim. Most of the women in the adverts wear white or dull neutral grey. But ''the'' Special K Girl, the star of the show, the one who typifies the brand to platonic perfection, the leader of the gang, the one the others follow - she, and only she, wears the corporate red. She is also usually black-haired when the rest around her are blonde or mousy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''Comicbook/AstonishingXMen'', Cyclops recruited Kitty Pryde to act as this for his team, as his powers and Beast's appearance made it difficult for them to interact in public, while Logan was an unapologetic thug and Emma was an IceQueen, making Kitty the most personable and normal looking of the original line-up.
* Though all the characters are mainstream, except possibly Reggie, [[ComicBook/ArchieComics The Archie's]] is basically "Archie Andrews and..." in-series and out. Similarly Josie is the face of ''ComicBook/JosieAndThePussycats''.
** In the reboot, Jughead steals the spotlight from Reggie (who was the driving force behind the band, to the point of coercing the others into joining) by accidentally releasing a deepfaked video of them all with his face, which ended up going viral.
* ComicBook/BlackCanary's band is even called "Black Canary".
* ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfWonderWoman2016'': Pamela Smuthers treats the other members as props on stage and her group is even called Pamela and the Peas.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': An in-universe example, where Robaire is the lead and gets the most focus in the movie as well (as brief as the band's appearance in the movie is). While Mei's friends and [[spoiler:Tyler]] have their own different favorites, they all majorly gush over Robaire. He is also the protagonist Mei's favorite.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* UsefulNotes/TheAuteurTheory was a revolutionary idea in UsefulNotes/NewHollywood that purported that the director was the primary creative force in a film's production. While the arguments behind Auteur Theory remain contentious, its legacy is indisputable: below leading actors, directors are often given top billing on a film's marketing.
* Lampshaded in Cameron Crowe's ''Film/AlmostFamous''. The band Stillwater is given a prototype promotional [=T-shirt=] to look at - which shows the charismatic and handsome guitarist in a nice portrait - and [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute the rest of the band in shadow]]. Which gets even funnier in the next scene, when they start to argue over which one of them is going to emulate which "Face of the Band:" "I'm the light, you're the dark! You know, Keith and Mick! Page and Plant!"
* ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'' Somewhat parodied by Derek Smalls of Spinal Tap, who to say the least is rather meek and quiet in comparison to the other two (founding) members of the band.
* ''Film/StillCrazy'': Jimmy Nail's character Les. He fumes in the background while Bill Nighy's character (who [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replaced]] the original singer) is interviewed. "''Why'' do they always assume the singer is the voice of the band?" Les and Beano are later shown in a television interview given when drunk they identify the Keith and Brian, the two deceased members of the original line-up as being 'the band' which leads to Ray quitting and the band (temporarily) splitting up for a second time.
* This forms a great deal of the plot of ''Film/WaynesWorld 2''. Wayne's girlfriend is Cassandra, lead singer and bassist of the band Crucial Taunt. Her manager sees great potential in her... but not so much the rest of the band, nor for having a boyfriend keeping her from traveling to more lucrative venues.
* Satisfaction/The Girls of Summer... The fictional band consisted of "star" Creator/JustineBateman, a then-unknown Creator/JuliaRoberts ("the slut") and...um....
* Dewey Finn initially is this for the ''Film/SchoolOfRock'' but part of his CharacterDevelopment is not hogging the spotlight for himself. He also attempted to be this in No Vacancy but that's one of the many reasons why they kicked him out.
* Deconstructed in ''Music/TheRunaways'' (based on fact too). Cherie Curie is pushed as the Face of The Runaways and the other members end up resenting this. Cherie also suffers an emotional breakdown because of all the pressures of being the famous one (especially since she's only sixteen) and that's why she chooses to leave the band. As Music/JoanJett puts it...
--> "It's my band. She was just the singer"
* Also deconstructed in the Korean horror film ''Film/WhiteTheMelodyOfTheCurse''. The protagonists, all part of the same K-Pop group, begin competing against each other to be the main member when their popularity peaks. Cue three of the four girls becoming insanely jealous of each other (the fourth, who serves as the TeamMom, simply tries to control the younger three). It goes FromBadToWorse, in no small part because of the vengeful spirit tied to the titular song.
