History ArtifactTitle / Music

** The "long-playing" record, or LP, was so called because it had longer playing time than an 78 rpm or 45 rpm single, usually around 23 minutes, but that could be extended with careful disc cutting. Later formats would have even longer running times. Cassettes could contain up to 120 minutes, at the expense of thinner, fragile tape, so the usual maximum on commercially-produced cassettes was 90 minutes, with 45 minutes per side. The CD's running time was initially 74 minutes, but this was later extended to 80 minutes, all on one side. Digital distribution's only limit on running time is the listener's patience.

* The "TVT" in now-defunct record label TVT Records technically stands for "[=TeeVee=] Toons": The label's first release was ''Television's Greatest Hits'', a compilation of TV {{theme song}}s. Though TVT periodically released compilations of TV themes and commercial jingles (as well as soundtrack albums to shows like ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''), it became better known for music well outside that niche, signing successful acts in varying styles such as Music/NineInchNails and Music/LilJon.

* The Mercury Prize, a British music award, is still named after its original sponsor Mercury Communications, which ceased to exist in 1997.

* AlternativeRock used to be a less-known alternative for the more mainstream sounds at the time of their origin. Nowadays it's the dominant form of rock, and the name is pretty much synonymous with "modern rock."

** The term "vinyl" was used at first for these new formats, to distinguish them from the older 78s, which were pressed on shellac (which was used to refer to them). Since vinyl more than made up for its greater propensity to break and warp with far less surface noise, by the late 1950s in the U.S. at least it had completely taken over. "Vinyl" nonetheless continues to be used to refer to all phonographic records, and while it's accurate since that's what they're all made of, it references a distinction that stopped needing to be made a long time ago.

** The "long-playing" record, or LP, was so called because it had longer playing time than an 78 rpm or 45 rpm single, usually around 23 minutes but could be extended with careful disc cutting. Later formats would have even more music. Cassettes could contain up to 120 minutes, at the expense of thinner, fragile tape, so the usual maximum on commercially-produced cassettes was 90 minutes, with 45 minutes per side. The CD's running time was initially 74 minutes, but this was later extended to 80 minutes, all on one side. Digital distribution has no limit on length at all.

* In the '60s, RAndB music stood for rhythm & blues music and was often applied to blues rock groups. Over the decades, it evolved into its present term, soul-influenced pop music. This has had the controversial side-effect of labeling (and pigeonholing) all black pop singers as R&B even if soul isn't their style.

* Occasionally, a musician from a band that has broken up will join a new band, and that band will use the old band's name to take advantage of the name recognition and/or record contract. Happened notably with Music/{{Scorpions}} in the early 1970s and Music/AliceInChains in the late 1980s[[note]] Lead singer Layne Staley was originally part of a HairMetal band called "Alice N' Chains". When he later formed a new band, he adopted the former name with some minor changes.[[/note]].

* The last time Average White Band had an all-white line-up was in 1974, before their breakthrough album ''AWB''.

* Fifty-something soft-rock duo George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam are still mostly known as Music/BoyMeetsGirl.

* Country Joe & The Fish, best known today for the protest song "Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die Rag", were originally a duo of Joe [=McDonald=] and Barry "The Fish" Melton. They kept the name even as they added others as full members.

* Underworld's famous [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlLWFa1b1Bc "Born Slippy.NUXX"]] is a [[InNameOnly completely different]] tune from the obscure [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fr1x-N3-k8 original song "Born Slippy"]]. It only got named so because it was on the same EP. Thus, many people mistake it to be the original, especially remixers of the song whose only credit is as "Born Slippy".

* Pop singer Noah Cyrus, younger sister of [[Music/MileyCyrus Miley]], signed a record deal with the RECORDS label in 2016. Her debut album was given the working title, ''NC-17'', a pun on her initials and the age she was when she signed. As of July 2021, Noah having aged past 17 long ago, she has yet to release ''NC-17'' or change the name of the album, feeling she did not want to release it until she felt satisfied with the finished project (though she has released many singles and collaborations and played many concerts over the two-year wait, including opening for Music/KatyPerry on Perry's ''Witness'' tour).

