| 1 | %% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1553012995089860900 |
| 2 | %% Please start a new thread if you'd like to suggest an image. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | ->''"The band of the nineties! If you want to call it a band, because it's a one-man name."'' |
| 5 | -->-- '''Music/FatboySlim''', "Right Here, Right Now" |
| 6 | |
| 7 | Sometimes, casual fans of a rock band can only identify one member by name. And sometimes, those fans are absolutely right, because that one guy ''is'' the band. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | There are a few ways this can happen: |
| 10 | # Rock music is perceived as unfriendly to solo artists: since Music/TheBeatles the functional unit has been the rock band, with artists like Music/MeatLoaf and Music/ElvisCostello the exception rather than the rule. Singer-songwriters who want to rock will avert this by taking this trope to its LogicalExtreme and performing under a band-like moniker. You can identify this type of crypto-solo artist by these signs: |
| 11 | ** They write all the songs by themselves. All of them. |
| 12 | ** They appear in all the videos and publicity photos by themselves. |
| 13 | ** They either play all the instruments on studio albums themselves or has other musicians ([[RevolvingDoorBand who are frequently replaced]]) to hold the instruments for them. |
| 14 | ** Live shows require backing musicians. But they won't be listed as guest musicians in advertising for the show. |
| 15 | # In a LongRunner band, every member leaves, except for one. These splits can be friendly or not, they can happen all at once or over several years, but either way, the one founding member who doesn't leave becomes the only [[TheConstant constant]]. Often becomes a case of RevolvingDoorBand and could lead to ArtistAndTheBand. |
| 16 | # In a similar fashion to the above, a famous member of a band may leave and form a new group with several less well-known performers, thus becoming the most recognizable (and usually controlling) member of the new band almost by default. |
| 17 | # The band has a full and consistent lineup, but the face of the band exerts unilateral creative control over the group's music. Cases like these typically develop gradually, and such bands [[TakingYouWithMe tend to dissolve once the lead leaves]]. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Music/TheBeatles are responsible for creating the crypto-soloist version of this trope more or less single-handedly, despite never embodying it themselves. Before the Beatles, all the big-name acts in rock and roll were solo stars, sometimes with a featured backing band. (The situation was different in some other pop-music genres, notably {{Doowop}}.) As a result, when the Beatles first broke out there were attempts to fix on one Beatle as the leader or star of the band. Instead, they averted this now-ForgottenTrope so successfully (even individual songwriting credit was usually hidden behind the Lennon-[=McCartney=] byline) that their massive success turned the expectation on its head. Bands often break from the Beatles model by having a single recognisable frontman or a much less stable lineup (see RevolvingDoorBand) but the overall expectation that pop/rock acts be (or at least, be marketed as) Beatles-like groups without a billed leader has held firm. (The breakup of the Beatles led to type 3 of this trope, in the form of Music/{{Wings|Band}}.) |
| 20 | |
| 21 | A rare two-person variation exists, where there are ''two'' constant band members instead of just one, but the trope is still largely in effect. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | SuperTrope to ArtistAndTheBand. Compare with SpotlightStealingTitle, OnlyOneName. Also see OneManBand, for the guys who play all their instruments simultaneously. May result in a CopiouslyCreditedCreator. This is more or less the inversion of IAmNotShazam. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Sounds like]], but isn't, IAmTheNoun. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | ---- |
| 26 | !!Examples (alphabetical order, please): |
| 27 | |
| 28 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 29 | |
| 30 | [[folder:RealLife]] |
| 31 | * This can apply to music producers who use synthesizers and sample libraries of real instruments to compose music, depending on your point of view. |
| 32 | * ABC, since 1992, has been frontman and sole continual member Martin Fry accompanied by an ever-changing group of guest musicians. |
| 33 | * Abigail is Yasuyuki Suzuki. |
| 34 | * Abigail Williams is Ken Sorceron, to the point where he was the only full-time member on ''Walk Beyond the Dark'' (drums were handled by a session player), and their live lineups almost always have at least one fill-in. |
| 35 | * Music/{{Aborted}} is Sven de Caluwe and anyone who can stick around. Ken Bedene and JB van der Wal have been around for a while, however. |
| 36 | * Music/{{ACDC}} was brothers Angus and Malcolm Young from 1973 until 2014 when Malcolm had to leave due to health issues, leaving Angus the only original member. Downplayed somewhat by vocalist Brian Johnson having been a face since 1980 when previous vocalist Bon Scott died, and bassist Cliff Williams being a constant member since 1977. Unfortunately, this became a true example when Brian Johnson left due to hearing problems, and Cliff Williams left because the others were gone, making Angus ''the'' band for real. Brian and Cliff, alongside drummer Phil Rudd, all rejoined the band in 2018. |
| 37 | * Music/AdamAndTheAnts was Music/AdamAnt and his backing band. |
| 38 | * Alaska in Winter is Brandon Bethancourt. Fun fact: Zach Condon (solo) played trumpet and ukulele on the first record. |
| 39 | * Music/{{Alcatrazz}} is Graham Bonnett. |
| 40 | * Music/TheAlgorithm is Rémi Gallego, as the other "members" are live instrumentalists. |
| 41 | * Sort of confusingly, Music/AliceCooper was always the name of the band AND the lead singer. During the "band" period, they had a stable lineup who were "members of Alice Cooper", including Vince Furnier "playing" Alice. Afterwards, Alice went "solo" and has had a revolving door of musicians / collaborators who are merely "his backing band" or playing "with" Alice Cooper. The singer though, was ALWAYS supposed to be Alice Cooper. He later legally changed his name, and to use the name for his backing band, he has to pay royalty rights to all the previous band members. He has stated that they are all very happy. |
| 42 | * Amethystium is Øystein Ramfjord, although this may be more of a {{Stage Name|s}}. |
| 43 | * Music/AmonAmarth is pretty much just Johan Hegg, Johan's glorious windmilling beard, and four other dudes on musical accompaniment (and auxiliary headbanging). |
| 44 | * Music/AnalCunt was Seth Putnam and whoever he could bring in for a recording session, usually Tim Morse. |
| 45 | * Music/AnimalsAsLeaders is pretty much Tosin Abasi being as he's the guy who does most of the songwriting and is the only original member left. |
| 46 | * Music/{{Annihilator}} is Jeff Waters...has been, probably always will be. |
| 47 | * Music/{{Anthrax}} is Scott Ian, and to a lesser extent, Charlie Benante. |
| 48 | * And One is Steve Naghavi. |
| 49 | * Annihilated is Eric Matranga |
| 50 | * The Antlers was originally a solo project of Peter Silberman beginning in 2006, in which he recorded the first two albums himself playing all the instruments. By the time "Hospice" was being recorded during 2007, the Antlers had expanded into a three-piece. |
| 51 | * Anvil is lead guitarist Lips Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner. |
| 52 | * Apoptygma Berzerk is Stephan Groth. |
| 53 | * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarium_(band) Aquarium]] went through so many lineup changes in its 35 years history, that it's now accepted fact that it is whoever Boris Grebenschikov feels like playing with at the moment. |
| 54 | * Music/{{Aqualung}} is basically Matt Hales, and sometimes his brother Ben. |
| 55 | * Music/{{Arch Enemy|Band}}: Michael Amott is the main songwriter and only constant member. |
| 56 | * El Arrebato is Francisco Javier Labandón. |
| 57 | * Music/{{Arsis}} is James Malone, though Noah Martin has been with the band on and off for quite a while. |
| 58 | * The Art of Noise could be considered an aversion, as it's always had at least two founding members in its line-up, just not the ''same'' two. However, the one constant member is Anne Dudley. |
| 59 | * Music/{{Asia}} during the 1990s was Geoff Downes and John Payne and two other musicians, with Geoff being the only constant between the John Payne and John Wetton lineups. |
| 60 | * Asleep at the Wheel is Ray Benson. |
| 61 | * Assemblage 23 is Tom Shear. |
| 62 | * Music/{{Attila|Metalcore}} is Chris "Fronz/Fronzilla" Fronzak and his backing band. |
| 63 | * Synthpunk band Atom and His Package consists of guitarist/vocalist Adam "Atom" Goren. The Package is his synthesizer/sequencer combo or sometimes just a tape player that plays all the keyboard and drum machine tracks. |
| 64 | * Austra is the band fronted by Canadian singer Kaitlin Austra Stelmanis. Similar to Nena, she later took it as her single stage name. |
| 65 | * Music/{{Autopsy}} is almost entirely Chris Reifert. |
| 66 | * Autumns Eyes is a one-man metal band, Dan Mitchell. |
| 67 | * Music/{{Avantasia}} is Tobias Sammet plus a ton of guests. Even the ones who feature on every album or almost every album are still guests. Even the ones who are there during every live performance are still guests. |
| 68 | * Swedish metalcore band Aviana is officially singer Joel Holmqvist's band, as the other members left due to burnout. |
| 69 | * Music/{{Aviators}} is Tyler Shaw; the artist name comes from his Youtube username, "soundoftheaviators," and doesn't refer to a band. |
| 70 | * Music/AxelRudiPell subverts this. While the band is named after its main guitarist, it's been relatively stable since 1998 (only changing drummers twice since then) and isn't considered as his solo work. |
| 71 | * Music/{{Ayreon}} is Arjen Anthony Lucassen... sort of. It's more of a musical project he directs. |
| 72 | * Music/{{Ayria}} is Jennifer Parkin. |
| 73 | * Aztec Camera is centered around Scottish singer-songwriter Roddy Frame. Eventually he switched to just using his own name, but to all intents and purposes Aztec Camera had already been a solo project for several years before that. |
| 74 | * Bad Boys Blue is John [=McInerny=] (after he took lead vocal duties from Trevor Taylor) and some backing vocalists. |
| 75 | * Baltimora was Jimmy [=McShane=]. Sort of. Even though Maurizio Bassi and his group of session musicians were the actual performers behind the music, [=McShane=] was the public face of the group. |
| 76 | * El Barrio is José Luis Figuereo. |
| 77 | * Music/BatForLashes is Natasha Khan. |
| 78 | * Music/{{Bathory}} is Quorthon (Tomas Ace Forsberg) |
| 79 | * Barry Gibb has been the only constant member of Music/TheBeeGees since their inception. Robin temporarily left the band in 1969 to attempt a solo career, and the band has ceased to exist, Maurice having passed away in 2003 and Robin in 2012. |
| 80 | * Music/{{beabadoobee}} is the name of Bea Laus's music project. Despite having a full band, Bea is the only one featured in most promotional material. |
| 81 | * Music/{{Beirut}} is Zach Condon. Realpeople is Zach Condon with no one chipping in. |
| 82 | * Berlin was a band at one point, but when the band members drifted away, Terri Nunn held onto the name. |
| 83 | * Bestial Mouths is Lynette Cerezo, who riginally co-founded the band with her husband; following their divorce, she has been the only consistent member. |
| 84 | * Beyond The Black, a German symphonic metal band founded in 2014, became this trope in July 2016 when all bar vocalist Jennifer Haben quit. She has retained the group name and has now recruited new personnel to back her. |
| 85 | * Big Data is just Alan Wilkis. |
| 86 | * Bingo Players is a rather tragic example of this trope. It was originally a duo consisting of Maarten Hoogstraten and Paul Bäumer, however the latter died after a long battle with cancer. Now Bingo Players is the solo project of Hoogstraten. |
| 87 | * Music/BlackHoleTaskForce is Creator/JacksonBoughen and no one else. |
| 88 | * Music/BlackLabelSociety was originally Zakk Wylde's solo project for when not working with Music/OzzyOsbourne. He wrote everything and performed the guitars and bass (his live band's drummer has always recorded for him) for studio recordings. After four albums, he realized he hated playing bass and felt that the bass felt empty with a guitarist playing it, so he brought his live band's bassist(s) to the studio for the next album. He still writes and records everything else himself. |
| 89 | * Music/BlackSabbath essentially was Tony Iommi; even though Music/OzzyOsbourne is its most famous member, Iommi came to essentially own the name just by being the only constant member. When Iommi reunited with Music/RonnieJamesDio and the ''Heaven and Hell''-era Sabbath lineup, they were billed as "Heaven & Hell" to distance themselves from Ozzy-era material. |
| 90 | * Dozens of players and singers have drifted through the line-up since 1983, but The Black Sorrows are essentially singer/songwriter/sax player/guitarist/producer Joe Camilleri and whomever else he wants to work with that week. The same is also pretty much true for Camilleri's other ongoing bands, Bakelite Radio and The Revelators, though they have had fewer members. |
| 91 | * Blaze was the band that BlazeBayley formed after leaving Music/IronMaiden. After he hired a producer the rest of the band hated, they quit. Bayley has since changed the band's name to BlazeBayley due to being effectively a brand new band. |
| 92 | * Music/Blink182: although bassist and [[VocalTagTeam co-lead singer]] Mark Hoppus is the only constant band member, founding guitarist and co-lead singer Tom [=DeLonge=] rejoined the band in 2022 after seven years away. |
| 93 | * Music/BloodOnTheDanceFloor has more or less always been Dahvie Vanity and anyone crazy enough to put up with him. As of 2019 it really ''is'' just him. |
| 94 | * Music/BloodRedThrone is basically guitarist Daniel "Død" Olaisen's band. He's the only member to appear on all their studio albums and give interviews. He also writes most of their music. |
| 95 | * Blood Vomit is Keith Barnard. |
| 96 | * Bloodsoaked is Peter Hasselbrack, former owner of Bloodsoaked Records, the label that Blood Vomit's sole album was released on. |
| 97 | * blowupnihilist is Andre Sanabria. |
| 98 | * Blue Amazon was originally a collaboration between Lee Softley and James Reid; after they split up, Softley continued producing solo under the name. |
| 99 | * The Blue Ridge Rangers were John Fogerty's first solo project post-[[Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival CCR]]. In fact, it was a covers-only studio project where Fogerty played ''all'' the instruments, and performed all the vocals. Certainly much less stressful than dealing with [[WeUsedToBeFriends frenemies Doug Clifford and Stu Cook]] in the final days of CCR. Fogerty later released a similar CoverAlbum under his own name but titled it ''The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again'', with the seeming grammatical error actually lampshading the fact that "The Blue Ridge Rangers" is just one person. |
| 100 | * Music/BlueStahli is Bret Autrey because he plays all instruments and does the programming. |
| 101 | * Richard Greene and Matthew Stull are the only two original members of Music/TheBobs the stay in the group. |