* Mr. White casts Guy Patterson as the face of the Wonders in ''Film/ThatThingYouDo'' simply by giving him a pair of CoolShades and instructing him to wear them all the time. Soon enough, eager fans are calling out for "Shades" at shows. Behind th scenes, both Mr. White and the band's first manager treat Guy as the one in charge, because Guy is levelheaded, responsible, and easygoing. This becomes another point of contention between White and Jimmy, the band's founder and lead singer, who is insistent on doing things the way he wants to.
* ''Film/TheHousesOctoberBuilt'': By the sequel, Brandy has become this for the Haunt documentary crew. She was the one most consistently on-camera in the first and handled most of the interviews, but after the end of the first film, she's gained unwanted fame as "Coffin Girl." The guys have their own notoriety, and are invited to get paid to tour and rate assorted haunted attractions, but the Haunt owners ''really'' want "Coffin Girl," to the point at least one tells the guys not to bother showing up if she's not with them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/ArlyHanks'': in ''Much Ado In Maggody'', in which country singer Matt Montana's band consists of four nearly identical guys with four-letter first names starting with "B". Even their manager only bothers to keep track of who's who because the drummer's the only one who can be trusted to drive the tour bus.
* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidDiperOverlode'': With Becky's encouragement, Bill comes to see himself as the face of Löded Diper.
* Figures heavily in "The Band's Tale" from the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse anthology ''Literature/TalesFromJabbasPalace'', tells the story of the Max Rebo Band, who were seen playing for Jabba in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. It turns out that the manipulative singer Sy Snootles took control of the group after it's original leader was killed in a shootout, but she put the cheerful, friendly and easily manipulated keyboardist Max Rebo at the front of the group with the intent of making herself TheManBehindTheMan. [[spoiler: This backfires immensely, as Jabba's agent approaches ''Rebo'', who ends up getting the band trapped in an exclusive contract at Jabba's palace in return for a lifetime supply of free food]].
* ''Literature/TrickyBusiness'' has the band's drummer, who while not extremely bright is a remarkable {{Pornomancer}}.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* [[Creator/AntAndDec The Beautiful Corrs]]. And their brother Jim.
* One episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' featured a murdered rock star who wrote all of his band's songs and would have kept the lion's share of the group's earnings if they'd broken up. This is a strong motive for his band-mates to kill him, but it turns out that the killer is [[spoiler:his ex-girlfriend, who was afraid she'd lose custody of their child to him and didn't want the kid caught up in his drug-fueled lifestyle.]]
* ''Series/FullHouse'':
** Jesse has this role in his band, "Jesse and the Rippers".
** After the members of the Rippers fire Jesse, [[Series/TheBradyBunch Barry Williams]] takes up this role with "Barry and the Rippers".
** Jesse tries once more by assembling a band called "Hot Daddy and the Monkey Puppets", with himself being the "Hot Daddy".
* In an episode of ''Series/QuantumLeap'' Sam leaps into the leader of a GlamRock band. He writes and sings all their songs and plays guitar; when the other guitarist asks him to play ''one'' song he wrote, Sam refuses.
* An episode of ''Series/JonathanCreek'' involves Jonathan trying to help out his favourite musician, who was once on a 1970s prog-rock band called "Edwin Drood". While he still achieved success after the band split up, the story also shows us his former band-mates, who are slogging away in various levels of self-deluding obscurity and bitterness.
* The full name of the house band for ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' is "Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem" which gives the impression that Dr. Teeth is the leader of the band. In ''Series/TheMuppetsMayhem'' he insists that the band is a "rock-ocracy" and that he's not in charge. The other members eventually admit they weren't happy with the name, but agreed not to argue about it to keep the peace. Dr. Teeth insists that they formally shorten it to "The Electric Mayhem" to make things fair.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Sometimes Creator/{{Rejet}} slips into this:
** On paper, L Nomura is the leader of Music/MarginalNumber4, but it's Atom Kitahara that's used as the face of the group out of universe. The [[Anime/MarginalNumber4 anime]] tackles why this is the case.
** ''DEAR♥VOCALIST'' has seven bands as the focus of their series, but the only people that ever get focus are (as you could guess from the title) the vocalists. In general all of them seem to do the legwork for their groups as well, but the fact still stands that the vocalists are, both in and out of universe, the only musicians worth looking at. The Season 6 ''Raving Beats!!'' [=CDs=] at least formally introduce the vocalists' band members, but they still follow the previous series' rules.