** The very genre name "country music" has been a bit of a misnomer for a while now, since after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the genre's home base has been the big, sophisticated city of UsefulNotes/{{Nashville}}.

* The UsefulNotes/{{Woodstock}} festival actually was originally supposed to take place in Woodstock, NY, but had to be moved to the town of Bethel, about 50 miles away.

* Music/{{TLC}}'s name became this [[AuthorExistenceFailure following Lisa "Lefteye" Lopes's 2002 death]].

* Japanese PowerMetal band Music/{{Versailles}} found out when they tried to perform in the US that there was [[NamesTheSame already an American band named Versailles]] and changed their name to Versailles Philharmonic Quintet--a name which became awkwardly inappropriate after bassist Jasmine You's [[AuthorExistenceFailure sudden death]] in 2009. While promoting their second album, they [[http://i46.tinypic.com/25umkg1.jpg continued to use]] the Versailles Philharmonic Quintet name despite only having four members. The name became accurate again when support bassist Masashi joined the band proper in late 2010.

* [[Music/SteelyDan Walter Becker]]'s ''11 Tracks Of Whack'' album actually has 12 tracks. "Little Kawai" was added at the last minute after the title had been decided. In Japan, the album features an additional track Medical Science, giving 13 tracks, yet keeps the original title.

* "Unchained Melody" was named after the movie it originally appeared in, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unchained_(film) Unchained]]''. The movie is largely forgotten, but thanks to covers and use in other movies (most notably ''Film/{{Ghost}}''), the melody is still popular. it still works as a title because the lyrics are about a man wondering if his lover will still be there for him when he's released from ''prison'', and therefore becomes unchained.

* {{Dubstep}} got its name after "Dub", an offshoot of {{Reggae}} known for its emphasis on various studio effects (most notably reverb) as well as the bass, and "2-step", a subgenre of UK Garage that eschews the four-on-the-floor rhythm in favor of a more jittery, irregular beat. While [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GdFXT-2XnI early dubstep tracks]] fits this name well, the "-step" part gradually became obsolete as producers favored half-time beats (half the tempo of 2-step) and put more emphasis on "dub-" (sparse, reverb- and bass-heavy sound) [[note]]listen to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEJG9L-n_tE this example]] and compare to the previous one.[[/note]]. Eventually, the "dub-" part also became obsolete, as the genre drew influence from HeavyMetal and PostHardcore and became much more aggressive and [[HellIsThatNoise noisy]] (what many people today think of as "dubstep" was after this transition), to the point where many old fans would much rather call the new sound a completely different name (such as brostep or filthstep).

* [[Music/SteelyDan Walter Becker]]'s ''11 Tracks Of Whack'' album actually has 12 tracks, but Little Kawai was added at the last minute after the title had been decided. In Japan, the album features an additional track Medical Science, giving 13 tracks, yet keeps the original title.

* Music/FreddieAguilar's song "Magdalena" refers to a Filipino term for a prostitute or sex worker, based on the erroneous belief about Saint Mary Magdalene being a reformed prostitute; this identification was made non-canonical by Pope Paul VI in 1969 but the belief persists.

* NewAgeMusic is more of a marketing term. Very few artists labelled as "New Age" actually have any connection to "NewAge" religions. Some of them even reject the label and propose replacements like "Folk Ambient" or "Instrumental Chillout".

* The Russian band 5sta Family (originally spelled 5ivesta Family) started out with five members: CoolB, V-kes, Tony, Loya, and Sandrik. Shortly before the band's rise to popularity, Tony and Sandrik left, and the band has been a trio ever since.