| 102 | * Music/BobMarley and the Wailers. The band's founding members were Robert Nesta Marley, Neville Livingston (Bunny Wailer), and Hubert Winston Macintosh (Peter Tosh). They were alternately called the Teenagers, the Wailing Rudeboys, the Wailing Wailers, and then the Wailers. Due to personal differences, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh quit the band in 1974, leading Marley to scrape together a new version of the Wailers which went on to great commercial success. Today, even when they hear songs performed by the original Wailers lineup, most people say "Hey, it's Bob Marley!" |
| 103 | * Music/BonIver was originally just Justin Vernon, but has developed into a full band since. |
| 104 | * Music/BonJovi is a subversion. People often think it's Jon Bon Jovi's solo act but Tico Torres and David Bryan have been there almost from the beginning and are fairly important members (Richie Sambora was also a long-tenured important member, but later left the band). |
| 105 | * Bosson, a one-man OneHitWonder BoyBand, is Staffan Olson. |
| 106 | * Music/{{Boston}} is Tom Scholz, the main composer who plays most instruments on studio (but on stage is the lead guitarist). |
| 107 | * Boyracer is an ever-evolving line-up revolving around singer/songwriter Stewart Anderson (though guitarist Simon Guild has also been around for ''most'' of the group's 30+ year existence). |
| 108 | * Music/BreakingBenjamin is named after the lead vocalist Benjamin Burnley, who is the sole constant member. |
| 109 | * Brian Jonestown Massacre: Anton Newcombe. |
| 110 | * Music/BrightEyes is a subversion as Conor Oberst always points out interviews that Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott are also permanent members, but they're frequently ''accused'' of falling into this. In fact, Oberst has done four albums billed as a solo artist - and a further two credited alongside his side-project The Mystic Valley Band - specifically because those two members weren't involved. |
| 111 | * Music/BrokenHope is Jeremy Wagner, though Brian Griffin also played a big role back in their initial run. |
| 112 | * Bronski Beat was a trio, with singer/songwriter Jimmy Sommerville at its core; drummer Steve Bronski was a group member, but hardly the group's frontman. Somerville cut out after one album, and a RevolvingDoorBand situation ensued. Bronski was the band's only constant member until his death in 2021. |
| 113 | * From the beginning of his career, Music/BruceSpringsteen played with this trope in regards to the E Street Band: He wanted the creative freedom and vision of a solo artist while also having the live dynamic and chemistry of a band rather than interchangeable sidemen. Thus, many of the E Street Band members are important to his sound and have developed reputations in their own right. In live settings, Springsteen and his band are billed as "Bruce Springsteen And the E Street Band". While Springsteen has done solo work without the band, he has acknowledged how important they are. [[note]]When Springsteen was to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, guitarist Steve Van Zandt pushed for the induction of "Bruce Springsteen And the E Street Band". Ultimately, it took another 15 years before the E Street Band was inducted.[[/note]] |
| 114 | * Early HeavyMetal band Budgie's only constant member was bassist, front man and founder Burke Shelley. |
| 115 | * Music/{{Buckcherry}} is Josh Todd, who is the only original member left. |
| 116 | * Music/BuiltToSpill is Doug Martsch. |
| 117 | * Music/{{Burzum}} is Varg Vikernes. This also goes for the hundreds (if not thousands) of other BlackMetal solo projects out there. |
| 118 | ** Other examples include Music/{{Bathory}} (on several albums including much of the best-known "Viking metal" output), Music/{{Panopticon}}, Gnaw Their Tongues, Hellveto, Nae'blis, early Windir, [=ColdWorld=], Petrychor, Botanist, The Ruins of Beverast, Mirrorthone, Graveland, Ildjarn, Paysage d'Hiver, Music/{{Leviathan}}[=/=]Lurker of Chalice, Xasthur, and so on. (Note that some of these bands, like Botanist and the Ruins of Beverast, have extra members for live appearances, but all the instruments and vocals on studio albums are performed by one person). One-man bands may be particularly common in BlackMetal due to the often misanthropic and solitary nature of the genre. The list could go even further if you included all the examples of bands where the main creative force works with a bunch of studio musicians (Anti, Vintersorg, Music/{{Ihsahn}}, and Abbath [of Music/{{Immortal}} fame] are four examples that are dead giveaways, since the band name and the pseudonym of the main member are identical). |
| 119 | * Music/TheCamPanulas is Conan Fiori-[=McPhee=]. |
| 120 | * Music/{{Cameo}} is singer/writer Larry Blackmon and whomever else he's working with at the time. |
| 121 | * Music/CannibalCorpse is basically Alex Webster's band, though Paul Mazurkiewicz could be seen as his second-in-command, as both are the only constant band members. |
| 122 | * Captain Jack was Francisco Gutierrez and various female vocalists. |
| 123 | * Captain Hollywood Project is Tony Dawson-Harrison. While his stage name is simply Captain Hollywood, Tony added the word "project" to the name because it made him feel more free to work with different songwriters and vocalists. Eventually singer/dancer Shirin von Gehlen became officially recognized as the only other full time member, due to her contributions to live performances. |
| 124 | * Casiotone For The Painfully Alone's first two albums were, with some exceptions, just Owen Ashworth and tiny Casio keyboards. |
| 125 | * Castanets is Raymond Raposa. |
| 126 | * Music/CatPower is Chan Marshall. |
| 127 | * Music/{{Celldweller}} is Klayton due to being the guy who plays and writes all the music. |
| 128 | ** Circle of Dust is also him, as well as Scandroid[[note]]originally a duo, but Varien, another member, left due to unspecified reasons[[/note]]. Frequent collaborations between Klayton's projects are somewhat a running joke among the fans. |
| 129 | * Music/{{CERUMENTRIC}} is Erick A. Fabian. |
| 130 | * Chameleons were not originally an example- they had a consistent lineup from 1981-1990, then had a reunion of most of the original members in 2000 that lasted until 2003. However, once the full band broke up again, vocalist/bassist Mark Burgess started touring with an all new band playing Chameleons songs, though for copyright reasons they became known as [=ChameleonsVox=]. |
| 131 | * The Chain Gang of 1974 is Kamtin Mohager. |
| 132 | * Music/{{Chic}} is down to one original member: guitarist Nile Rodgers. |
| 133 | * Since all of Chimaira except for Mark Hunter quit, it's safe to say that he was Chimaira up until he decided to call it a wrap after the latest mass departure. |
| 134 | * Christian and the Hedgehog Boys is really a solo project for Christian Weston Chandler. |
| 135 | * Christine and the Queens is Heloise Letissier. |
| 136 | * Chrome is Helios Creed, or has been since 1997. Up until his death in 1995, founding member Damon Edge was the only member to appear on every Chrome album; this was largely because Damon moved from America to France in the mid-eighties and started an all-new lineup of the group. Before that, they were largely a duo, with a few studio releases being written and performed entirely by Edge and Creed. |
| 137 | * Music/TheChurch has always been the baby of lead singer/bassist Steve Kilbey, the only member to remain from the band's inception, and new hires were always his call. However during their heyday as a four-piece in the 80's and 90's with their classic lineup the other members would typically collaborate on some cuts and often at least would have a chance to sing their own creations. |
| 138 | * Church of Misery is Tatsu Mikami. He even lampshaded it when he announced that everyone except for him was leaving by saying that he had already written another whole album and just needed to find a new lineup to record it. |
| 139 | * With a clever pun, Music/CityAndColour is Dallas Green of Alexisonfire fame. |
| 140 | * Clan of Xymox is Ronny Moorings. |
| 141 | * Cockney Rebel is Steve Harley and whoever he wants to play with (to the point that later variants credit the group as Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel). |
| 142 | * Coconut Records is Jason Schwartzman. |
| 143 | * Music/CocteauTwins was basically Robin Guthrie's band, however Elizabeth Fraser was the frontwoman of the group and sang lead vocals for nearly all of their songs, so it's safe to say she was Cocteau Twins up until her and Guthrie's relationship started to falter and the band was forced to disband. |
| 144 | * Music/CollectiveSoul has Ed Roland, who writes all the songs, does all the arranging, decides on all musical directions, plays piano, guitar and percussion, and is the lead singer. He is also the only founding member left. Only two men from the band's early days are still there; Dean Roland, Ed's brother, who [[WhatExactlyIsHisJob plays guitar in a band that already has two other guitarists]] and Will Turpin, who plays bass. |
| 145 | * Color Theory is Brian Hazard. |
| 146 | * Cosmosis was originally a duo, but became a solo act of Bill Halsey after Jeremy van Kempen left. |
| 147 | * Music/CountingCrows is Adam Duritz. |
| 148 | * While Coven was a proper band in its own right, its best-known song, ''One Tin Soldier'', features only one member of the group (vocalist Jinx Dawson) backed by a Warner Brothers house orchestra, and was credited to the band at her insistence. A strange choice, as [[BlackSheepHit the rest of their music]] was hard rock with overtly Satanic themes. |
| 149 | * Music/CradleOfFilth is a Type 2, as [[strike: singer]] vocalist Dani Filth is the only remaining original member, although guitarist Paul Allender has been with the band off and on almost from the beginning. |
| 150 | * Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival: John Fogerty, to an extent. |
| 151 | ** A horrible record deal, a lawsuit against John Fogerty by said record company for stealing from himself, and a lot of other hard feelings have kept John Fogerty and the other two surviving members of CCR from ever reuniting. John Fogerty even distanced himself from the CCR material for many years because of it. When the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and were asked to perform, John refused to perform alongside his former bandmates. |
| 152 | * Crime And The City Solution was in effect a succession of different groups with only singer-songwriter Simon Bonney in common. |
| 153 | * Music/{{Cryoshell}} is Lore, Mikkel "Kal" Maltha and whomever shows up for recording that day. |
| 154 | * Music/{{Crystal Castles|Band}} was a duo consisting of vocalist Alice Glass and producer Ethan Kath. Then they had a falling out, and Glass left. Sounds like a breakup right? Nope. Kath recruited an unknown girl named Edith Frances as the new vocalist and formed it as the "new" Crystal Castles, and remained the sole driving force...that is, until the band stopped producing music altogether in 2018 by [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor abuse allegations]] against Kath. |
| 155 | * Music/CultureClub is Music/BoyGeorge and two other guys. |
| 156 | * Music/{{The Cure|Band}} is Robert Smith, who's been the only founding member left since 1989. Somewhat tempered by the fact that bassist Simon Gallup has appeared on all but two of their albums (Smith has said that Gallup is just as important to the band as he is). |
| 157 | * Music/Current93 is David Tibet and whomever he feels like working with at the moment, although Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound has appeared on every album so far. |
| 158 | * Cursor Miner is Robert Tubb. |
| 159 | * Music/CuttingCrew is Nick Van Eede. |
| 160 | * Music/TheCruxshadows is Rogue (Virgil Roger du Pont) and his backing band. |
| 161 | * Music/{{Darude}} is Ville Virtanen, occasionally collaborating with Jaako "JS 16" Salovaara. |
| 162 | * Dash Rip Rock has been singer/guitarist Bill Davis' band since the 80s. |
| 163 | * Music/DashboardConfessional started out as Chris Carrabba's solo project, and was nothing more than him singing and playing acoustic guitar. He later added some other musicians and turned it into a full band. |
| 164 | * Another aversion is Daughtry. Most people don't even realize it's not ''supposed'' to be a solo act, though we're pretty sure Chris Daughtry doesn't mind people thinking that. |
| 165 | * Music/DavidBowie was 'The Spiders from Mars' during his [[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars Ziggy Stardust]] period, and even wrote a song about it. |
| 166 | * Days of the New is Travis Meeks. |
| 167 | ** Tantric started out as sort of a TheBandMinusTheFace version of Days Of The New: When the lineup of DOTN that recorded their first album dissolved, the rest of the band formed Tantric with new frontman Hugo Ferreira... Then, ironically enough, the original lineup of Tantric only lasted for their first two albums, leaving Hugo as the only original member. |
| 168 | * Dayshell is essentially a solo project of ex-Of Mice & Men singer Shayley Bourget. |
| 169 | * Music/{{Death}} was Chuck Schuldiner--until he died. |
| 170 | * Subverted by Music/DeepPurple. Drummer Ian Paice is the only member to have stayed with the band from 1969 to the present day, though most people would cite either Ian Gillan (the second of four vocalists, now reunited with the band), the VocalTagTeam of [[Music/{{Whitesnake}} David Coverdale]] and Glenn Hughes (both no longer members), or Ritchie Blackmore (no longer a member) as the face of the band. |
| 171 | ** Also subverted in 1980, when original vocalist Rod Evans was manipulated into joining an ensemble of unknowns billing themselves as "Deep Purple", although Evans was the only member who had ever been in DP, and his involvement with the band was very short-lived. The corporation that owned the DP name sued and won, effectively removing Evans' royalty rights on anything he ever recorded with the band. |
| 172 | * {{Music/Delain}} consisted of composer/keyboardist Martijn Westerholt, lyricist/vocalist Charlotte Wessels, and anybody else who was willing to stick around. |
| 173 | ** With Charlotte leaving alongside all the other then-current musicians, Martijn is effectively the only consistently remaining member. Even though he called back several past members to fill in the new line up, bets are open on how long they'll stick around this time. |
| 174 | * Del Amitri was Justin Currie and Iain Harvie and whoever was scratching Justin's current musical itch. Amusingly subverted because in the eyes of their fandom Del Amitri is solely Justin Currie and he continues to perform Del's songs with his solo band as "Justin Currie of Del Amitri." |
| 175 | * Desecravity is Yuichi Kudo. |
| 176 | * Music/DestinysChild is Music/{{Beyonce}}. Series/MadTV even made fun of this fact. |
| 177 | -->"Hi. I'm Destiny's, I mean, we're Destiny's Child." |
| 178 | * Destroyer is Dan Bejar. |
| 179 | * Music/{{Destruction}} spent years as a rare two member version with Schmier and Mike. Three of the four releases with Mike but not Schmier were rendered CanonDiscontinuity and the two were the only constant members and primary songwriters from 1999 up until mid-2021 (and before then, from 1984 to 1989). Mike left in mid-2021 and left Schmeir as the sole founding member, leaving an odd instance of a case of this trope where the bandleader hasn't actually been in the band the whole time (Mike was, but Schmeir spent a whole decade not in the band). |
| 180 | * ''Brendon Small'' and a drum machine made all the music used in ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}''. (Though the fictional band in the series, Dethklok, has a full lineup.) He used an actual drummer, Gene Hoglan, for ''The Dethalbum,'' and adds a second guitarist and a bassist for live shows. |