* As quoted atop this page, the song [[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars "Ziggy Stardust"]] by Music/DavidBowie is about how lead guitarist Ziggy becomes this for his band. It goes to his head, and the other members become so tired and envious of Ziggy's success and ego that they ultimately kill him.
* Wait a minute, there are other Music/{{Vocaloid}} singers beside {{Music/Hatsune|Miku}} [[BreakoutCharacter Miku]]?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pinballs]]
* Invoked in Creator/{{Bally}}'s ''[[Pinball/KissBally KISS]]'' pinball, which places Paul Stanley front and center on the backglass.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
* Wrestling/ChrisJericho, also face of the band Music/{{Fozzy}} when not wrestling, calls himself the "Face of ''[[Wrestling/WWESmackDown SmackDown!]]''/''[[Wrestling/WWERaw Raw]]''" depending on which roster he's on at the time.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* In-universe example: in ''Theatre/{{Dreamgirls}}'', when the Dreamettes break out from the shadow of Jimmy Early and become the Dreams, Deena is promoted as the most marketable face. This leads to original lead singer Effie trying to steal the spotlight back.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys Freddy]] [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2 Fazbear]] is this, in-universe and out, for ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys.'' It helps that he's actually ''in a band,'' and that his face is plastered all over the games and the restaurant they take place in.[[note]]Though [[EnsembleDarkhorse Foxy]] has more fans.[[/note]]
** In one of the endings of ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'' Monty Gator takes over as the face [[spoiler:after Freddy runs away with Gregory. Though if the minigolf game is any indication, Monty would have been prepared to resort to foul play to take Freddy's spot anyway.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'': One of the in-game bands is Chirpy Chips. Their lead vocalist is an ''adorable'' sea anemone girl named Harmony, who quickly became the most popular of their quartet amongst fans. Her popularity was such that she eventually became one of the shopkeepers in ''VideoGame/Splatoon3''.
* ''VideoGame/ProjectSekai'' has one character serve as this for each of the units in the game. Those being Ichika Hoshino for Leo/need, Minori Hanasato for More More JUMP!, Kohane Azusawa for Vivid BAD SQUAD, Tsukasa Tenma for Wonderlands x Showtime, and Kanade Yoisaki for Nightcord at 25:00. Alongside these, Music/HatsuneMiku is the face of both the Virtual Singers and the game as a whole.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* The third case of ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' revolves around a murder at a concert featuring the recurring prosecutor's band, the Gavinners. Despite the band having five members (and an early puzzle requires you to listen to all five musical parts to determine a discrepancy), you only ever see or talk to Klavier and Daryan.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/MenageA3'':
** When the comic’s main band, the Troublemakers, [[http://www.ma3comic.com/strips-ma3/A_little_rebellious finally acquire their name,]] drummer Yuki and bassist Sonya, who have their differences but share a fondness for lead guitarist Zii, insist that it really should be “Zii and the Troublemakers”. And certainly, the audience at their first gig seem to have a lot of regard for Zii personally.
** Later, Zii’s arch-rival [[http://www.ma3comic.com/strips-ma3/i-like-to-be-flexible Angel unilaterally declares that the Pretty Boyz with Electric Toyz are henceforth going to be known as Angel and Their Electric Toyz.]] Angel may have some ego issues.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* As far as one's concerned, Website/TheEscapist's only contributor is [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee Croshaw]]. Over time, this joke started to hold more and more truth, though; creators like Creator/JimSterling and Critical Miss have left the site, and as of 2017 Yahtzee is pretty much the ONLY contributor still creating videos for the site. For a good long while the Escapist content calendar had nothing on it except Yahtzee's two ongoing series and the weekly Escapist streams which are often staffed by Yahtzee.
* yo go re writes so many of the reviews on OAFE that people assume he writes the non-review content as well.
* Mr. Creepypasta ''is'' WebVideo/TheMidnightSociety. To the point where he actually used to have a trope page by himself. So, of course, he's also one of the best voice actors on Website/YouTube.[[note]]YMMV.[[/note]]
* WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} is Vinny and Joel to most people, the former because he's the founder (and his corruption videos, even though that's something he only occasionally does) and the latter after his destruction of a Windows XP virtual machine (as well as a since-disowned joke in the same stream) put him on the map. Originally, it was just Vinny that was the most well known, but even after Joel's popularity added another face to the band, the other streamers ''still'' tend to be less well known.