* {{Dubstep}} got its name after "Dub", an offshoot of {{Reggae}} known for its emphasis on various studio effects (most notably reverb) as well as the bass, and "2-step", a subgenre of UK Garage that eschews the four-on-the-floor rhythm in favor of a more jittery, irregular beat. While [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GdFXT-2XnI early dubstep tracks]] fits this name well, the "-step" part gradually became obsolete as producers favored half-time beats (half the tempo of 2-step) and put more emphasis on "dub-" (sparse, reverb- and bass-heavy sound) [[note]]listen to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEJG9L-n_tE this example]] and compare to the previous one.[[/note]]. Eventually, the "dub-" part became obsolete as well, as the genre took influence from HeavyMetal and PostHardcore and became much more aggressive (what many people today think of as "dubstep" was after this transition), to the point where many old fans would much rather call the new sound a completely different name (such as US dubstep, brostep or filthstep).

* Occasionally, a musician from a band that has broken up will join a new band, and that band will use the old band's name to take advantage of the name recognition and/or record contract. Happened notably with Music/{{Scorpions}} in the early 1970s and Music/AliceInChains in the 1990s[[note]] Lead singer Layne Staley was originally part of a HairMetal band called "Alice N' Chains". When he later formed a new band, he adopted the former name with some minor changes.[[/note]].

* {{Dubstep}} got its name after "Dub", an offshoot of {{Reggae}} known for its emphasis on various studio effects (most notably reverb) and the bass, and "2-step", a subgenre of UK Garage that eschews the four-on-the-floor rhythm in favor of a more jittery, irregular beat. While [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GdFXT-2XnI early dubstep tracks]] fits this name well, the "-step" part gradually became obsolete as producers favored half-time beats (half the tempo of 2-step) and put more emphasis on "dub-" (sparse, reverb- and bass-heavy sound) [[note]]listen to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEJG9L-n_tE this example]] and compare to the previous one.[[/note]]. Eventually, the "dub-" part became obsolete as well, as the genre took influence from HeavyMetal and PostHardcore and became much more aggressive (what many people today think of as "dubstep" was after this transition), to the point where many old fans would much rather call the new sound a completely different name (such as US dubstep, brostep or filthstep).

* Pop singer Noah Cyrus, younger sister of [[Music/MileyCyrus Miley]], signed a record deal with the RECORDS label in 2016. Her debut album was giving the working title, ''NC-17'', a pun on her initials and the age she was when she signed. As of July 2021, Noah having aged past 17 long ago, she has yet to release ''NC-17'' or change the name of the album, feeling she did not want to release it until she felt satisfied with the finished project (though she has released many singles and collaborations and played many concerts over the two-year wait, including opening for Music/KatyPerry on Perry's ''Witness'' tour).

* The UsefulNotes/Woodstock festival actually was originally supposed to take place in Woodstock, NY, but had to be moved to the town of Bethel, about 50 miles away.

* In the '60s, R&B music stood for rhythm & blues music and was often applied to blues rock groups. Over the decades, it evolved into its present term, soul-influenced pop music. This has had the controversial side-effect of labeling (and pigeonholing) all black pop singers as R&B even if soul isn't their style.
* AlternativeRock used to be a less-known alternative for the more mainstream sounds at the time of their origin. Nowadays it's the dominant form of rock, and the name is pretty much synonymous with "modern rock."