| 181 | * Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft were actually only the singer and shouter Gabi Delgado-Lopez and the drummer (and studio jack-of-all-trades) Robert Görl most of the time. Oh, and for a while the former's girlfriend who worked the tape deck for the backing tracks on stage. They had started as a five-piece experimental rock band but were reduced to two during their 1978 UK tour. |
| 182 | * Music/{{Devo}} is Jerry Casale and Music/MarkMothersbaugh, the band's two main songwriters, vocalists and only constant members. |
| 183 | * Music/DexysMidnightRunners was essentially Kevin Rowland and whoever. |
| 184 | * The Digital Blonde(s) is Ricky Smith. |
| 185 | * Music/TheDillingerEscapePlan is Ben Weinman, the sole remaining founding member. Well, really they kept gradually losing and gaining members until this was the case - over their first decade of existence 8 members have left for various reasons (nine if you count Music/MikePatton, though he was never meant to be a permanent lead vocalist to begin with). That being said, current lead vocalist Greg Puciato and bassist Liam Wilson have both been with the band for over ten years now. |
| 186 | * Dim Mak is Shaune Kelley. |
| 187 | * Music/DinosaurJr was J Mascis for much of the '90s. |
| 188 | * Dio was Music/RonnieJamesDio (naturally). |
| 189 | ** Somewhat arguable, as Ronnie stated in multiple interviews that he personally always saw Dio as a band rather than a solo project. The name Dio was simply chosen out of marketing concerns - Dio was already well known due to Rainbow and Sabbath so people would instantly recognize the name. That said he obviously always had main creative control and wrote most of the music and lyrics himself, but he still invited band members to participate in the creative process. |
| 190 | * Music/DireStraits, when they were running, were essentially Mark Knopfler (writer, singer and guitarist of all songs -- and after 1980, also producer) and whichever musicians he deemed to be allowed to stay in the band. He even refused to let his own brother write songs for the group. He's admitted to going back into the studio after the rest of the band had gone home and re-doing all of his brothers guitar lines without telling anyone. Bassist John Illsley did stick with the group for the duration. |
| 191 | * Dirty Projectors used to be Dave Longstreth and whoever could stand his insanity (12 hour practices, combining multiple musical styles into the same song). Longstreth finally found a band that could keep up with him during the ''Bitte Orca'' era, and the lineup stayed stable up until 2017, with that year's SelfTitledAlbum coming close to being a solo Longstreth record. The project became a band again the next year with ''Lamp Lit Prose,'' with previous member Mike Daniel Johnson returning alongside several new bandmates. |
| 192 | * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disasteradio Disasteradio]] is one man and an array of synthesisers. |
| 193 | * Diva Destruction is Debra Fogarty, although she collaborated with Benn Ra and Severina Sol on her first album. |
| 194 | * The Divine Comedy: Founded by Neil Hannon, who has sometimes, but not always, been the sole member. |
| 195 | * Music/DoctorSteel writes all his songs, and plays all the instruments in studio. He'd play ''live'' gigs solo, too - except for the fact that his robot band keeps malfunctioning and he has to fall back on a back-up band of live musicians. |
| 196 | * Don Caballero is Damon Che since all the other original members left. |
| 197 | * Subverted with Luke Doucet. Doucet insists that his backup band became an essential part of his songwriting process and deserves to be credited for their work, which is as may be, but no one ever talks about how The White Falcon is putting out a new album. |
| 198 | * D:Ream: Originally a duo of Peter Cunnah and Al Mackenzie, but Mackenzie left after their first couple of hits and it became Cunnah's solo project. Ironically, ask someone to name a member of D:Ream now and the chances are they'll say Brian Cox, who played keyboards in the live band but only appeared on one recorded track ("Star"), making Cunnah not even the most famous member of ''his own solo project''. |
| 199 | * Music/DreamTheater is John Myung and John Petrucci, bassist and lead guitarist respectively, and the band's only constant members. |
| 200 | ** That said, the rest of the lineup has been largely stable for decades. James LaBrie has been the vocalist since 1991. Keyboardist Jordan Rudess joined in 1999. Even the newest member, drummer Mike Mangini, has been around since 2010. |
| 201 | * Music/{{DROELOE}} is essentially electronic producer Vincent Rooijers' project. The group originally started off as a trio, being a collaborative multimedia project between Vincent, graphic artist Hein Hamers and filmmaker Joris Weerts. Joris left not long after the project started up, leaving Vincent and Hein as its primary members from 2015 until 2020; Hein stopped touring in 2019 to focus on the band's visual identity and left entirely the next year. |
| 202 | * The Music/DropkickMurphys are technically LeadBassist Ken Casey. |
| 203 | * Inverted with Music/DrowningPool. They've had the same three instrumentalists (C.J. Pierce, Steve Benton, and Mike Luce) since the beginning, but have had [[RevolvingDoorBand revolving lineup]] of four different vocalists since their original lead singer Dave Williams died of heart failure. |
| 204 | * Nick Rhodes is the only member of Music/DuranDuran to maintain constant membership in the group since its formation in 1978. Fourth singer Simon [=LeBon=], generally considered the face of the band, has appeared on every official album, however. |
| 205 | * Post-punk mostly-instrumental band The Durutti Column is guitarist Vini Reilly, sometimes completely solo and sometimes with other musicians. |
| 206 | * Music/DyingFetus is John Gallagher's band, as he's the only remaining founding member and has been for some time. |
| 207 | * Music/{{Eels}}: Only E has performed on every album. |
| 208 | * Music/ElectricLightOrchestra: Initially a group, co-led by Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood. Wood dropped out, and Lynne became the group's sole singer, songwriter, producer and muti-instrumentalist. The group slowly reduced size from a septet to a trio (with Lynne picking up all the departed instrumental slack) by the mid 1980s. After ELO broke up in 1986, a number of the group's other members ultimately formed the semi-continuation ELO Part II partially to publicly minimize this the I Am The Band view. Lynne, meanwhile, reformed ELO in 2001, with himself the only official member, usually writing, producing, singing and playing every note. |
| 209 | * Electric Six: Dick Valentine is the only constant member. |
| 210 | * Music/ElectricWizard: Jus Oborn is the only remaining original member. |
| 211 | * Music/{{Emmure}} is Frankie Palmeri, who remains the only original member due to conflicts with everyone else. |
| 212 | * Brazilian band Engenheiros do Hawaii: Humberto Gessinger, at least since Carlos Maltz and Augusto Licks left. |
| 213 | * Music/{{Erra}} is mostly guitarist/vocalist Jesse Cash. He writes all of the guitar and bass parts and most of the lyrics. This was most apparent on Erra's third LP ''Drift'' where he tracked ALL of the guitar and bass parts and wrote almost all of the lyrics. |
| 214 | * The Enid: Robert John Godfrey. |
| 215 | * Music/{{Enigma}} is Michael Cretu (or, on the first album, "Curly MC"). |
| 216 | * Music/{{Evanescence}}: Amy Lee is the only remaining member of the original lineup. |
| 217 | * E-Type is Martin Eriksson, sometimes with either Nana Hedin or another female vocalist. |
| 218 | * Evening Star is Marcus Abbott. |
| 219 | * Music/{{Everclear}} is Art Alexakis, as the other founders left in 2003 and were replaced. |
| 220 | * Music/{{Exhumed}} is essentially Matt Harvey and whoever decides to stick around, as the band's incredibly heavy touring schedule has led to a truly staggering amount of former members. |
| 221 | * Exodus: Guitarist Gary Holt is the only band member that appeared in every Exodus album. |
| 222 | * Music/TheFaceless is, at this point, Michael Keene. While always the band's creative centre, their third album had his clean singing become a much more prominent feature, and this, coupled with his being the only remaining founding member of the band and no-one being able to remember the new growler's name, has made him one of the few frontman guitarists in a band with a dedicated singer position. |
| 223 | * Faderhead is Sami Mark Yahya. |
| 224 | * Faith Assembly = Mark Buss. |
| 225 | * Music/MikePatton may be the most well known member of Music/FaithNoMore, but it's bassist Billy Gould's band. |
| 226 | * Music/{{The Fall|Band}} was Mark E. Smith and a [[RevolvingDoorBand revolving door]] of other members, though some line-ups have stayed longer than others and band members are frequently given co-writing credit for songs. |
| 227 | -->'''Mark E. Smith''': If it's me and your granny on bongos, it's the Fall. |
| 228 | ** Still, toward the end of his life he defended his band members, saying how calling them hired hands or mercenaries is outrageous. |
| 229 | * Music/FearFactory is mainly Burton C. Bell and Dino Cazares. However, Burton C. Bell remains the only consistent member in the band, as there was a time Dino was not in the band. |
| 230 | ** Dino Cazares also said the 2 albums the band made without him (''Archetype'' and ''Transgression'') didn't count as Fear Factory albums. |
| 231 | * Music/{{Filter}} is Richard Patrick. |
| 232 | * Final Fantasy is Owen Pallett (although after the first pressing the album Heartland, he has willingly given up the name, to avoid any more confusion or legal troubles with [[Franchise/FinalFantasy Square and their games]]). |
| 233 | * A Fine Frenzy is Creator/AlisonSudol |
| 234 | * Firewind is guitarist Gus G. In fact, the band was created as a side-band to showcase his guitarist skills (he had already been in two other bands at the time), to the point that in its early days membership was a revolving door. |
| 235 | * Flaw is Chris Volz and a revolving lineup of musicians. |
| 236 | * Music/FleetwoodMac was named after drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John [=McVie=], who are the only members who were in it from start to finish. Unusually enough, however, neither of them have ''ever'' been the face of the band, having instead been sidemen to a string of singer/songwriters (Peter Green in the early days, Bob Welch after Green and Jeremy Spencer lost their minds, Music/StevieNicks and Lindsay Buckingham at the height of their popularity, and Bekka Bramlett after Nicks quit and before she rejoined.) |
| 237 | * Flesh Consumed is Corey Athos. |
| 238 | * Music/AFlockOfSeagulls: from the late 1980s to the 2018 reunion, Mike Score and a backing band. |
| 239 | * Early on, the indie rock band Music/FlorenceAndTheMachine was once defined ''in their official bio'' as "Florence Welch and whoever is standing near her who can play an instrument". Her live shows occasionally featured musical friends such as Devonte Hynes (now better known as Blood Orange) to various members of the folk group Noah and the Whale. It also usually included Welch's frequent collaborator Isabella Summers, who is technically the "Machine" in the band name. Since the release of ''Lungs'', the band has had a relatively stable lineup, and is now seen as a band led by Welch as opposed to one defined only by her. |
| 240 | * Flume is Harley Edward Streten's electronica project. |
| 241 | ** Additionally, Harley was a founding member of What So Not with Chris "Emoh Instead" Emerson, but he departed the group in 2015 after his solo career started to take off. Emoh continued as What So Not after that on his own. |
| 242 | * FM Attack is Shawn Ward. |
| 243 | * Foetus is Music/JGThirlwell, as is Steroid Maximus and Manorexia. (Thirwell's collaborations with other musicians credit him as "Clint Ruin".) |
| 244 | * The Foggy Joe Band was Music/JeanMichelJarre accompanying the singer Samuel Hobo (a.k.a. Foggy Joe). They released one single in 1972, "Zig Zag Dance". The instrumental version on the B-side was performed by only the Foggy Joe Band, that is, Jarre alone.\ |
| 245 | See also the Pop Corn Orchestra further down which was Jarre, too. |
| 246 | * The first Music/FooFighters [[Music/FooFightersAlbum album]] was performed entirely (guitar, drums, bass, and vocals) by Music/DaveGrohl, with the exception of one guitar part played by Greg Dulli on the song "X-Static". He only assembled a band after the fact. |
| 247 | ** The second album also features Grohl's drumming, due to the band re-recording most of it without William Goldsmith. |
| 248 | * Since the early 2000's, Music/{{Foreigner|Band}} has been guitarist Mick Jones and whoever else he's playing with at the time. |
| 249 | * Forgive Durden is Thomas Dutton after the rest of the members quit. The second album after the split, Music/RaziasShadow, is essentially Thomas Dutton featuring a guest singer on every song save one. |
| 250 | * Fort Minor is [[Music/LinkinPark Mike Shinoda]]. Some people thought it was his solo stage name, but it's really just the name of his musical project. Though, many of his songs often involved underground hip-hop group Styles of Beyond. |
| 251 | * Music/{{Foxes}} is just Louisa Rose Allen. |
| 252 | * Music/FrontLineAssembly is mainly Bill Leeb, with various on-and-off members. |
| 253 | * Fu Manchu is Scott Hill. |
| 254 | * Fury Weekend is Ars Nikonov. |
| 255 | * Future Perfect was originally a CreatorCouple comprised of Simon Owen and Rebecca Morgan, but is [[TheBandMinusTheFace down to Simon Owen solo]] (plus guest musicians) as of their 2019 divorce. |
| 256 | * George Hrab is effectively this in his solo work if it doesn't use keyboards, and he's working on that part too. |
| 257 | * Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly consists of just one Sam Duckworth. |
| 258 | * A Girl Called Momo is Alina Nilsson. |
| 259 | * The Go! Team started out as Ian Parton working under a band name: Other than the use of {{Sampling}}, he played everything on their first album, ''Thunder, Lightning, Strike''. After the release of that album, he got a full band together for live shows, and that lineup also appeared on their next two albums... But then most of the band amicably parted ways and 2015's ''The Scene Between'' was Ian Parton with various guest vocalists. However, lead vocalist/rapper Ninja has been with the group the longest after Parton; She was part of the first touring lineup, and despite not appearing on ''The Scene Between'', she was back with the band for the ensuing tour. Ninja also functions more as the face of the band than its actual founder does; she's generally the one who interacts with the crowd at live performances. |
| 260 | * Music/{{Goldfinger}} is John Feldmann. When Feldmann announced that he would record the band's seventh album with a {{supergroup}} of punk musicians, the former members did not take this positively. |
| 261 | * Music/{{Gorillaz}}: The only permanent musician who isn't a cartoon character is Damon Albarn. |
| 262 | ** In-universe, this essentially happened by Phase 3 as nobody wanted it to happen, sans Murdoc, who kidnapped the singer 2D, built a cyborg of their missing guitarist, Noodle, and left Russell to his own devices, replacing him with a drum machine. |
| 263 | * grabyourface is Marie Lando. |
| 264 | * Music/{{Grimes}} is ''[[LuckyCharmsTitle c]]'' ([[TheTropeFormerlyKnownAsX formerly Claire]]) Boucher. |
| 265 | * Grizzly Bear started out a solo project (for Edward Droste), and became a full band after the first album was released. |
| 266 | * {{Music/Grottomatic}} consists solely of Tim Stevens composing, recording, engineering, and producing. |