* Website/ChannelAwesome? WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic is usually the first that comes to mind for people who don't follow the site. Many other creators have left the site now.
* WebVideo/AnimeAmerica has several hosts, but Robyn Barry-Cotter appears the most out of them and is usually the first person to come to mind when the channel is mentioned.
* The [=YouTube=] channel [[https://m.youtube.com/@ASEPresents ASE Presents]] [[note]]ASE standing for Anti-Social Entertainment[[/note]] has this with "Mint Salad" who is generally the most prominent of the channel's creators despite there not being any official frontperson. And her boyfriend Riley was the actual creator of the channel.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/SabrinaTheAnimatedSeries'' when Sabrina, Chloe, Hilda and Zelda cast a spell to make them into a famous GirlGroup "The Flavour Babes", Sabrina becomes LeadSingerAndLeadGuitarist to boot. Naturally she's the one who has to learn AnAesop about letting her ego get the best of her. An in-universe "Where Are They Now?" report describes her as "the face of the Babes".
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'':
** The band is called "Jem and the Holograms" after all so it's obvious Jem would be this. She's the one who gets the media attention and is an actress. The LiveActionAdaptation and IDW comics both deconstruct this. In the movie Jem getting the spotlight causes her bandmates to leave. In the comics Rio thinks Jem comes off as a spoiled diva and complains why the band isn't just called "The Holograms".
** Zig-zagged in a meta fashion with The Misfits. While Pizzazz is the lead singer and is well known for being outrageous, Stormer is the fan favorite.
** In-series The Stingers fanbase consists predominantly of women who are hot for Riot. He is the lead singer and an [[LongHairedPrettyBoy attractive]] one at that.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw,'' [[OnlySaneMan Zack]] used to be the face of a BoyBand called the Lumberzacks. [[OldShame He's doesn't like to talk about it]]. [[TheBandMinusTheFace After he left]], another member named Max took his place, turning the band into the Lumbermaxes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* [[Creator/MontyPython The Pythons]] that aren't Creator/JohnCleese, occasionally. Creator/EricIdle even [[LampshadeHanging hung a lampshade]] on it in a 30- or 40-year anniversary special by naming them as "John...[[Music/TheBeatles Paul...George...and]]...{{Creator/Spike|Milligan}}".
* In a non-music example, Creator/JohnRomero was this for Creator/IdSoftware at the height of their ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''-based popularity. This was encouraged by the other company members, who preferred to avoid the spotlight anyway. Romero would subsequently end up eating quite a lot of humble pie after stardom went to his head and he started believing his own hype, which was the root cause of ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}'''s infamously TroubledProduction and dismal sales and critical reception.
** If you read the credits at the time, American [=McGee=] wasn't an easily forgotten name. Even before ''[[VideoGame/AmericanMcGeesAlice Alice]]''.
** After Romero left to do his own thing, programmer Creator/JohnCarmack, who creates all of id's engines, started to get his recognition.
* Creator/{{Maxis}}? Most people only think of Creator/WillWright, and not all his colleagues that did the artwork and music.
* Creator/SidMeier is the face of developer [[Creator/FiraxisGames Firaxis]] and the Civilization series of games (among others). Even if he isn't directly involved in a game's development, the box will still say, "Sid Meier's Civilization".
* Thanks to his [[ShamelessSelfPromoter constant efforts at self-promotion]], many people are under the impression that Creator/StanLee singlehandedly created all the [[Franchise/MarvelUniverse Marvel superheroes]]. This is even more the case after the latest wave of Marvel movies--after all, Creator/JackKirby is dead and Creator/SteveDitko is [[ReclusiveArtist not exactly up for making cameos in movies.]]
* Apparently a lot of people believed that the entire Apple Corporation consisted of Steve Jobs putting together laptops and iPods in his garage. When people began hearing that Jobs was in bad health, Apple's stock took a dive. While the company ''did'' start in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_Garage.jpg his garage]] it was Steve "Woz" Wozniak, the other co-founder of Apple, who did most of the development work; he remains relatively obscure outside of the computer industry because Jobs was the one who did most of the work on the sales and marketing front.