* [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]]: Several years and counting. It is also worth noting that the term was used in the UK to refer to guitar-led pop music that wasn't punk, in the US it was used to refer to groups that the UK would call synthpop.
* Pop: These days if a ballad is released without any rock overtones, country twang, or heavy soul influence, it's pop music, regardless of whether it is Popular or not.
* Indie: Even when the band is on a major label, their genre is still short for 'independent'. (However, "indie rock" can also be used to denote a genre, specifically a lo-fi and mellow strain of rock music.)
* Music/{{Emo}}. Originally used to refer to a less violent and confrontational, more personal type of hardcore punk that was emerging in Washington, D.C. in the 80s, the term is derived from "emocore", which itself was short for "emotional hardcore". Today, "emo" is used to describe a type of music that is barely distinguishable from pop-punk, and the fashion style and the association with any mental state other than "constantly happy". It is notable that some modern-day fans who [[OlderThanTheyThink don't know the history of the genre]] mistakenly believe it's short for simply "emotional".
* NewAgeMusic is more of a marketing term. Very few artists labelled as "New Age" actually have any connection to "NewAge" religions. Some of them even reject the label and propose replacements like "Folk Ambient" or "Instrumental Chillout".
** The name came from the attention given to some of its early stars—Andreas Vollenweider, Kitaro, and the Windham Hill artists—in the pages of ''New Age Journal''.
* Rock music in general could be considered an ArtifactTitle. Many people use the phrase "rock 'n roll" nowadays to describe many different kinds of music that no one would mistake for Music/ElvisPresley.
* Bossa Nova means "new beat" in Portuguese, but it hasn't been new since the 1960s.
* Funk carioca sounds almost nothing like traditional funk. Thing is, back in the 1970s, funk and soul were hugely popular in Rio's favelas. But as a new music style[[note]]derived from Miami bass, Latin freestyle, and gangsta rap[[/note]] grew popular and supplanted it, people kept calling the parties "funk balls".

* Some Chilean bands had one more member than the title suggest because the last member joined shortly after the original inception and [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg the rest weren't too keen to change it]]:
** 'Los Tres' (The three ones) were 4 members.
** 'Los cuatro cuartos' (The four quarters) are 5 members.
** 'Banana 5' are 6 members
* An interesting example comes in the form of punk band Dillinger Four. Their name was originally The Young Dillingers after a name they saw in a record sleeve under the Thank You list. When it turned out to be the name of a local gang they changed it Dillinger Four. At the time of naming, they only had three members so it was just a silly joke. Then they added a second guitarist and the joke just sort of became a normal name.
* "Unchained Melody" was named after the movie it originally appeared in, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unchained_(film) Unchained]]''. The movie is largely forgotten, but thanks to covers and use in other movies (most notably ''Film/{{Ghost}}''), the melody is still popular. it still works as a title because the lyrics are about a man wondering if his lover will still be there for him when he's released from ''prison'', and therefore becomes unchained.
* The "classic" Emo[[note]]Which is actually a style of post-hardcore music that bears virtually nothing in common with the mainstream label, see the entry above[[/note]] band Sleepytime Trio started out as a trio, but added a fourth member not too long after formation, and were a four-piece for almost their entire existence, yet they kept the name anyway.
* Underworld's famous [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlLWFa1b1Bc "Born Slippy.NUXX"]] is a [[InNameOnly completely different]] tune from the obscure [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fr1x-N3-k8 original song "Born Slippy"]]. It only got named so because it was on the same EP. Thus, many people mistake it to be the original, especially remixers of the song whose only credit is as "Born Slippy".
* This might be the best way to explain the stage name of singer P!nk. When she first started, she actually had [[http://images.contactmusic.com/videoimages/sbmg/pnk-there-you-go.jpg pink hair]]. However, as time has gone by, she has changed it to blonde. Although, she says her stage name came from Mr. Pink in ''Film/ReservoirDogs'', so it's possible that the hair was only dyed pink to explain the name, instead of the name coming from her hair.