| 267 | * The Groundhogs are Tony [=McPhee=] and an ever-changing crew of backup musicians. |
| 268 | * Guided by Voices was basically Robert Pollard and some frequently-changing guys. |
| 269 | * Music/GunsNRoses are basically Axl Rose and whoever doesn't hate him at the time. |
| 270 | ** Tempered somewhat by the fact that keyboardist Dizzy Reed has been in the band for 22 years, while bassist Tommy Stinson and second keyboardist Chris Pittman were in the band for fourteen years. And in a miracle, Slash and Duff returned in 2016. |
| 271 | * Music/{{GWAR}} was founder Dave Brockie aka Oderus Urungus, who was as the sole remaining founding member until his death in 2014. In fact, several ''characters'' in the band have had multiple people play them. |
| 272 | * Music/AHawkAndAHacksaw initially consisted solely of Jeremy Barnes--he played all the instruments on the debut album. He's enlisted other musicians for help on every album since, and Heather Trost has become the band's only other permanent member. |
| 273 | * The HAARP Machine: Guitarist Al Mu'min wrote all the music and basically all of the lyrics on the band's debut album and is currently thought to be the only remaining member of the band, as all the other members left due to his JerkAss behaviour. |
| 274 | * Hante is Hélène de Thoury. |
| 275 | * Music/HateEternal is Erik Rutan. |
| 276 | * Have Mercy is vocalist/guitarist Brian Swindle and a frequent rotation of supporting members. |
| 277 | * Music/{{Hawkwind}} is Dave Brock, the group's guitarist and only constant member over 40 years, though the band has been fronted by numerous notables including Arthur Brown, Ginger Baker, Creator/MichaelMoorcock, and [[Music/{{Motorhead}} Lemmy Kilmister]]. |
| 278 | * Since the mid-1990's, Music/{{Heart|Band}} has been Ann & Nancy Wilson and a revolving door of backing musicians, including former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke. However, the band was founded in 1967, while the Wilson sisters only joined the band in the 1970s (1972 for Ann; 1975 for Nancy). Still, Nancy took a four-year break from the band in the late '90s to raise her family. |
| 279 | * Music/{{Guy}}, with the exception of early member Timmy Gatling, was always Teddy Riley, Aaron & Damion Hall. However, Teddy was always the principal producer and cowriter, and arguably the most visible, despite not being the main singer. So really, not an example of this trope in any way at all. Kind of ridiculous that it's here, actually. Forget we said anything. |
| 280 | * Music/HedPE is lead vocalist Jahred. |
| 281 | * Music/{{Helmet}}: Page Hamilton. Bassist Henry Bogdan and drummer John Stanier were consistently recording and touring with the band for its first 9 years, but Page Hamilton was the only original member left for 2004 comeback album ''Size Matters'', and subsequent albums have also had completely different lineups. Notably the song "Throwing Punches" appeared on the ''Film/Underworld2003'' soundtrack credited to Page Hamilton alone, and then the exact same recording of it appeared on a Helmet album. |
| 282 | * Helstar is Larry Barragan, though James Rivera has been around for almost the entire history of the band. |
| 283 | * Hibou is Peter Michel. |
| 284 | * Highway Superstar is Alex Karlinsky. |
| 285 | * Hizaki Grace Project was, officially, Hizaki's solo project (the band's first EP was even released under his name only), but three of the other members are lucky enough to be recognized by most VisualKei fans: vocalist Juka (for being Moi dix Mois' former singer) and, retroactively, rhythm guitarist Teru and bassist Jasmine You (because Hizaki took them with him when he went on to co-found Music/{{Versailles}}). Good luck finding anyone who knows who their drummer was, though.[[note]]His name was Mikage, by the way.[[/note]] |
| 286 | * Music/{{Hole}} has had at least 15 members, with lead singer Music/CourtneyLove being the only constant. (then, the co-founder said [[http://grungereport.net/?p=30 the name can't be used without him]], but Love ignored by saying it was her band) |
| 287 | * Music/HollywoodUndead has a very bizarre variation of this. The band originally formed in 2005 as a duo between J-Dog and Deuce. Soon afterwards, it became a full band with Charlie Scene, Funny Man, Johnny 3 Tears, Da Kurlzz, and [[ThePeteBest Shady Jeff]] (who left soon afterwards) joining in. In 2010, Deuce was kicked out of the band was replaced by Danny. This means that J-Dog is technically the only original member left, since he's the only member of the duo who is still around, though this trope is hardly in play since the other members joined just a couple months later. |
| 288 | * Music/HourOfPenance is Giulio Moschini. |
| 289 | * Hotel Books is the project of Cam Smith, although whether it's just a stage name for him as effectively a solo artist or a band centered around him often depends on who and/or when you ask. |
| 290 | * Hubert Kah is Hubert Kemmler. |
| 291 | * Music/{{IAMX}} is Chris Corner, occasionally Sue Denim and a number of others. |
| 292 | * Music/IBuiltTheSky is just guitarist Rohan "Ro Han" Stevenson. |
| 293 | * Illuminati Hotties is the project producer, mixer and sound engineer Sarah Tudzin. |
| 294 | * I Set My Friends My Fire is Matt Mehana, his afro, and whatever weed he can get his hands on. That said, Nate Blasdell has been helping him hold down the fort since 2014. |
| 295 | * Music/IceNineKills is just vocalist Spencer Charnas. |
| 296 | * Icehouse is basically Iva Davies and anyone he feels like playing with at the time not named Fairlight. For the album ''Primitive Man'', Iva Davies was the group's only member, and he wrote and sang every note, and played every instrument (except "additional percussion", provided by the producer Keith Forsey.) |
| 297 | * Music/IcedEarth is an odd example. Guitarist Jon Schaffer is the founder and has been the sole constant member, writes almost all of the material, and has gone through more band members (most of whom have been hired guns anyway) than one can count on fingers and toes. But Matt Barlow is generally considered the definitive vocalist, and despite leaving in 2003, overwhelming fan support saw him return for a short time in 2007. |
| 298 | * Music/ImagineDragons is Dan Reynolds: co-songwriter, lead singer, and the only one of the founding members who still belonged to the band by the time they started achieving mainstream success. |
| 299 | * Music/InformationSociety has revolved around Kurt Harland (who literally was the sole member in the '90s) for most of their existence, save for their TheBandMinusTheFace period in the 2000s. |
| 300 | * Interface is Eric Eldredge. |
| 301 | * Music/IronAndWine is Sam Beam (and his beard). |
| 302 | * Music/IronMaiden is bassist and founder Steve Harris [[LeadBassist (who composes most of the band's music as well)]]. While guitarist Dave Murray has appeared on all of Maiden's albums, he was not a member of the original lineup, and he was fired for six months in 1977. |
| 303 | * Islander quickly became Mikey Carvajal after all the other members left due to CreativeDifferences. |
| 304 | * iVardensphere is Scott Fox. |
| 305 | * Music/JacksMannequin is basically Andrew [=McMahon=] and a backing band. |
| 306 | * The man in the fuzzy chapeau is still called Music/{{Jamiroquai}} by some. For the most part, Jay Kay may as well be the band. |
| 307 | * Avant-garde/"outsider music" entity Music/{{Jandek}} is a complicated example, which nobody realised was one until late in the day. |
| 308 | ** Until Jandek finally started playing live, due to the lack of publicity material, most people assumed that it was a pseudonym for the guy who does most of the vocals and guitar, and is often the sole musician. |
| 309 | ** When the live performances began, it was announced that "Jandek" is a broader name for the music project, and the singer-guitarist who is the sole constant member (other musicians being recruited locally for each gig) is referred to only as "a representative of Corwood Industries", Corwood Industries being the record label name under which Jandek's recordings are released. |
| 310 | ** Despite all this, much of the media, and even some venue publicity, still treats "Jandek" as simply the performing name of the musician. |
| 311 | * Subverted by Jaron and the Long Road to Love, which is really just Jaron Lowenstein (one-half of pop duo Evan and Jaron). According to WordOfGod (as seen [[http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1642770/jaron-and-the-long-road-to-love-strike-a-nerve-with-pray-for-you.jhtml here]]), the "Long Road to Love" part doesn't refer to a musical entity, but rather where Jaron himself is in life: |
| 312 | -->"[I]t's really just my story. It's just about my relationships and how I'm on this long road to love. And I'm just trying to figure it out. All the songs I'm singing about right now are ones that talk about the highs and lows from my relationships." |
| 313 | * Jefferson Starship was Paul Kantner (the only remaining member of Music/JeffersonAirplane). The original band was forced to change its name to Starship after Kantner's departure, and Kantner started a new band with the old name in 1992. Following Kantner's death in 2016, longtime lead singer David Freiberg carried on as leader of Jefferson Starship, making ''him'' the only original member left in Jefferson Starship, having rejoined in 2005. |
| 314 | ** And for the successor group Starship, it's Mickey Thomas. |
| 315 | * Music/{{Jellyfish}} was built around childhood friends and musical partners Andy Sturmer (lead vocals, drums, guitars, keyboards) and Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (keyboards, vocals, occasional guitar). Sturmer wrote all of the original material with Manning Jr. or by himself. |
| 316 | * The Jesus and Mary Chain are Jim and William Reid, plus backing band and occasionally a drum machine. |
| 317 | * Music/JethroTull, to the point that some people mistakenly believed frontman Ian Anderson's name was "Jethro Tull." Also a case of RevolvingDoorBand: between 1967 and 2014 the group went through a staggering number of lineup changes. Website/TheOtherWiki even has a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jethro_Tull_(band)#Timeline chart]]. Guitarist Martin Barre was the only other constant for decades, having performed on every album except ''This Was,'' but was not invited back after the band reformed in 2017. |
| 318 | * Joe Inoue is the one-man-band responsible for the Naruto Shippuden opening song "Closer." He was born and raised in LA and learned guitar, drums, bass, singing, music recording and production, and Japanese all on his own, then moved out to Japan to make J-rock, successful enough to get some singles on the radio and of course the song on Naruto Shippuden that got him some international recognition. |
| 319 | * John Mayall's Blues Breakers was a whole bunch of different bunches of very famous musicians. |
| 320 | * Neal Schon is the only guy who never left Music/{{Journey|Band}}, where he's the lead guitarist. |
| 321 | * Music/JoyElectric is Ronnie Martin's stage name. Jeff Cloud was a member on a few albums; Ronnie's wife played some synths on ''Favorites at Play'', but the vast majority of JE's discography is Ronnie solo. |
| 322 | * Music/{{Jupiter}} is an ''inverted'' Type 3. After Music/{{Versailles}} (itself an aversion of this trope) went on hiatus and vocalist Kamijo began his solo career, the band's instrumentalists (i.e., 4/5 of the band) formed Jupiter with a new, largely unknown vocalist. The result: Jupiter is Music/{{Hizaki}}, Teru, Masashi, Yuki, and the new guy (Zin, who had previously sung in a couple of small bands under a different name). |
| 323 | * [=Kajagoogoo=], at their height of their popularity, was Limahl, Nick Beggs and three other guys. |
| 324 | * Kamelot (the Czech folk band, not [[Music/{{Kamelot}} the power metal band]]) is Roman Horky. |
| 325 | * Music/{{Katatonia}} is Jonas Renkse. |
| 326 | * [=Kid606=] is Miguel de Pedro. |
| 327 | * Kid Moxie is Elena Charbila. |
| 328 | * King África started as a full band with frontman Martin Laacré, Dero, Tuti Gianakis and brothers Alejandro and Nicolás Guerrieri. Alan Duffy replaced Laacré as the band's frontman in 1996, eventually becoming the band's only full-time member and therefore keeping the name for himself. |
| 329 | * Music/KingCrimson: Guitarist Music/RobertFripp has been the only consistent member throughout the band's [[RevolvingDoorBand dizzying array of lineup changes]] and effectively controls whenever it dissolves or reforms (frequently) and with whom. That said, Fripp is keen to deny the idea of King Crimson being him alone, emphasizing the collaborative nature of the group. |
| 330 | * Music/KingDiamond: is Music/KingDiamond, the name of the band and also the lead vocalist. |
| 331 | * Music/KingMissile is John S. Hall, who has been the lead vocalist in the band's four incarnations. |
| 332 | * Music/TheKinks: Ray Davies. His brother and lead guitarist, Dave Davies, who wrote a couple of their songs, including "Strangers" and "Rats," has started getting more credit in recent years. In addition, Ray never saw himself as a front man, he expected that his younger, more extroverted brother Dave would be instead. As the band progressed, however, Ray let Dave have less and less creative input. |
| 333 | * Sascha K. has been the cornerstone of KMFDM's constantly-changing lineup for over thirty years. |
| 334 | * Kis-Kis is Sonya Somuseva and Alina Olesheva. |
| 335 | * Klark Kent was a one-man band by [[Music/ThePolice Stewart Copeland]] (which Dave Grohl admitted was an inspiration for the first Foo Fighters record, mentioned above). |
| 336 | * Music/{{Kraftwerk}} were Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider for close to 40 years, until Florian went solo. Everyone else was their employees. In fact, even Ralf took an eight-month hiatus from the band between their first two albums. |
| 337 | * Creator/LapFoxTrax - an entire ''record label'' consisting entirely of one person ([[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom Ren Queenston]], better known as [[CunningLikeAFox Renard]]) releasing music under different names. |
| 338 | * Laurel Halo is Laurel Chartow. |
| 339 | * Lazerhawk is Garrett Hays. |
| 340 | * Music/LCDSoundsystem is James Murphy. |
| 341 | * Leæther Strip is Claus Larsen. |
| 342 | * Left Banke keyboardist and songwriter Michael Brown tried to pull this, releasing the single "Ivy Ivy" with some other musicians, including [[Music/SpinalTap Michael McKean]]. The other members objected and had the record pulled. |
| 343 | * Music/LemonDemon's albums are composed & performed entirely by Creator/NeilCicierega. (Though Neil did have a regular "live band" for Lemon Demon concerts.) |
| 344 | * The Lemonheads: For their first few albums Evan Dando traded off vocals and songwriting with Ben Deily, but Deily left the band in 1990, and ever since they've essentially been Evan Dando and a series of different backing bands. Dando has put out a studio album under his own name as well, but it seems like this was just done because it felt a little more like a singer/songwriter album than his typical Lemonheads output. |
| 345 | * Let's Active was essentailly writer/singer/producer/muli-intrumentalist Mitch Easter and whomever he was working with. The group started as a trio, but after the two who weren't Easter left, Easter was the only official member on 1986's ''Big Plans For Everybody''. |
| 346 | * Music/{{LIGHTS}} was Valerie Poxleitner, until [[ThatManIsDead she changed her legal name]] to Lights Poxleitner. She even states [[DoNotCallMePaul she doesn't like the name "Valerie"]]. |
| 347 | ** The other Lights (aka Lights DC) is Neil Dixon. |