* Creator/{{Nintendo}}:
** Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto ''is'' Nintendo to most people, even though the company has several other talented directors/producers like [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Yoshio]] [[VideoGame/WarioWare Sakamoto]], [[Franchise/{{Kirby}} Masahiro]] [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Sakurai]], and [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Katsuya]] [[Franchise/{{Splatoon}} Eguchi]], to name a few. Even for the franchises that Miyamoto did create, he had close collaborators such as Takashi Tezuka (who was a major influence on ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' and ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' as a fellow director and designer) and protégés like Creator/YoshiakiKoizumi or Creator/EijiAonuma that later became the leads of said franchises who created defining entries in their own right. This was likely helped by much of Nintendo's marketing throughout the 1990s and 2000s framing him as ''the'' creative force at the studio, occasionally giving interviews for games he had very little to do with outside a general producer role (if even that).
** Creator/SatoruIwata, Nintendo's president and CEO from 2002 until his passing in 2015, was also in this territory. The ''WebVideo/NintendoDirect'' web presentations might have something to do with this, as international ones were hosted by him.
** The American fanbase [[MemeticBadass can hardly forget about Reggie Fils-Aimé]], who served as the President and COO of Nintendo of America from 2006 to 2019. He is also well known enough in PAL regions for a Mii based on him to appear in the European ''VideoGame/TomodachiLife'' Nintendo Direct alongside one based on Nintendo of Europe's president, even though Reggie has no control over the European branch.
* On a similar note: To many people, Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb is ''the'' face of the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} brand due to being Microsoft Studios' most public figure, although Phil Spencer has gotten recognition after being promoted to "Head of Xbox" and has become well-liked by the fanbase due to his focus on bringing in as many games as possible.
* Speaking of game companies, Creator/ValveSoftware owner Gabe Newell is the face of the studio. Valve's policy of not crediting individual employees on its works probably contributes to this (though the company maintains a fairly informative staff directory). However, several other Valve staff members have some public recognition, usually based on work they did before joining the company.
** Robin Walker is known for ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', and in fact is himself very much the face of [=TF2=]. Hardly anyone can name the other two creators of the original ''Team Fortress'', still less most of the others who have worked on ''VideoGame/TeamFortressClassic'' and ''[=TF2=]'' inside Valve. This remains the case even though he's now in Valve's ''VideoGame/{{Dota 2}}'' team rather than the ''Team Fortress 2'' one.
*** One minor exception is Makani, artist and writer on Valve's [=TF2=] comics, who is widely recognised by [=TF2=] fans. She again fits the pattern of developing your profile before joining Valve, as she is a PromotedFanboy: first her character design for [=TF2=]'s Administrator became AscendedFanon, then Valve took her on to produce the comics.
** Icefrog was famous among ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncients'' fans as the game's lead developer when Valve (at the instigation of Robin Walker) hired him to create its re-implementation/sequel ''VideoGame/Dota2'' for them. This despite the fact that "Icefrog" is the SecretIdentity of a ReclusiveArtist, and it's not publicly known who he actually is. However he's not the sole face of ''DOTA'', as previous lead developers have some fan recognition.
** Erik Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek were Internet-famous for early computer-gaming satire website Website/OldManMurray before becoming staff writers for Valve, while Jay Pinkerton was likewise known for having been a former editor for Website/{{Cracked}}.
** Michael Abrash was quite widely recognised for his earlier work as a graphics programming author and sometime Creator/JohnCarmack associate and Creator/IdSoftware employee when he was at Valve.
** Non-employee Creator/EllenMcLain achieved modest fame as the voice of ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'''s villain SelfDemonstrating/GLaDOS (and also voiced several other characters for Valve), a rare example of someone making their public name for work which began at Valve.
** Kim Swift's role as the creator of ''Portal'''s core game design (originally from her pre-Valve student project ''Narbacular Drop'') was notable enough that her departure from Valve to work on similar game ''VideoGame/QuantumConundrum'' was publicised to promote the latter game.
* Back to music: Frank Klepacki for the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' series. Jarrid Mendelson, Steve Jablonsky, James Hannigan and Tim Wynn? Who are those people? Particularly notable in that Frank hasn't actually been a composer for any of the games past ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRenegade Renegade]]'' back in 2002 - until the release of the ''Remastered Collection'' in 2020, all he'd really done for the series since was a third iteration of of "[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert Hell]] [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2 March]]" for ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3 Red Alert 3]]''.