* Occasionally, a musician from a band that has broken up will join a new band, and that band will use the old band's name to take advantage of the name recognition and/or record contract. Happened notably with Music/{{Scorpions}} in the early 1970s.
* Pop insert-genre-here ends up sounding more pop than that genre. Fast.
* Much mainstream "CountryMusic" is contemporary pop or rock with a steel guitar and a singer with a twang. There's still a few successful artists that adhere to a more traditional sound, though.
* [[http://www.omggband.com/omgg.cfm OMGG]], a bluegrass band particularly notable for the fact that its bandmembers have all been playing since they were quite young - the name stands for "Obviously Minor Guys and a Girl". The oldest already isn't particularly "obviously" minor, and soon enough none of them will be.
* Few music "albums" have actually been a book of discs in sleeves ever since the LP format made it convenient to put ~50 minutes of music on just one. And that was several decades ago.
** Similarly, many box sets come in hardback book form with CD holders, rather than in a box.
** "Albums" in the boxed sense were this trope when they were first introduced in the late 1930s. The first record "albums" were books with sleeves, holed in the middle, that records could be stored in and leafed through like photo albums (hence the name). They were introduced around 1909 or so; record companies didn't catch on that they would make multi-song collections a viable release at first.
* The mid-20th century displacement of 78s by long-playing 33 and 45 rpm records led to two terms becoming artifactual:
** The terms single, EP, and LP were introduced with the format ... in fact, all the latter had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LPlogo.svg a special logo]] on the cover that gave the format its name. They are still used today in describing the length of a recording despite most music coming out on the same format (usually CD or [=MP3=] download) regardless of length.
*** In Germany, the term 'maxi CD' is often used to refer to a CD single. It was originally designed to refer to CD singles which had more than two tracks but came to refer to all of them.
** The term "vinyl" was used at first for these new formats, to distinguish them from the older 78s, which were pressed on shellac (which was used to refer to them). Since vinyl more than made up for its greater propensity to break and warp with far less surface noise, by the late 1950s in the U.S. at least it had completely taken over. "Vinyl" nonetheless continues to be used to refer to all phonographic records, and while it's accurate since that's what they're all made of, it references a distinction that stopped needing to be made a long time ago.
** Similarly, we still refer to discrete selections from an album as "tracks" or "cuts", which makes the most sense on vinyl, even in the digital-download/subscription-streaming era.

* Subverted by the Thompson Twins. A trio at the height of their popularity (they had anywhere from four to six members in their early years), they became a duo after bassist Joe Leeway left.
* Secret Chiefs 3 started out as a trio but kept the "3" in the name once they became [[IAmTheBand Trey Spruance and a usually much larger, revolving-door lineup]].

* {{Christian|Rock}} {{Ska}} band Music/FiveIronFrenzy's named their second album ''Our Newest Album Ever''. And it [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin technically was]]... until they released ''Quantity is Job #1'' the following year.
* Japanese PowerMetal band Music/{{Versailles}} found out when they tried to perform in the US that there was [[NamesTheSame already an American band named Versailles]] and changed their name to Versailles Philharmonic Quintet--a name which became awkwardly inappropriate after bassist Jasmine You's [[AuthorExistenceFailure sudden death]] in 2009. While promoting their second album, they [[http://i46.tinypic.com/25umkg1.jpg continued to use]] the Versailles Philharmonic Quintet name despite only having four members. (The name became accurate again when support bassist Masashi joined the band proper in late 2010.)
* The "TVT" in now-defunct record label TVT Records technically stands for "[=TeeVee=] Toons": The label's first release was ''Television's Greatest Hits'', a compilation of TV {{theme song}}s. Though TVT periodically released compilations of TV themes and commercial jingles (as well as soundtrack albums to shows like ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''), it became better known for music well outside that niche, signing successful acts in varying styles such as Music/NineInchNails and Music/LilJon.