| 348 | * Music/TheLightningSeeds started as a complete solo (studio) project of Ian Broudie, who early on wrote, played and produced every note. They later evolved into an actual band, but Broudie is still the group's writer, singer, guitarist, keyboard player and producer, and other band members tend to come and go. |
| 349 | * Little Feat is down to keyboardist Bill Payne. |
| 350 | * Local H: Scott Lucas. |
| 351 | ** When the band started they had more members but when people left, they weren't replaced (until Brian St. Clair took over for Joe Daniels). |
| 352 | * [[http://www.loganwhitehurst.com Logan Whitehurst & The Junior Science Club]] is Logan Whitehurst and, occasionally, guests. |
| 353 | * Lorelei Dreaming is Laura Bienz. |
| 354 | * Music/{{Love|Band}} was Arthur Lee after ''Forever Changes''. |
| 355 | * LOVIMOMENT is Sasha Kolesov. |
| 356 | * Music/{{Loudness}} is Music/AkiraTakasaki. He is the ''only'' member of the band to have never left, and to have maintained the band in existence even when his co-founder Music/MunetakaHiguchi was kicked out by the label (and even when, after Higuchi's later return to the band, he then died). |
| 357 | * Deaths and retirements have left Music/LynyrdSkynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington as [[TheConstant the only founding member still in the band]]... until his death in March 2023. A settlement with surviving relatives of the band's 1977 plane crash victims stipulates that the band must have at least two pre-1977 members in its lineup at all times in order to continue using the name. The only other current member who satisfies that requirement is Ricky Medlocke, who briefly played drums for the group in 1970 and returned as a guitarist in 1996. |
| 358 | * M of "Pop Muzik" fame is Robin Scott. |
| 359 | * Mo-Do, of "Eins, Zwei, Polizei" fame, was Fabio Frittelli. |
| 360 | * Music/{{M83}} is Anthony Gonzalez. |
| 361 | * Music/MachineGirl was purely Matt Stephenson's project up until Sean Kelly joined up in 2017 to provide live drums for the album ''...BECAUSE IM YOUNG ARROGANT AND HATE EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR''. It's still pretty much solely Stephenson's brainchild, though. |
| 362 | * Music/{{Magma}} is Christian Vander. There is no version of the band which doesn't include him. The group was disbanded in 1986 when he decided to pursue other projects such as his bands Offering and the Christian Vander Trio, and was brought back in 1996 with Vander at the helm. Various members have left Magma to start their own projects due to creative differences with Vander, as was the case with Zao (not the metal band) and Weidorje. He is the only founding member still with the group and is one of only two performers from before the 1986 breakup who is still a consistent member of the band today, the other being his ex-wife Stella. |
| 363 | * While Music/TheMagneticFields started out as a full-fledged band, it's now essentially just Stephin Merritt. There are people who will tell you there are people in The Magnetic Fields other than Stephin Merritt. Those people are ''liars''. |
| 364 | ** The Gothic Archies definitely is just Stephin Merritt. |
| 365 | * Music/MajorLazer was originally a duo consisting of [=DJs=] Diplo and Switch. Switch left due to creative differences, and Diplo remains the only original member. Downplayed in that Walshy Fire and Jillionaire, the two members that replaced Switch, have more-or-less formed a permanent lineup with Diplo, and are equal contributors to the project. |
| 366 | * Malevolent Cration is more-or-less rhythm guitarist Phil Fasciana. |
| 367 | * Music/{{Malukah}} plays all her own instruments, and provides her own backing vocals. Her videos actually show this off, with clips of her recording the other tracks appearing as thumbnails. |
| 368 | * The Manhattan Transfer was Tim Hauser until his death in 2014, as the other four founders [[ThePeteBest left after their first album]]. However, the group has carried on without him with two members from the classic lineup. |
| 369 | * Manilla Road was Mark "The Shark" Shelton, the band's lead vocalist, guitarist and founder. It's no surprise that the band broke up after his death in 2018. |
| 370 | * MAP is Josh Dooley. |
| 371 | * Music/MarilynManson is actually the name of the band, originally called ''Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids''. [[SarcasmMode Shockingly]], Marilyn Manson is mainly Marilyn Manson (real name Brian Warner), though it could be said Twiggy Ramirez is very much a part of it as well. |
| 372 | ** As is drummer Ginger Fish, although it's true that the band has a high turnover rate. They have had a total of 17 members in 20 years. |
| 373 | * Marina & the Diamonds was Music/MarinaDiamandis before she decided to go by just MARINA instead. |
| 374 | * Music/Maroon5 is Adam Levine on later albums, (starting with ''Overexposed'') with everyone else being backing members, to the point where this era of the band is sometimes known as "The Adam Levine Project." |
| 375 | * Music/MeatLoaf was originally the name of the band fronted by the individual who soon adopted it as his stage name. |
| 376 | ** "Meat Loaf" was Marvin Lee Aday's[[labelnote:*]]who later changed his name to Michael Lee Aday[[/labelnote]] nickname long before he fronted the band that gave us ''Bat Out of Hell''. The official name of the band was, originally, "Meat Loaf Soul", but it was marketed as "Meat Loaf". Which is one of the reasons the band split up. |
| 377 | * Curt Kirkwood pulled this for a couple of years with Music/MeatPuppets: For the albums ''Golden Lies'' and ''Live'' he was the only original member of the band. To be fair, this was ExecutiveMeddling of sorts - this lineup had been playing as Royal Neanderthal Orchestra previously, but he couldn't get a label to release their album without it being under the Meat Puppets name. At one point, they went back to two-thirds of the original lineup: Curt's brother Cris Kirkwood was back on bass, but original drummer Derrick Bostrom was absent because he declared that he had no interest in playing in a touring band anymore. |
| 378 | * The Medieval Baebes were originally founder Katherine Blake and eleven of her friends; members gradually left over the years and new girls came along. Katherine is now the only original member. |
| 379 | * Music/{{Megadeth}} is Dave Mustaine, AKA Megadave (Unless you're talking about Dave [=McRobb=], the Megadeth forums Administrator, whose handle is also [=MegaDave=]). The only other mostly constant member is David "Junior" Ellefson (who rejoined the band in 2010 but was fired in 2021). |
| 380 | * Merr0w is Brice Fruyt. |
| 381 | * The Microphones as well as their later namesake Mount Eerie consists of just Phil Elverum, although features many frequent guest musicians are included in performance and on albums such as Julie Doiron, Karl Blau, Kyle Field and Calvin Johnson. |
| 382 | * Midnight is Jamie Walters. |
| 383 | * The Mighty Dub Katz was Norman Cook pre-Music/FatboySlim. |
| 384 | * Music/{{Ministry}} is Al Jourgensen and anyone he feels like working with, including LongRunner bassist Paul Barker. |
| 385 | * Music/MiracleOfSound consists solely of Gavin Dunne, who plays guitar, bass, piano, and keyboards, and performs all of the vocals himself, barring occasional guest singers. He's said that the reason he doesn’t have a full band for his project is both because he's a self-admitted control freak when it comes to his music, and also the simple matter of hiring session players and recording them all live can get mighty expensive for an internet musician (which is also the reason he uses sampled drums). However, he did hire a couple blues musicians for [[VideoGame/LANoire Sweet L.A.]] to push the track’s authentic feel the extra mile. |
| 386 | * Mirrorthrone is Vladimir Cochet. So is [[IHaveManyNames Weeping Birth]]. And [[RuleOfThree Unholy Matrimony]]. |
| 387 | * Music/MiseryIndex: Jason Netherton. |
| 388 | * Music/{{Miyavi}} programmed the drums and bass in his early albums, recorded himself singing and playing guitar, then layered the tracks. |
| 389 | * Moi dix Mois could be considered just Mana. With good reason really, as it is best described as his 'solo project', and he writes all the music. |
| 390 | * Music/TheMisfits were Glenn Danzig, until he quit the band. Now Music/{{Danzig}} is Glenn Danzig. |
| 391 | ** And now the Misfits are ''de facto'' Jerry Only. Who, in retrospect, picked [[MeaningfulName a pretty appropriate stage name]]. However, the Misfits were founded by Danzig and [[ThePeteBest a female bassist]]. |
| 392 | ** On at least one tour the band contained more members of Black Flag than The Misfits. They were a 3 piece at the time. |
| 393 | * The Motels is/was Martha Davis and various "male members" who passed through. |
| 394 | * Midnight Resistance was originally just Nicolay Frank. In 2016, his fiancee Ines Puschel Skrodzki AKA Synthinesse joined him, making it a duo. |
| 395 | * Music/MonsterMagnet is Dave Wyndorf. |
| 396 | * More is Stefania di Stefano. |
| 397 | * Music/VanMorrison began with a successful blues-rock band called Them, hailed as "Ireland's Answer to the Rolling Stones". A string of chart hits later, Morrison went solo. Them attempted to carry on without their lead singer, but sank without trace after their Face of the Band went. |
| 398 | * Music/{{Motorhead}} was Lemmy Kilmister... until he passed away in December 2015, forcing them to permanently disband. |
| 399 | * Music/MotionlessInWhite was named after its lead singer Chris "Motionless" Cerulli, who is the only constant member. |
| 400 | * Averted by Bob Mould...but the aversion is played for laughs in the liner notes of his third album "Bob Mould," where we are informed that "Bob Mould is Bob Mould." |
| 401 | * Music/TheMountainGoats is John Darnielle. |
| 402 | * Mungo Jerry is essentially Ray Dorset. |
| 403 | * The Music Machine was mostly Sean Bonniwell. It even changed its name in its later history to "the Bonniwell Music Machine." |
| 404 | * Music/MyBrightestDiamond is Shara Worden. |
| 405 | * Music/MyBloodyValentine was mostly Kevin Shields for ''Loveless'', with Bilinda Butcher doing a bit more than half of the vocals. |
| 406 | * Naked Eyes, originally a duo, is now just Pete Byrne. |
| 407 | * Nebula is Eddie Glass. |
| 408 | * Nena is both the stage name of German singer Gabriele Susanne Kerner (best known for "99 Luftballons/99 Red Balloons"), and her band. It's the German version of the Music/AliceCooper story: Nena used to be only the name of the band, but everybody mistook it for the name of the lead singer. So she took it as her stage name, and sometimes they would perform as "Nena & Band". |
| 409 | * Nena Daconte started out in 2005 as a duo with vocalist Mai Meneses and guitarist Kim Fanlo, then Fanlo left in 2010 and Meneses kept the name for her solo project. |
| 410 | * Nervy is Zhenya Milkovskiy, the lead singer and only remaining member of the original lineup. |
| 411 | * Music/NeutralMilkHotel is Jeff Mangum featuring whoever else happened to be there at the time. |
| 412 | * The New Division is John Glenn Kunkel. |
| 413 | * Music/NewRadicals released only one album, in which only singer/guitarist/songwriter Gregg Alexander appears on every track. Some of the studio musicians do more than one song, but not too many more than one (with the exception of Danielle Brisebois, the keyboardist and only other vocalist). The title track "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too" actually has Alexander as the ''only'' musician, playing everything and Alexander himself often defined the band as himself, Brisebois and a rotating lineup. |
| 414 | * Newsted was Music/JasonNewsted and some other guys, though the lineup appears to have been constant while they were together. However, Newsted shut the project down in 2014. |
| 415 | * New Years Day was formed in 2005 based around Ashley Costello. Three of the five founding members left in 2007, while the last member who is not her left in 2013, leaving Costello the only remaining original member. |
| 416 | * Music/{{Nightwish|Band}} - The most likely candidate for the ''actual'' face of the band is the main songwriter and keyboard player Tuomas Holopainen who gets most of the fan attention. However, Tarja Turunen began to think of herself as the band and above the band and said so in interviews. The rest of the band then fired her for this attitude. |
| 417 | * Music/{{Nile}} has more or less always been Karl Sanders' band. |
| 418 | * Music/NineInchNails, when playing live, is a RevolvingDoorBand anchored by Trent Reznor. In the studio, Nine Inch Nails ''is'' Trent Reznor, and it even says so in the liner notes for ''Pretty Hate Machine''. This is because it is Trent Reznor, ''by himself'' (until 2016, when frequent collaborator Atticus Ross officially became a member). |
| 419 | ** NIN's current live drummer (as at 2017) Ilan Rubin also has a side project/band called The New Regime - where he writes the songs, sings, and plays all the instruments himself. |
| 420 | * Music/NoDoubt is down to lead singer Music/GwenStefani, who was originally a backup singer. |
| 421 | * Music/{{Oasis}} is Noel Gallagher. He even made the other players promise to only play his music and do everything he told them to. This trope also applies to his brother Liam somewhat, but mostly in as far as the band's image goes. |
| 422 | ** This was mostly a result of Noel having a huge back catalogue of what the band considered great songs when he joined in 1991, therefore Liam, Tony, Guigsy and Bonehead were more than happy to let Noel lead them. |
| 423 | ** Their fourth album, ''Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants'' is the epitome of this, with the entire album being performed by Noel, with the exception of Liam performing the vocals and Alan White on drums. Everyone else on the album is a session musician. Noel also wrote 9 of the 10 songs on the album and co-produced it. |
| 424 | ** That had relaxed a bit over the years, as Noel had let his bandmates write some of the songs and have some control over the band's musical direction. |
| 425 | ** After Noel's announcement of leaving the band, the immediate reaction was to declare Oasis as having "split up", thus proving this trope. The remaining members [[TheBandMinusTheFace renamed the group Beady Eye.]] Noel, in response, went the StartMyOwn route with the High Flying Birds. |
| 426 | * Music/{{Obscura}} is Steffen Kummerer. |
| 427 | * Odyssey & the DNA Team is Travis Stebbins. He also has several other names he uses. |
| 428 | ** The DNA Team is actually fictitious, making him LITERALLY the entire band. |
| 429 | * Oh Land is Nanna Øland Fabricius. |
| 430 | * Ohgr is Nivek Ogre (Kevin Ogilvie) from Skinny Puppy (if you don't count Mark Walk). |
| 431 | * Omni Trio is Rob Haigh. |
| 432 | * Onelinedrawing: Jonah Matranga, who decided to just use his own name after 2004. |
| 433 | * Music/OrchestralManoeuvresInTheDark: Andy [=McCluskey=] became the only member after the rest of the "classic" line-up left ''en masse'' in 1988. He recorded three further albums (the first essentially solo, and two with other collaborators) before retiring the name. |
| 434 | * German PowerMetal act Music/OrdenOgan has essentially been the project of founder and frontman Sebastian "Seeb" Levermann ever since the departure of Gnu Grütling (the other remaining founding member) in 2011. |
| 435 | * Music/{{Origin}} is Paul Ryan's band, though Mike Flores shares roughly equal songwriting duties with him. |
| 436 | * Music/{{Otep}} is officially vocalist Otep Shamaya and anyone who's willing to play instruments for her. |
| 437 | * Music/OwlCity is Adam Young and a computer (though he occasionally invites guest musicians or plays instrument parts himself). |