* The very nature of the game industry (and the film industry, too, come to think of it) promotes "faces" rather than "bands." You have a few big-name developers/directors who have either charisma or vision, and they lead hundreds of more or less faceless workers in the creation of their product. How many people are going to remember anyone besides the central creative force behind the whole thing?
** Some other companies do at least try to give ''some'' recognition to those faceless workers - ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' games, for instance, have their randomly-generated RedShirt allies (at least the American ones) named after various workers at the company. That said, it does still fall into this on occasion (particularly among disgruntled PC fans, Bobby Kotick from [[Creator/{{Activision}} the series' publisher]] does tend to overshadow both the rest of his company ''and'' those actually making the games).
* For Hallam FM it's Big John, from Big John@Breakfast, and Metro-Radio it's their Frasier Crane equivalent, Alan Robson.
* Creator/HideoKojima is naturally the face of Kojima Productions.
** However, artist Yoji Shinkawa also enjoys considerable name recognition thanks to his character designs and other art for the VideoGame/MetalGear series.
* Ever since joining Creator/StudioShaft in 2004, Creator/AkiyukiShinbo has become this to the studio.
* In the podcast world, Podcast/ThrowinChat is known more for being the Darcy Rhodes show. You can forget the other guy.
* The Kardashians? Kim's the one that everyone knows. After that comes the other Kardashian sisters, then the Jenner sisters, then the parents, and finally the sons. As of 2015, Kendall and Kylie have surged ahead of Kourtney and Khloe in fame (thanks to the millennial generation), but are nowhere close to dethroning Kim.
** As of 2014, you can throw Kim's husband Music/KanyeWest into the mix.
** Caitlyn Jenner's transition scored her a show and public attention, making her the most famous Jenner at least briefly.
* Yoshitaka Nishimura, otherwise known as [[Music/{{BEMANI}} DJ YOSHITAKA]], become the face of the VideoGame/{{BEMANI}} franchise in TheNewTens, serving as the head producer for ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}} IIDX'', ''VideoGame/PopnMusic'', ''VideoGame/ReflecBeat'', ''VideoGame/SoundVoltex'', and ''[=BeatStream=]''; in other words, half of all active BEMANI series.[[note]]The series he isn't a producer of are ''VideoGame/{{GITADORA}}'', ''VideoGame/{{jubeat}}'', ''VideoGame/{{DanceDanceRevolution}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Dance|Masters}}Evolution'', and ''Miraidagakki Future [=TomTom=]''.[[/note]] On top of that, he's known for a number of "boss" songs, most notably "FLOWER", a song that has been crossed over into nearly every active BEMANI series. It is joked about amongst fans that he practically runs the BEMANI franchise now.
* Hidetaka Miyazaki has become the face of Creator/FromSoftware ever since the runaway success of ''VideoGame/DarkSouls''. It helps that he is now the president of the company, giving him a compelling RagsToRiches story that's rare to see in Japanese corporate culture.
* Despite only working on the sound design and OST of the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series, Music/AkiraYamaoka is far and away the most well known member of the original Team Silent.
* Very prevalent in sports, where squads will usually be reduced to "team of [TheAce]". Sometimes there will be TheLancer (Scottie Pippen with UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan) who might even break out as a star himself (Mark Messier with Usefulnotes/WayneGretzky), or an iconic duo\trio.
* For some reason, Grant Kirkhope is often seen as the face of ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'', despite only being the music composer for the original duology.
* Sean Murray of Creator/HelloGames intentionally set himself up as this, because the team is small and doesn't have any sort of PR department. This ended up being part of what made the release of ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'' so infamous, as he was clearly not comfortable with the idea (doing it mostly because [[HeroicSacrifice nobody else on the team would have been either]]), and, combined with his comments on what the team at the time thought they would be able to do being taken as concrete promises, his stage fright ended up being misconstrued after the fact as him being [[BlatantLies a compulsive liar]] who [[BadLiar was bad at hiding it]].
* Thanks to Creator/HunterSThompson's seminal book about the Hells Angels, Oakland charter president Creator/SonnyBarger became the outlaw motorcycle club's ''de facto'' spokesperson and national representative, speaking on behalf of the club especially in incidents involving them.
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