* The Air from J.S. Bach's Orchestral Suite No.3 in D major is commonly known as "Air on the G-String" after a once-popular arrangement created by 19th-century violinist August Wilhelmj, even though it is now more usually played in its original arrangement.[[note]] As the melody only covers a range of a minor tenth (A4-C6), it can be played quite easily on a single string; the original version can theoretically be performed entirely on the A string, but Wilhelmj transposed the piece down by a major ninth so that it could be played on the G string.[[/note]]
* Pretty much any band of youngsters identified as "boys", "girls" (maybe less so), or "kids" (i.e. Music/BackstreetBoys, Music/TheBeachBoys, Music/NewKidsOnTheBlock) where the members have grown up automatically becomes this. It happened to Music/SonicYouth long before their hiatus and will apply to Youth Group (whose biggest hit to date is a cover of Alphaville's "Forever Young") if they ever emerge from their own hiatus.
* Music/SnoopDogg's stage name derives from Snoopy, a cartoon dog. When he changed his name to Snoop Lion, the "Snoop" part became an artifact.
* The Music/{{Silverchair}} BSide "Punk Song #2". They originally used "Punk Song #1" and "Punk Song #3" as {{Working Title}}s for other songs written around the same time, but only "Punk Song #2" kept its title as a PermanentPlaceholder: "Punk Song #1" became "Lie To Me" and "Punk Song #3" became "Satin Sheets".

* Music/DuranDuran's 1983 followup to their breakthrough smash album ''Rio'' was called ''Seven and the Ragged Tiger'', after a storyline that Simon [=LeBon=] had originally envisioned going through all the songs about a group of rebels challenging a repressive state. During the album's [[TroubledProduction/{{Music}} difficult production history]], that idea was dropped in favor of just getting the record finished on time. Other than the title, it survives only in the concept for the "New Moon on Monday" video (more evident in the longer version).

* Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds was a soft rock trio composed of Dan Hamilton, Joe Frank Carollo, and Tommy Reynolds. The group continued to use its original name even after Reynolds was replaced by Alan Dennison.
* Fifty-something soft-rock duo George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam are still mostly known as Music/BoyMeetsGirl.

* Minor example/possible aversion: Music/{{Blondie}} was so named because there were two other blonde singers present for their early rehearsals, [[ThePeteBest both of whom left before they ever played live or recorded anything]]. This has resulted in a lot of IAmNotShazam moments for the remaining blonde singer [[FaceOfTheBand Debbie Harry]].
* Music/GunsNRoses is named after Tracii Guns and Axl Rose. [[ThePeteBest The former]] was fired by [[IAmTheBand the latter]] after missing rehearsals, being replaced by Slash.
* Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand, after the death of Duane Allman in a 1971 motorcycle accident, only had one Allman Brother. Since Gregg Allman died in 2017, any reunion under that name would be even more of an artifact.
* The "flanging" sound effect, used on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recordings_with_a_prominent_flanging_effect many songs]], gets its name from being originally produced by pressing down on the flange of a tape reel. Since the late 1970s, it's been produced purely electronically.
* The companies that produce and distribute pre-recorded music, or the brand names they do it under, are still referred to as "labels" from the identifying paper sticker on the center of a record, even in an era of digital downloads.
* Motown Records hasn't been based in Detroit since 1972. It's now headquartered in Los Angeles.

* Country Joe & The Fish, best known today for the "Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die Rag" protest song at Woodstock, were originally a duo of Joe [=McDonald=] and Barry "The Fish" Melton. They kept the name even as they added others as full members.
* The [[Film/{{Woodstock}} Woodstock festival itself]] actually was originally supposed to take place in Woodstock, NY, but had to be moved to the town of Bethel, about 50 miles away.
* ProgressiveRock originally got its name from the "progressive" FM radio stations it was played on in the U.S. These were so-called because the [=DJs=] would, between playing the bands' latest ''magna opera'', spend almost as much time as the songs themselves took to play discussing politics from a progressive (i.e., very leftish) perspective. The name for the subgenre has remained even as the stations became increasingly all about the music, and even as FM radio of the early 1970s evolved into today's classic-rock format.
* TrapMusic originally began in the Southern United States as a variation of hip-hop, categorized by its aggressive lyrics and uses of 808 kick-drums. It had a niche following that was limited mostly to the area. Then, in TheNewTens, elements of it were fused with [[ElectronicMusic EDM]], and it exploded in popularity. Trap music of today sounds little like it used to, yet it continues to carry the name, much to the confusion of original trap fans.