| 438 | * Music/PainOfSalvation is guitarist/lyricist/composer/vocalist Daniel Gildenlöw, so much so that he plays most instruments on demos or even in the final record if he's not satisfied with a particular musician's performance. |
| 439 | * Music/PanicAtTheDisco was a full band, but the membership slowly dwindled leaving Brendon Urie as the sole member. Though there is still a four-person touring band, he sings and plays all instruments himself. |
| 440 | * Hayley Williams is the only officially signed member of Music/{{Paramore}}. Everyone else is essentially a backing band. |
| 441 | * Passenger was originally an English indie rock/folk band that lasted from 2003 to 2009, when they broke up. Afterwards, frontman Mike Rosenberg used the name for himself, and continues to perform under the moniker today. |
| 442 | * Music/PassionPit is Michael Angelakos. The other "members" are just live musicians. |
| 443 | * Pedro the Lion: Dave Bazan (who eventually gave up trying to get a steady band and just started recording under his own name). |
| 444 | * Music/PenguinCafeOrchestra: Simon Jeffes. Although there ''were'' other long-term members, it was always Jeffes' project in which he wrote almost all of the music, and his death from a brain tumour also spelt the end of the group. |
| 445 | * Music/{{Petra}}: Lead guitarist Bob Hartman is the founding member and the only member of the band that stayed in the band during their entire run. |
| 446 | * Music/{{Pentagram}}: Singer Bobby Liebling is the only constant member of the seminal doom metal band since its formation in 1971, [[RevolvingDoorBand with only two of the 36 other members over the past 40-plus years]] having lasted over a decade combined in the band. |
| 447 | * Music/PereUbu's lead singer David Thomas is the only one to have been continually performing since the band started in '75, outlasting numerous other performers. In fact, so many different performers were with the group, you can find an exhausting account for who was in the band and when on their website. |
| 448 | * Phrakture is Nafeu Nasir. |
| 449 | * The only permanent member of Pigface is drummer Martin Atkins, with an absolutely ''massive'' number of studio musicians going in and out since its formation. |
| 450 | * Music/PinkFloyd was at first dominated by Music/SydBarrett, who was the lead vocalist, guitarist and main songwriter, before his mental health deteriorated and was eventually sacked. Later, the band was also dominated by Music/RogerWaters, the lead vocalist and bassist who wrote almost all of ''Music/TheWall'' and all of ''Music/TheFinalCut''. Ultimately averted when Waters left and [[TheBandMinusTheFace the band kept going]] with David Gilmour taking the leading role, despite Roger Waters attempting to prevent this with a trademark infringement lawsuit. Famously, ''Music/TheFinalCut'' was a Roger Waters solo album in all but name, while ''Music/AMomentaryLapseOfReason'' was a David Gilmour album in all but name. |
| 451 | ** Nick Mason was the only one to be "officially" in the band for all the albums. Waters quit in 1985, Barrett left in early 1968, Gilmour joined the band in early 1968, and keyboardist Richard Wright was fired by Waters in 1979 during the recording of ''The Wall'' (but allowed to play in its ensuing tour) before being rehired by Gilmour after Waters quit. By the time ''Music/TheEndlessRiver'' had been released, Wright had passed on, though the album relied heavily on recordings he'd made during the sessions for ''Music/TheDivisionBell''. |
| 452 | * Music/ThePixies frontman and songwriter, Black Francis, embodied this trope throughout the band's original run. Bassist Kim Deal believed herself to also have artistic merit and wanted to have more involvement in the songwriting, but since Francis believed that it was his band, he ended up boxing her out for the most part. Aside from Deal's song "Gigantic" on ''Music/SurferRosa'', and the co-written "Silver" off of ''Music/{{Doolittle}}'', Black Francis wrote all of the band's songs. Feeling creatively stifled, [[StartMyOwn Deal formed her own band]], Music/TheBreeders, in 1988 -- five years before the Pixies officially broke up, due to [[CreativeDifferences the tensions between her and Francis]]. |
| 453 | * Weirdly, Music/PJHarvey claims to be an example. In other words, Polly Jean Harvey claims to be merely the do-it-all frontwoman for a band whose name is "PJ Harvey." Most fans fail to observe this distinction, and [[TrollingCreator frankly aren't sure that she isn't doing a bit]]. |
| 454 | * Planet P Project is Tony Carey, who has a concurrent music career under his own name. Planet P Project was started in order to release songs that didn't fit with the rest of the material on Tony Carey's album ''Some Tough City'', and was generally an outlet for his more experimental, ProgressiveRock tendencies. |
| 455 | * Music/ThePlasmatics: Wendy O. Williams was their charismatic lead singer and is basically their only band member known and recognized by the general public. |
| 456 | * Plastic Ono Band was Music/JohnLennon and Music/YokoOno and whatever musicians he happened to have around him at the time. Now, however, the band tours with Sean Lennon and Yoko. |
| 457 | * Music/{{Plumb}} was originally an actual band, but after the band broke up Tiffany Lee kept it as her stage name. |
| 458 | * Music/{{Poe}} is Annie Danielewski. |
| 459 | * The Pop Corn Orchestra was a guy named Jamie Jefferson. They only ever released one single in 1972 with a cover of Hot Butter's CoveredUp version of Gershon Kingsley's "Pop Corn" as the A-side and a Jefferson-penned instrumental named "Black Bird" as the B-Side. And [[SameFaceDifferentName Jamie Jefferson was]] Music/JeanMichelJarre. This became obvious to those few who had bought his debut album from the same year, ''Deserted Palace'', because "Black Bird" was a reworked "Bridge Of Promises" from that album. |
| 460 | * Music/PorcupineTree started out as Music/StevenWilson's solo project, with him singing, writing the songs, and playing nearly every instrument, but he eventually hired other musicians to play bass, drums and keyboards (he sings and plays guitar now), and the other guys contributed to the songwriting in later albums. Eventually, Wilson disbanded Porcupine Tree and went solo again, though they finally reformed in the early 2020's. |
| 461 | * Music/{{Possessed}} has basically been Jeff Beccera all the time they've been together following the first split up. |
| 462 | * Music/Powerman5000 has Spider One as its only consistent and founding member with a revolving door ever since ''Transform''. |
| 463 | * PMMP was Paula Vesala and Mira Luoti. Paula even more so, as even Mira said she was the brains of the operation. |
| 464 | * Music/PrefabSprout has only one ''de facto'' member by now: Singer and songwriter Paddy [=McAloon=]. The only reason why he didn't put the Sprout name on his solo album ''I Trawl the Megahertz'' was that it was too experimental (and he later changed his mind on that, so the re-issue carries the Prefab Sprout name after all). |
| 465 | * The Music/{{Pretenders}} started as a band. However, after the deaths of James Honeyman Scott and Pete Farndon in 1982/83, The Pretenders became Chrissie Hynde and whomever she's currently playing with, usually drummer Martin Chambers (who left in 1986 and rejoined in 1994, and has come and gone several times since.) |
| 466 | * Pretty Lights started as a duo consisting of Derek Vincent Smith and Michal Menert, but the latter left after the first album was completed. Since then, Smith has been the sole driving force of the whole project. |
| 467 | * Music/{{Primus}} is Les Claypool. |
| 468 | * Music/{{Prince}} was famous as a solo artist, but on his first four albums he played all or almost all of the instruments, and continued doing so for many songs on later albums, so he still qualifies for this trope. Additionally, when he was a member of another act, it generally turned into a case of this trope as well. |
| 469 | * Music/ProcolHarum is Gary Brooker and a cast of rotating musicians. |
| 470 | * Music/TheProdigy is basically Liam Howlett with a lot of gear and one screaming dancer who's been around from the start. |
| 471 | * Prom Queen is Celene "Leeni" Ramadan. |
| 472 | * Music/PuddleOfMudd is Wes Scantlin. |
| 473 | * Purple Disco Machine is Tino Piontek. |
| 474 | * ZigZagged {{Pop}} music example: The Music/PussycatDolls is Nicole Scherzinger. The group is more of a brand than a band; it was founded by choreographer Robin Antin in an attempt to take her burlesque troupe The Pussycat Dolls mainstream and expand the brand. Scherzinger was chosen to be in the group along with 5 other girls, however it became clear that Nicole was meant to be the centerpiece regardless who was in the lineup. Later after the group broke up, Nicole revealed that not only was she the only member helping to write and produce the music, she sang ''95%'' of the group's vocals, both lead and background, a claim backed up by producer Ron Fair. The first album was entirely produced ''without'' the other Dolls; they added their meager contributions of ad-libs/vocal runs later. Naturally, this led to bad blood among the members as the "group" was essentially Nicole's solo act with 5 background singers/dancers. |
| 475 | * Putrid Pile is Shaun [=LaCanne=] plus some hired hands for live shows. |
| 476 | * Pyrexia is Chris Basile. |
| 477 | * Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge is Josh Homme + the other 20 or so people who have come and gone in the past 20 years. Oh, and didn't Dave Grohl play drums for that band during a record? |
| 478 | * Music/{{Rage|Band}} is vocalist/bassist Peter "Peavy" Wagner and whoever else is in the band at the time. On three separate occasions, the ''entire band'', with the exception of Peavy, quit, forcing Peavy to hire a new band. |
| 479 | * Music/{{Rainbow}} is Ritchie Blackmore plus whoever else he feels like touring with at the moment. Notably, the group's original lineup included Music/RonnieJamesDio, meaning that it also counts as an example of TheBandMinusTheFace. |
| 480 | * The Rain Within is Andy Deane. |
| 481 | * Music/{{Rasputina}} is Melora Creager and anyone with a penchant for Victorian undergarments who can play cello. |
| 482 | * Razorlight is Johnny Borrell, the only constant band member. The classic lineup reunited in 2019. |
| 483 | * The Ready Set is Jordan Witzigreuter. |
| 484 | * Although it wasn't originally the case, Music/RedHousePainters' fifth album, ''Songs For A Blue Guitar'' gave Mark Kozelek this image. |
| 485 | * Redlight King is just Mark "Kazzer" Kasprzyk. |
| 486 | * Reggie & The Full Effect is James Dewees of Coalesce and Get-Up Kids fame, doing synth-pop with his various buddies in music. |
| 487 | * Music/REOSpeedwagon is keyboardist and founder Neal Doughty, the only member who's been in the band since their 1967 inception. |
| 488 | * Music/TheReplacements were basically Paul Westerberg's backing band for the last few years. In fact, their last album, All Shook Down, was originally intended to be a Paul Westerberg solo release. |
| 489 | * Rheingold was Bodo Staiger with or without other musicians. This became particularly obvious when the second Rheingold album was made, the soundtrack to the film ''Der Fan'' in which Staiger also plays one of the two main characters. |
| 490 | * Ringo Starr And His All Starr Band: No prizes for guessing who [[Music/RingoStarr the one permanent member]] is. He puts together a new group of "all starrs" every year or two, so every tour has a different line-up. |
| 491 | * Rings of Saturn is Lucas Mann. |
| 492 | ** Subverted with ''Ultu Ulla'', where Miles Dimitri Baker did most of the composition. Played straight with their other releases. |
| 493 | * The first Rogue Wave album had Zach Rogue playing everything except drums, which were played by Pat Spurgeon. Shortly after, they became more of a full-band proposition, but there have been enough lineup changes over the years that Zach Rogue and Pat Spurgeon can be considered the core of the band. |
| 494 | * Roxi Drive is Lucy Davies. |
| 495 | * Royal & the Serpent is Ryan Santiago. |
| 496 | * Similarly to Pink Floyd, Music/DavidByrne held greater and greater power over Music/TalkingHeads[='=] music and image over the course of their run; by ''Music/TrueStories'', Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison practically existed just to play instrumentals for the songs Byrne wrote. This, alongside long-brewing tensions between Byrne and his bandmates (especially Tina), is believed to be a major catalyst in Talking Heads' unceremonious and acrimonious dissolution in 1991. Also similarly to the Pink Floyd example, Byrne sued his former bandmates for trademark infringement when they tried to continue performing as "The Heads", though unlike what happened between Roger Waters and Pink Floyd, Byrne more or less succeeded in stopping the Heads from continuing without him (though how much of this was because of the suit and how much of this was because of the critical and commercial failure of the Heads' sole album is unknown). The sheer amount of control Byrne had over Talking Heads is visible just by comparing their last two albums with Byrne's 1992 solo album ''Uh-Oh'', with the latter sounding quite similar to how one might envision a hypothetical ninth Talking Heads album. |
| 497 | * Music/ToddRundgren is another example of the "solo artist who plays all instruments on an album" variant. The first three sides of ''Music/SomethingAnything'' Everything you hear is him. He also did this on ''Hermit of Mink Hollow'', ''Healing'', ''The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect'', and some of his other albums (with ''A cappella'' being a particularly strange example since every sound you hear on the album is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Rundgren's voice]]). He also has an example with his band Utopia, which became more of a collaborative project as it went further on, but was still undeniably Rundgren's project. (The band's first album was entitled ''Todd Rundgren's Utopia'', which is a pretty big indicator right there). His earlier bands Runt and Nazz were also examples; indeed, the former's two albums are frequently categorised as Rundgren solo albums. |
| 498 | * The Saints originally had a full lineup, but after the original lineup fell apart, frontman Chris Bailey continued the band with a continuous revolving door of guest players. |
| 499 | * Guitarist Wayne Swinny is the sole original and constant member of Saliva. |
| 500 | * Salt Ashes is Veiga Sanchez. |
| 501 | * Music/{{Santana}} is a rotating group of musicians who perform alongside namesake guitarist Music/CarlosSantana, the fact that Carlos never ''ever'' does lead vocals being the sole fact that makes it a group in its own right rather than just being his backing group. Despite not having ''any'' members in common besides Carlos, the Santana that recorded "Black Magic Woman" in 1970, with Gregg Rolie on lead vocals, is the same band that recorded "Smooth" in 1999 with lead vocals by Rob Thomas. |
| 502 | * savage genius is actually the vocalist ''Aa'' only, after ''Takumi'' left the band at finals of the year 2007. |
| 503 | * Savoy Brown's sole constant member was guitarist Kim Simmonds until his death in 2022, at which point the band disbanded. |
| 504 | * Music/SayAnything is made up of Max Bemis and whoever is around that can play an instrument. |
| 505 | * Say Hi (formerly Say Hi to Your Mom) is Eric Elbogen. |
| 506 | * Music/{{Scooter}} vocalist H.P. Baxxter has been this trope for a while, despite Rick J. Jordan handling the instrumental tracks, but it became a reality when Rick left the group in 2013. The reason Rick left was that H.P. was no longer interested in Rick's musical ideas and only wanted to make entirely commercial music. |
| 507 | * Music/{{Scorpions|Band}} guitarist Rudolf Schenker founded the band in 1965 and is the only person who has been in it from start to finish, although singer/face of the band Klaus Meine joined him early on and has also performed on all of the group's studio albums, the only two members to do so. |
| 508 | * Music/ScrittiPolitti is Green Gartside - he carried the name on after the original post-punk lineup disbanded to collaborate with musicians David Gamson and Fred Maher on the albums 'Cupid & Psyche 85' and 'Provision', but from 1991 onwards, it has been him plus whoever he is interested in writing and recording with. |
| 509 | * Music/SeaWolf is Alex Brown Church and whoever's doing the other instruments at the time. |
| 510 | * The Secret Chord is Joakim Paulsson. |
| 511 | * Music/SelenaGomez & The Scene is a definitely a case of being the face of the band, but on closer inspection, the band itself has no credits, writing/production otherwise on ''any'' of their albums. Selena is the only member with any credits at all, so essentially the band is for touring/promotion purposes, most likely to make her distinct from Creator/DisneyChannel's other pop star, Music/MileyCyrus. Selena and her fans do not count her time with The Scene as part of her solo discography and consider it a separate project and a full band. |
| 512 | * Self is Matt Mahaffey - he provides most of the instrumentation on studio albums, and the band name may have even been a deliberate LampshadeHanging on this. However, there's a mostly consistent "touring band" lineup, and whenever there ''are'' additional musicians on albums, they tend to be members of said touring band. |
| 513 | * Music/SensesFail is Buddy Nielsen, who is the only original member left since 2014. |
| 514 | * Music/{{Sepultura}} is Andreas Kisser. It used to be the Cavalera brothers of Max and Igor. Then Max quit in 1996, which left Igor in control of the band. Then Igor quit in 2006, so since then, Kisser has taken control and been behind much of Sepultura's songwriting and composition, as well as appearing the most in the band's press conferences. (though he's not the singer, and the one who never left, bassist Paulo Jr., [[NobodyLovesTheBassist is a minor presence]]) |
| 515 | * Shakespear's Sister ''is'' Siobhan Fahey (formerly of Music/{{Bananarama}}), despite the fact that their biggest hit, "Stay", featured Marcella Detroit as the lead singer for that song. |
| 516 | * Shaman (the Finnish band) was just Jonne Järvelä and backing musicians. When they evolved into Music/{{Korpiklaani}}, the roster stabilized. |
| 517 | * Played straight and subverted in Music/{{Showbread}}. Josh Dies, the lead singer and songwriter writes 100% of the music and lyrics and COULD record every instrument on every album by himself... but chooses not to. However, with as many line-up changes and member replacements as Showbread has had, it's still Showbread as long as Josh Dies doesn't decide to hang his hat. His side band DIES is just him, and has no modesty about it. |
| 518 | * Despite the lineup being (relatively) stable for most of the band's time, Emma Anzai is the only original member left in Music/SickPuppies, though most don't realise it since Chris Mileski (the original drummer) left after the release of ''Welcome to the Real World'', which had a limited pressing. Though she's a downplayed case, being only the bassist and [[StepUpToTheMicrophone singing on occasion.]] |
| 519 | * Music/SimpleMinds are Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill and whichever other members they have at the time. Mel Gaynor played on their albums from 1982-1991, as well as 1998's Neapolis. He returned in 2005 for Black And White 050505 where he has remained since. Humorously, Jim Kerr's solo project Lostboy AKA shares 3 members with Simple Minds, as well as their producer.It has been joked that Jim formed Lostboy so he could get away from Charlie. |
| 520 | * Music/SimplyRed is Mick Hucknall, lead singer, band namesake and only constant member. He explained, "This is a solo career and it always has been... I just don't like the name Mick Hucknall very much." |
| 521 | * Music/{{Sirenia}} is Morten Veland. He writes all of their songs and lyrics and plays most of the instruments on their studio recordings. Even the URL for their official website is under Veland's name. Current singer Ailyn (who joined in 2008) is the first lead vocalist in Sirenia's 10+ year history to sing on more than one album. She's also the only band member who records with Veland in the studio, presumably because female vocals are the one thing he can't do himself. The rest of the band (which has been a revolving door except for drummer Jonathan Perez) only plays on tour. |
| 522 | * Sister Machine Gun is Chris Randall and nearly a completely different lineup on every album, and possibly a different lineup on the subsequent tour as well. |
| 523 | * The only permanent members of Music/TheSistersOfMercy are Andrew Eldritch and Doktor Avalanche; the latter is a drum machine. The drum machine has been replaced and upgraded multiple times. Currently the Doktor is "portrayed" by a roster of three [=MacBook=] Pros running Cubase. |
| 524 | * Music/ShorthandPhonetics is Ababil Ashari. |
| 525 | * Music/SixFeetUnder is Chris Barnes, to the point that all the other original members were gone by 2011. |
| 526 | * Music/{{Skelteria}} was Evan Cotner, A Robot, and whoever he could find to play bass until he officially decided to make it a one-man band in 2012. The one-man-band era ended when Nick Klepin joined the band in November 2014. That unfortunately didn't last long since Klepin left in 2015. |
| 527 | * Music/{{Skillet}}: John Cooper is the only original member remaining. However, this is a subversion--while he's certainly the main songwriter, the rest of the band has input, and while the band has gone through several members the contribution of all of them is pretty notable. (Particularly Korey Cooper, John's wife, who's been with the band in some capacity for ''almost'' as long as John and has written and sung on some of them.) |
| 528 | * Music/SleepingAtLast is ''literally'' just Ryan O'Neal on vocals and a bevy of instruments. |
| 529 | * Corey Taylor is undeniably the face of the band in regards to Music/{{Slipknot}}, but both he and the other members have said that it's Shawn Crahan's band. |
| 530 | * Music/TheSmashingPumpkins had a fairly stable lineup (not counting touring musicians) until the 2000 breakup, but its 21st-century reincarnation is Billy Corgan and whoever is willing to put up with him for his next project. Corgan's solo album ''[=TheFutureEmbrace=]'' featured more original members of the Smashing Pumpkins than were in the band at the time. As of 2018, founding members James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlain have rejoined the band. |
| 531 | * Skyla Vertex = Gordon Popp. |
| 532 | * Smile Empty Soul is Sean Danielsen. |
| 533 | * SMP (Sounds of Mass Production) is Jason Bazinet and whatever backing musicians he decides to work with. |
| 534 | * Music/SocialDistortion is Mike Ness. |
| 535 | * Music/{{Sodom}} is a rare example. Sodom is Tom Angelripper, who is a [[LeadBassist bassist]], he also is a vocalist and even has done some bass solos. |
| 536 | * Solar Fields is Magnus Birgersson. |
| 537 | * Solarstone is Richard Mowat. |
| 538 | * Sonic Mayhem is Sascha Dikiciyan. |
| 539 | * Music/SoulAsylum is Dave Pirner. |
| 540 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Ballet Soul Ballet]] is Rick "R.K." Kelly. |
| 541 | * Music/{{Soulfly}}: Max Cavalera |
| 542 | * For the first few years of their existence, Music/ChrisCornell ''was'' Music/{{Soundgarden}}. Despite later being known for both Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron's distinct performing styles, the vast majority of their material during TheEighties was written entirely by Cornell, and the rare exceptions were generally considered filler. Things changed a bit in TheNineties, when Ben Shephard replaced original bassist [[ThePeteBest Hiro Yamamoto]] and offered noticeably more input than his predecessor, along with the other members beginning to make writing contributions as well. After Cornell's suicide, guitarist Kim Thayil is the only remaining founder. |
| 543 | * Music/SoundHorizon is Revo. |
| 544 | * Spank Rock was originally a HipHop duo consisting of rapper Naeem Juwan and and producer Alex Epton. Epton left in 2007, and since then "Spank Rock" remains the stage name for Juwan. |
| 545 | * Music/{{Sparklehorse}} was just Mark Linkous and his dreams. |
| 546 | * Music/{{Sparks}} is brothers Ron and Russell Mael, plus drummer and guitarists as required. |
| 547 | * The Spencer Davis Group were not, contrary to what the name would suggest, led by Spencer Davis, who was merely their founder. Bass player Muff Winwood suggested they name the band after the highly articulate Davis so "he could do the interviews, and the rest of us could stay in bed." Muff's brother Steve, on the other hand, played lead guitar, sang lead vocals, wrote most of their original material and became the band's most famous face. |
| 548 | ** After Steve Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group, he became his own band, playing all instruments on his solo songs himself. |
| 549 | * Music/{{Spiritualized}} is pretty much Jason Pierce - he writes and composes and sings every song and is the only constant band member. |
| 550 | * Sponge is Vinnie Dombroski. |
| 551 | * SSQ was named after their singer and face of the band, Stacey Swain, who adopted the stage name Stacey Q in the mid '80s and continued using said name as a solo artist after separating from the other members, though they later reunited. |
| 552 | * Music/{{Starflyer 59}} is Jason Martin, plus a revolving cast of backing musicians. (While he writes all the songs himself, Jason does allow the rest of the band on any particular album plenty of input on the arrangements and recording of the songs.) And for the sophomore album ''Gold'', Jason came darn close to recording the entire thing by himself. |
| 553 | * Music/StaticX, an IndustrialMetal band, was named after its lead vocalist/guitarist Wayne Static. The band itself was mostly a RevolvingDoorBand, with Static and bassist Tony Campos as the only consistent members. So much so that, when the band broke up in 2013 due to a dispute with Campos using the Static-X name for live shows not involving Wayne, Wayne Static decided to just use his backup band from his solo material as "Static-X" for live performances before deciding to retire the band name entirely and just keep up his solo career. After Wayne died, so did the chance of reforming the band, until Tony Campos stepped in, brought back the original lineup and a new singer with a mask in Wayne's likeness. |
| 554 | * Music/StatusQuo: Guitarist Francis Rossi is the only constant member of the band. |
| 555 | * Music/SteelyDan is Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, and some other guys who change from album to album... or rather was until Becker's death in 2017, leaving Fagen as the only official member. Their late engineer Roger Nichols was involved with every album, and was considered their unseen third member. The band's original guitarist Denny Dias was involved in all their 70s albums as well, on the first three as a band member and on the rest as a session guitarist. |
| 556 | * Stefan Raab und die Bekloppten was really just Creator/StefanRaab himself; he dropped that project name after one album, and it disappeared from that album's second edition as well. The booklet even tells us that Stefan Raab is able to play all instruments himself, except for those that he doesn't want to be able to play himself, but Stefan Raab knows people who want to be able to play them, which are then listed as guests. Aside from background vocalists, each of them appears on just one track. |
| 557 | * Strapping Young Lad started out as effectively Music/DevinTownsend and some other guys. Some of them are famous in their own right (Gene Hoglan), but nearly all the songwriting was Townsend's. The other members started to offer more input on later albums. Ocean Machine's sole album plays this even more straight; it is now frequently labelled a Townsend solo album. So does Punky Brüster's album, although that was a FakeBand to begin with. Later bands of Townsend's would usually also play this trope 100% straight, including EgocentricTeamNaming (Devin Townsend Band, Devin Townsend Project, etc.). An exception can be found with Casualties of Cool, which is a 50/50 collaboration between Townsend and Ché Aimee Dorval. Townsend has also done the "plays all instruments on a solo album and recorded/produced it himself" variant with ''Ziltoid the Omniscient''. |
| 558 | * Music/StVincent is Annie Clark. |
| 559 | * Comedy rap group [[http://suddendeathrap.bandcamp.com Sudden Death]] lost its other members until only Devo Spice was left. He eventually abandoned the group name and officially became a [[http://devospice.bandcamp.com solo act]]. |
| 560 | * Music/SufjanStevens is another one of those "solo artists who plays almost everything" examples. For example, the ''Illinois'' liner notes tell us he "plays the following instruments: acoustic guitar, piano, wurlitzer, electric bass, drum kit, electric guitar, oboe, Miriam's alto saxophone, Summin's flute, Daniel's banjo and/or Matt's banjo (depending on which one was in tune), Shara's glockenspiel, Laura's rickety accordion, a rented vibraphone, various recorders (Sufjan owns the tenor, soprano, and sopranino, but he borrowed Monique's alto), a Casiotone MT-70, sleigh bells, shakers, tambourine, triangle, and a Baldwin electric church organ. Oh Lord, help us!" He also often produces and records everything himself. Many of his recordings feature at least one other performer on some songs, but their role tends to be incredibly limited compared to Stevens', and on some of them (such as ''All Delighted People'') he is the only featured performer. Even on releases where other people are credited, their contributions tend to be restricted to only parts of the album, leaving other songs where Stevens is the only featured performer. |
| 561 | * Suicide Commando is Johan van Roy. |
| 562 | * Music/SuicideSilence was Mitch Lucker. Chris Garza became this after the former's death. |
| 563 | * Music/SuicidalTendencies is Mike Muir, the one constant in a neverending list of members. |
| 564 | * Music/{{Supertramp}} were essentially Roger Hodgson, Rick Davies and whoever they wanted to work with (though they had a LongRunnerLineup in their heyday). Since Hodgson left in 1983, Davies has taken over the band entirely. |
| 565 | * Music/{{Swans}} were basically Michael Gira, and later Jarboe. And with the reunion now, it's just Michael Gira again. |
| 566 | * System F was Music/FerryCorsten, until he started using his real name. Prior to those, Moonman was his primary solo moniker. He also released songs under the alias Gouryella, whose name was originally used as [[{{Supergroup}} a musical project between him and]] Music/{{Tiesto}}, who left the project in 2001. |
| 567 | * Music/TameImpala have a fairly consistent touring lineup, but in the studio it's ''all'' Kevin Parker, who writes, records, performs, and produces all of the project's music. |
| 568 | * While they had a few stable lineups, most notably in the 1970s and 1990s, Music/TangerineDream was essentially Edgar Froese and a revolving door of musicians who worked with him over the years. Taken to its logical extreme in 2007 when for the first time Froese began releasing albums under the Tangerine Dream name that were composed and recorded by him alone. Froese died in 2015, but his widow and the other three members of the current lineup at that time agreed to continue working together under the Tangerine Dream name. |
| 569 | * Talla 2XLC is Andreas Tomalla, with various co-producers over the years. |
| 570 | * Music/SteveTaylor always performed under his own name, since the other musicians with him changed so frequently. The credits to some of his albums have over a dozen musicians on them. |
| 571 | * In a variant, Team Shanghai Alice is just one person, who also goes by the name [[Franchise/TouhouProject ZUN]]. He does compose all the music for the games, though. |
| 572 | * Music/TearsForFears were originally Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, but Orzabal released two solo albums (and one new single on a GreatestHitsAlbum) under the Tears For Fears name in TheNineties. Curt Smith returned for 2004's ''Everybody Loves a Happy Ending'' and is still in the band today (although their latest album has been in DevelopmentHell for several years). |
| 573 | * Techenie (formerly Julia Smiles) is Yulia Kryukova. |
| 574 | * Music/TheTemptations are Otis Williams (the sole constant) and 4 other guys -- which is ironic, since Otis Williams is far less prominent as a lead vocalist than ex-Tempts David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams (no relation to Otis), and Dennis Edwards (Ruffin's replacement). |
| 575 | ** Up until 1995, Otis Williams and bass singer Melvin Franklin "were the band" for the Tempts, being the only constant members since their early '60s formation, to the point that they (or Franklin's estate) own the trademark to the group name. Franklin died in February 1995 due to complications from diabetes. |
| 576 | * Music/{{Testament}} is down to rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson; however, [[ThePeteBest third singer]] Chuck Billy has appeared on all their albums. |
| 577 | * The The is just Matt Johnson who writes all the songs, co-produces each album and often plays the majority of the instruments on each song. They have at times been a proper band with a stable line-up, including for a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Johnny Marr was the group's guitarist. |
| 578 | * These Wolves is Darren Fisher. |
| 579 | * Music/ThinLizzy: Main man Phil Lynott wrote or co-wrote all the songs & was the frontman—even though he played bass and the band's signature sound was the famous twin lead guitars, the band will very likely never again pen an original song under the Thin Lizzy name seeing as "Philo" died in 1986. (A later lineup did start creating original material again, but recognising the likelihood of a backlash if they used the Thin Lizzy name, they created the spin-off band Black Star Riders instead.) The fact that they have become a self-tribute RevolvingDoorBand cements this trope. |
| 580 | * Music/ThirdEyeBlind is Stephan Jenkins. Even though Brad Hargreaves has been the drummer on every album, he isn't an original member. |
| 581 | * Music/ThirtySecondsToMars has been brothers [[Creator/JaredLeto Jared]] and Shannon Leto since its 1998 formation, although Tomo Miličević (who left in 2018) has been a long-serving member. |
| 582 | * The Thrillseekers is Steve Helstrip. |
| 583 | * Music/{{Tiamat}} is pretty much this now, as Johan Edlund has been the only constant (and most recognizable member) and is overall responsible for writing both the music and lyrics. |
| 584 | * Non rock/pop example: Music/HerbAlpert's Tijuana Brass was this at first. It became necessary to put together an actual band when it came time to do his/their first live performance. |
| 585 | * Those Poor Bastards is Lonesome Wyatt. |
| 586 | * Music/{{TNT|Band}}: Guitarist Ronni Le Tekrø is the only founding member who has been in the band for their entire run. |
| 587 | * Music/TomPetty and the Heartbreakers were actually a subversion, despite being named for the frontman. They had a stable lineup and lead guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench were a key part of the band's sound. Petty also reunited with his high school band Mudcrutch, which also subverts the trope since several other members have also contributed songs (although Petty did write or co-write more than half of them). |
| 588 | * Music/TomMilsom: He plays over 30 instruments, and if you hear something on one of his albums/[=EPs=], there's a 99% chance he was the one playing it. When he plays live/without a loop pedal he usually uses Creator/AlexDay or Eddplant. |
| 589 | * Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs is Orlando Higginbottom. |
| 590 | * When Music/{{Toto}} were down to Steve Lukather and whoever he could get to join him, Lukather decided it wasn't worth it anymore without his old buddies and dissolved the band. |
| 591 | * Music/ToxicHolocaust is Joel Grind. It was also a one-man project from 2001 to 2008. |
| 592 | * The Tractors was, after their first album, Steve Ripley and anyone who wanted to play. |
| 593 | * Zigzagged by TR/ST (formerly Trust), which started as a collaboration between Robert Alfons and Austra drummer Maya Postepski, but became Alfons's solo act after Postepski left to focus on the latter band and her own [[SoloSideProject solo project]] Princess Century, then she returned to working with TR/ST for his third album, leaving Austra for good. |
| 594 | * Music/{{Trivium}}: Matt Heafy is the only original member left in the band. |
| 595 | * The soundtracks to ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' are credited to Trocadero, even if many a song have only frontman Nico Audy-Rowland playing the instruments. |
| 596 | * TTNG(Previously known as This Town Needs Guns) is Tim Collis as he is the only member who's been there since the formation in 2004. |
| 597 | * Tubeway Army was so closely associated with singer Music/GaryNuman that when he started releasing music under his own name instead, using former members of Tubeway Army as his backing band, no-one really noticed. Partly averted due to the importance of drummer Cedric Sharpley to Tubeway Army's (as later Gary Newman's) electronic-era sound. |
| 598 | * Tyrannosaurus / T. Rex was Music/MarcBolan. |
| 599 | * Music/TwistedSister: Dee Snider (although the band was started by guitarist Jay Jay French). |
| 600 | * Unheilig, though it originally had more members, now consists mainly of Der Graf and two live musicians. |
| 601 | * Unhuman is Youri Raymond. |
| 602 | * Ultraje a Rigor is Roger Moreira and his backing band. |
| 603 | * Music/VanHalen was of course Eddie and Alex Van Halen (and to a lesser extent, Eddie's son Wolfgang) until Eddie's death in 2020. |
| 604 | * Music/VenetianSnares is Aaron Funk. |
| 605 | * Music/VernianProcess was just Joshua A. Pfeiffer until 2008; now there are six permanent members. So somewhat subverted. |
| 606 | * Vicious Rumors is Geoff Thorpe. |
| 607 | * Music/TheVines is singer/guitarist Craig Nicholls. |
| 608 | * Music/VioletUK is Music/YoshikiHayashi. |
| 609 | * Void Vision is Shari Vari (nee Wallin). It originally was a full band; after the other members left, Shari continued solo. |
| 610 | * Music/VNVNation, as of Mark Jackson's departure in late 2017, is Ronan Harris solo, aside from live guest performers. |
| 611 | * Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band: Everything after the first two words is redundant; the record company just reckoned a group was more marketable. "A Fifth of Beethoven" went to #1, so they may even have been right. |
| 612 | * Music/{{WASP|Band}}: Blackie Lawless. |
| 613 | * The Waterboys's frontman and leader Mike Scott claims that The Waterboys and Mike Scott "both mean the same thing"; they also claim to have had [[RevolvingDoorBand more past members than any other rock band]], and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Waterboys_members they might be right]]. |
| 614 | * Although some members are pretty well known on their own, Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter were the Weather Report's only permanent members. |
| 615 | * Music/{{Wedlock}}: Paul Allgood is essentially the most visible figure of the outfit; with a definite RevolvingDoorBand feel. |
| 616 | * Music/WeirdAlYankovic is a strange case. Al is the writer, and the face of the band to such a degree that people who aren't fans assume that this trope is in play. But his backing band is amazingly stable. The new guy on the band joined in 1991. |
| 617 | * Okay, yes, Music/{{WHAM}} was always marketed as a duo. But c'mon. Creator/GeorgeMichael was the group's singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist; Andrew Ridgeley sometimes strummed a guitar. In fact, they recorded tracks where George Michael and ONLY George Michael was credited with writing, producing, arranging the track -- as well as ''singing all vocals and playing every single instrument''. I Am The Band, indeed! |
| 618 | * Music/{{Whitesnake}} changed its name from the David Coverdale Band early on, but Coverdale remains the only permanent member. [[RevolvingDoorBand Most other members appear for only one or two albums.]] |
| 619 | * White Town's sole member is Jyoti Mishra. |
| 620 | * As of 2012, the only constant member of Music/TheWiggles is Anthony Field (the blue one). |
| 621 | * Every member of Music/TheWildhearts except for frontman Ginger has left the band, or been kicked out, at least once. |
| 622 | * Music/{{Wings|Band}}: Mostly Music/PaulMcCartney. He was a core member in a band that changed personnel six times in ten years (twice to core members only), he wrote ''most'' of the songs himself (the ones he didn't write were generally only included on albums to make the unit seem more democratic than it was), and until 1976 he paid his band members a flat rate. Denny Laine got things fixed a little for himself after then, but still... |
| 623 | ** By 1987 and greatest hits album ''All the Best'', Paul had given up on pretending Wings was an actual band. That album is attributed solely to Paul [=McCartney=] despite being about half Wings songs. |
| 624 | * On the first Music/{{Wintersun}} album, Jari Mäenpää sung (if you want to call it that) and performed every instrument except for the drums. The [[ScheduleSlip legendarily delayed]] ''Time I'' features performances by a whole four-man group but is still unquestionably Mäenpää's brainchild. |
| 625 | * Music/{{Wolfmother}} has been Andrew Stockdale since 2008, when the other two original members left due to his SmallNameBigEgo behavior. |
| 626 | * [[http://www.wormquartet.com Worm Quartet]]. And about live performances, you can do wonders with pre-recorded synths. |
| 627 | * World Party is Karl Wallinger, though it was a full band for a while in the early 1990s. |
| 628 | * Worriers is Lauren Denitzio plus a rotating list of extra musicians, many of whom play in their own established groups. |
| 629 | * Music/WoodsOfYpres were David Gold, at least after he shifted from drumming full time to fronting the band in 2004. |
| 630 | * Music/WovenHand was initially David Eugene Edwards playing completely solo. After the first album, he started accumulating a full band, but its roster is somewhat unstable, with drummer Ordy Garrison sticking around longer than anyone else. |
| 631 | * Though it's plainly impossible to imagine the band without [[Music/ToshimitsuDeyama Toshi]]'s characteristic voice (and hair), and [[Music/HidetoMatsumoto hide]]'s death sent him into years-long CreatorBreakdown, it's equally hard to deny that Music/XJapan is first and foremost [[Music/YoshikiHayashi Yoshiki]]. He writes most of the band's songs and music, he's both the drummer and the keyboardist, he produces and arranges all their material by himself in his own personal studio, and he was responsible for their reunion in 2007. |
| 632 | * Y&T is Dave Meniketti, as he's the only founding member who's still alive. |
| 633 | * Yazz and the Plastic Population was really just Yasmin "Yazz" Evans. If there was a "Plastic Population" at all, it would be producers Coldcut, but given that they were already credited ''as'' Coldcut, it was redundant either way. |
| 634 | * Years & Years started as a band, but Olly Alexander became the lone official member in 2021. In late 2023, coinciding with the announcement that Alexander would be representing the United Kingdom in the 2024 Series/EurovisionSongContest, he stated that he would be going by his own name from that point on, effectively ending Years & Years. |
| 635 | * When Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe and Bill Bruford, all of whom were former core members of Music/{{Yes}}, decided to reunite in the late eighties, bassist Chris Squire refused to let them use the name Yes, because he had the rights. As a consequence, they recorded under the [[SarcasmMode incredibly imaginative]] name "Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe" (they considered using the names "No" and "The Affirmative", which would have been much better). Also, for a while until his death, he was the only founding member left in the band. There are now no founding members in the band, though current guitarist Steve Howe have each appeared on all but four of their albums (And drummer Alan White was a constant from 1972 until his death in 2022), while Jon Anderson, Music/TrevorRabin and Rick Wakeman briefly performed as "Yes Featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Ravin, Rick Wakeman". |
| 636 | ** After Squire's death, the nature of the band trademarks would become somewhat more open. It would turn out that Howe, Anderson, and White were all partners in various LLC's that could claim rights to the name, but that there had been a long-running "gentleman's agreement" between Anderson and Squire that left the latter with sole rights to record and tour under the name. |
| 637 | * Subverted with Music/ZacBrownBand. While you'd think this would be the case with a name like that, [[LongRunnerLineup all original members have been around since its formation in 2002]]. |
| 638 | * ZARD was Izumi Sakai, after their other members left the band after the release of the single ''Makenaide''... in the year 1993. It's a shame that she passed away in 2007... |
| 639 | [[/folder]] |
| 640 | |
| 641 | [[folder:Fictional]] |
| 642 | * In ''Film/BillAndTedFaceTheMusic'', while Bill, Ted and Death argue about the collapse of their band Wyld Stallyns, Death (their bassist) insists that he personally was the band. |
| 643 | * Cole St. Clair in relation to NARKOTIKA in ''Literature/WolvesOfMercyFallsSeries''. He's the one who jumps out on album covers, and he's most likely the one who leads his friends Jeremy and Victor into temptation. |
| 644 | * Liam says this about Driveshaft in one of Charlie's flashbacks on ''Series/{{Lost}}''. Note [[Music/{{Oasis}} the name]]. |
| 645 | * Klavier Gavin obviously is this for The Gavinners in ''Franchise/AceAttorney''. Not only is the band ''named'' after him, but he's also the only member [[spoiler:except for the one who ends up in jail halfway through the game to ever even be ''named'' or ''appear on-screen''. And when Gavin, it promptly disbands]]. |
| 646 | * In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks'', Rainbow Dash constantly insists that the Rainbooms are her band — after all, she's the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter, and she named the band after herself. |
| 647 | -->'''Rainbow Dash:''' I could win this thing as a solo act, and everybody knows it! |
| 648 | * ''Literature/DaisyJonesAndTheSix'': Billy Dunne, the lead singer of The Six, occasionally tries to claim that the band was a democracy but often contradicts himself and makes it clear ''he's'' in charge. When Daisy Jones demands equal songwriting input on their collaborative album the rest of the band take it as an opportunity to force Billy to finally listen to their input. |
| 649 | [[/folder]] |
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