* ''Music/{{Ayreon}}'''s title character dies at the end of the first album, and subsequent albums don't feature him at all or have anything to do with him, apart from one song on a later album. Now a completely new story has started, making the title even more of an artifact.
* When Music/Maroon5's keyboardist Jesse Carmichael took a leave of absence from the band in 2012, the band replaced him with P.J. Morton. Carmichael returned to the band after two years, but Morton remained, meaning that Maroon 5 became a six-piece, now a seven-piece following touring guitarist Sam Farrar promoted to being an official member.
* Music/ThePianoGuys primarily do piano and cello duets, but they were named after a piano shop. A few songs have just the cello without any piano at all.
* Many purists fear that Nightcore has become this. Originally, the term referred to a style involving [[SpeedyTechnoRemake speeding up slow electronic music to make it faster and happier]]. But by TheNewTens, people (especially on Website/YouTube) were applying the term to any sped up song, regardless of its original genre.
** Similarly, synthwave started off as distinctly '80s sounding (the name is a combo of synthpop and new wave) and would use dreamlike chords and instrumental passages. However, the imagery and synths have been borrowed by numerous modern pop artists that just want to cash in on RuleOfCool.
* GothRock band Mono Inc. were named for their original lead singer, Miky Mono, who left the band in 2006 and died in a paragliding accident in 2010.
* Music/FrankZappa and Herb Cohen founded two companion record labels, Bizarre Records and Straight Records, with Zappa intending to release avant-garde music on Bizarre and music with more commercial potential on Straight. Bizarre Records had some distribution and management issues, while Straight did not: As a result, Bizarre ended up mostly releasing Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention albums, and Straight ended up releasing some music that was anything but "straight" (most notably Music/CaptainBeefheart's ''Music/TroutMaskReplica'' and [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness the early, psychedelic]] Music/AliceCooper albums)
* ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_nova Ars Nova]]'', literally "[[TheNewRockAndRoll New Art]]," is the name that was given to a style of music that was developed in the early 14th century, to distinguish it from the earlier Medieval ''Ars Antiqua''. The "''Ars Nova''" label stuck among music scholars to the present day, despite not having been anything like "new" for about [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld 700 years]] now.
* Music/{{TLC}}'s name became this [[AuthorExistenceFailure following Lisa "Lefteye" Lopes's 2002 death]].
* Top 40 lists of hit songs got to that number because it was the amount of 45 rpm singles a jukebox could hold. Jukeboxes are of negligible use today, and those there are use digital streams, but the name has stayed.
* Space Twins were originally a duo consisting of [[{{Music/Weezer}} Brian Bell]] and Susan Fox, who would dress up in ''Franchise/StarTrek''-inspired uniforms and pipe-cleaner antennae and perform for children's birthday parties. First they dropped the costumes and became a trio, then expanded further into a quartet. Though the "space" part of their name started making sense in a less literal way when they started incorporating more PsychedelicRock influences.
* The "Coronation Scot" (The theme for the BBC series "Paul Temple" composed by Vivian Ellis was not actually based on the ride with the train that has the same name, but rather the train ride that goes from Paddington to Taunton.

* Music/PenguinCafeOrchestra's "Music For A Found Harmonium" is much-covered, particularly by Irish/Celtic folk groups. Very few cover versions actually feature a harmonium - most don't even ''try'' to represent the sound, and those that do, generally substitute an accordion.
* Pop singer Noah Cyrus, younger sister of [[Music/MileyCyrus Miley]], signed a record deal with the RECORDS label in 2016. Her debut album was giving the working title, ''NC-17'', a pun on her initials and the age she was when she signed. As of July 2018, Noah having turned 18 in January, she has yet to release ''NC-17'' or change the name of the album, feeling she did not want to release it until she felt satisfied with the finished project (though she has released many singles and collaborations and played many concerts over the two-year wait, including opening for Music/KatyPerry on Perry's ''Witness'' tour).
* The last time Average White Band had an all-white line-up was in 1974, before their breakthrough album ''AWB''.
* Russian rave band Little Big started out as a quartet with included two little women (hence, the name reflected the contrast in size between the members of the band). As of 2018, both have left and no new little people joined the band, yet the name remains.
* Music/{{Radiohead}}'s song "Nude" at different points in its development had more emphasis on sex in its lyrics and featured lines like "what do you look like when you're nude?" and "we look so funny when we're nude". The song was first released by the band on their album "Music/InRainbows", and this version doesn't explicitly mention sex or nudity, but the title "Nude" remained. Oddly enough, when the song did include lines about sex, its working title was "Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)", which would seem more appropriate for the officially released version.

* SSQ were named for their lead singer Stacey Swain, who went by the stage name Stacey Q. They continued using the SSQ name [[TheBandMinusTheFace after she split with them]], though [[ZigzaggedTrope she has recently rejoined the group]].
* The [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebVideo/ChappersAndTheCaptainAtAndertons Chapman]] Ghost Fret guitar was already this by the time it began production. It was so named because the original design had the frets only go halfway down the neck's vertical axis; this proved too difficult to produce, but Rob Chapman kept the name because [[RuleOfCool he liked it]].
* Music/FreddieAguilar's song "Magdalena" refers to a Filipino term for a prostitute or sex worker, based on the erroneous belief about Saint Mary Magdalene being a reformed prostitute; this identification was made non-canonical by Pope Paul VI in 1969 but the belief persists.
* The Russian band 5sta Family (originally spelled 5ivesta Family) started out with five members: CoolB, V-kes, Tony, Loya, and Sandrik. Shortly before the band's rise to popularity, Tony and Sandrik left, and the band has been a trio ever since.
* In the 1980s, as vinyl gave way to cassettes and [=CDs=], the companies who made them and retailers who sold them would still refer to themselves as "X Records," before the Vinyl Revival of the 21st Century made them accurate again.
* Music/TheChemicalBrothers were originally The Dust Brothers before the American production duo of that name (Music/{{Beck}}, Music/{{Hanson}}) threatened legal action. Their first album is called ''Exit Planet Dust'' in reference to this. The song "In Dust We Trust" retained its title even though it was no longer self-referential.
* {{Dubstep}} got its name after "Dub", an offshoot of {{Reggae}} known for its emphasis on various studio effects (most notably reverb) and the bass, and "2-step", a subgenre of UK Garage that eschews the four-on-the-floor rhythm in favor of a more jittery, irregular beat. While [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GdFXT-2XnI early dubstep recordings]] fits this name well, the "-step" part gradually became obsolete as producers favored half-time beats (half the tempo of 2-step) and put more emphasis on "dub-" (sparse, reverb- and bass-heavy sound) [[note]]listen to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEJG9L-n_tE this example]] and compare to the previous one.[[/note]]. Eventually, the "dub-" part became obsolete as well, as the genre took influence from HeavyMetal and PostHardcore and became much more aggressive, to the point where old fans would much rather call the new sound a different name.
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* Music/TheChemicalBrothers were originally The Dust Brothers before the American production duo of that name (Music/{{Beck}}, Music/{{Hanson}} threatened legal action. Their first album is called ''Exit Planet Dust'' in reference to this. The song "In Dust We Trust" retained its title even though it was no longer self-referential.

* [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]]: Thirty-five years and counting. It is also worth noting that the term was used in the UK to refer to guitar-led pop music that wasn't punk, in the US it was used to refer to groups that the UK would call synthpop.

* ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Album_of_the_Soundtrack_of_the_Trailer_of_the_Film_of_Monty_Python_and_the_Holy_Grail The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin