Tex Perkins came from Brisbane's musical fringe, with his band The Dum-Dums. He had a passion for country music, but strange and loud. Kim Salmon was making Perth sound like the world's biggest swamp with his band The Scientists. They came together as a hard rock supergroup, The Beasts of Bourbon. It was more like collision than collabration.
— Long Way to the Top: Stories of Australian Rock & Roll
A band formed by other musicians who are already famous for their other work.
Supergroups have a bad tendency not to last very long, most breaking up after five years on average. What usually happens from there is that the members return to the respective acts they were famous for in the first place. They might also be a One-Book Author, collaborating for just one album or a few concerts before going back to their solo work.
See also All-Star Cast (several famous actors are all part of the same work).
Notable examples (the bands that the members are from are listed):
- !!! (The Yah Mos, Black Liquorice, Popesmashers)
- 2 Phat Cunts (BT, Sasha)
- 32Crash (Front 242, Implant)
- 8in8 (Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, Damian Kulash, and Neil Gaiman) was a one-off effort that released one album.
- Abbath (Immortal, Gorgoroth, Benighted)
- The Adrenaline Mob (Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, Symphony X, Fozzy, Stuck Mojo, Disturbed, Twisted Sister).
- Alias (Sheriff, Heart)
- Alibi (Armin Van Buuren, DJ Tiësto)
- All Pigs Must Die (The Hope Conspiracy, The Red Chord, Trap Them, Give Up the Ghost, Converge)
- Alter Bridge (Creed, The Mayfield Four)
- Angels & Airwaves (blink-182, Hazen Street, Box Car Racer, The Offspring, Rocket From The Crypt, Social Distortion, Thirty Seconds to Mars, The Distillers)
- Another Animal (Godsmack, Ugly Kid Joe, Dropbox)
- Any Band (Korean artists BoA, Xiah Junsu of TVXQ/DBSK, Tablo, and Jin Bora)
- Apparatjik (Coldplay, a-ha, Mew)
- The Argonauts (Dave Ralph and Mike Koglin)
- Army of Anyone (Filter, Stone Temple Pilots, Korn)
- Asia (King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, The Buggles)
- Atoms for Peace (Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Forro in the Dark)
- Audioslave (Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine)
- Automatic Baby (R.E.M., U2) Perhaps the shortest lived supergroup ever. They only performed one song (U2's "One") together at a concert for Bill Clinton, and were named after their other bands' most recent albums at the time, R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People and U2's Achtung Baby.
- Avantasia (Edguy, Angra, Yngwie Malmsteen, Kamelot, Jorn Lande, Helloween, Gamma Ray, and many more).
- AxeWound (Bullet for My Valentine, Cancer Bats, Pitchshifter, Rise to Remain, Glamour of the Kill)
- Axis of Justice (Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down and others)
- Bad Company (Free, Mott the Hoople, King Crimson)
- Bad English (The Babys, Journey)
- Bad Wolves (In This Moment, DevilDriver, God Forbid, Divine Heresy, Bury Your Dead)
- Barren Earth (Amorphis, Moonsorrow, Kreator, Swallow the Sun)
- Bedrock (John Digweed, Nick Muir)
- Big Dirty Band (Rush, Three Days Grace, Big Wreck)
- Black Country Communion (Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, Joe Bonamassa and Derek Sherinian)
- The Black Queen (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Nine Inch Nails, Telefon Tel Aviv)
- Black Swords (Black Rain, Orphan Swords)
- Blind Faith (The Yardbirds, Cream, Traffic, Family)
- Blue Murder (Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Thin Lizzy, The Firm, Whitesnake)
- Bloodbath (Opeth, Katatonia, Edge of Sanity)
- Borknagar (Ulver, Molested, Gorgoroth, Immortal, Enslaved)
- boygenius (Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus)
- Bravo All Stars (Backstreet Boys, The Boyz, Aaron Carter, Caught in the Act, Gil, The Moffatts, Mr. President, *NSYNC, R'n'G, Scooter, Sqeezer, Touché, Jasmin Wagner)
- Brides of Destruction (Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe)
- Broken Bells (The Shins, Danger Mouse)
- Broken Social Scene (Feist, Metric, Stars, Do Make Say Think)
- Partially owing to the immense size of the band, Broken Social Scene consider themselves less of a "supergroup" and more of an occasional "musical collective."
- The Brothers Martin (Joy Electric, Starflyer 59, Project 86)
- Bruderschaft (Apoptygma Berzerk, Covenant, FGFC820, Icon Of Coil, VNV Nation)
- Captain Beyond (Iron Butterfly and Deep Purple)
- Case Lang Veirs (Neko Case, k.d. lang, and Laura Veirs, each a solo indie rock/indie folk powerhouse in her own right, with Case also being associated with The New Pornographers and Veirs being famous for recording with a bunch of other artists).
- Charred Walls of the Damned (Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Testament, Death, Capharnaum, Crotchduster)
- Chickenfoot (Joe Satriani, Van Halen, Red Hot Chili Peppers)
- Childbirth (Seattle underground bands Pony Time, Tacocat, and Chastity Belt)
- Child Rebel Soldier (Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Pharrell Williams)
- Although we're still waiting on their album, which is stuck in Development Hell — we've only heard 2 songs as of 2013.
- Class of '99 (Alice in Chains, Rage Against the Machine, Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros)
- Formed solely for the soundtrack to The Faculty, contributing a cover of "Another Brick in the Wall". Best known for being the last project that Layne Staley ever worked on before his death from a drug overdose.
- Coldkill (FGFC820, Interface)
- Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains (Primus, Buckethead, Parliament-Funkadelic)
- Contraband (Scorpions, Guns N' Roses, Vixen, Ratt)
- Cream (The Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, Graham Bond, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers)
- Crime And The City Solution (The Birthday Party, The Bad Seeds, Swell Maps, and later Einstürzende Neubauten and D.A.F. Leader Simon Bonney was pretty much the only member not known from other bands.)
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, The Hollies, Neil Young)
- Damn Yankees (Ted Nugent, Styx, Night Ranger, Accept)
- The Damned Things (Fall Out Boy, Anthrax, Every Time I Die)
- Damnocracy (formed for the aforementioned VH1 TV show; Skid Row, Anthrax, Ted Nugent, Biohazard, Foreigner)
- Dangerdoom (MF Doom and Danger Mouse)
- The Dead Weather (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Greenhornes, Queens of the Stone Age, The Kills)
- The Dark Element (Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, Cains Offering)
- Dark New Day (Sevendust, Stereomud, Skrape)
- The Deep End (The Who, Pink Floyd, Big Country, Eurythmics, Roxy Music, Medicine Head, Billy Nichols)
- Demons and Wizards (Blind Guardian, Iced Earth)
- Deep Puddle Dynamics (Doseone [and by extension, cLOUDDEAD], Alias, Sole, and Slug)
- Destroid (Excision, Downlink, KJ Sawka)
- Dethklok (Brendon Small, Strapping Young Lad, the Mothers of Invention, the Steve Vai band)
- Digital Shades (Missing Words, The New Division)
- Dio (Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Ratt, Sweet Savage, Rough Cutt, AC/DC, Rising Force, Dokken, Whitesnake, L.A. Guns)
- Dio also contained Vivian Campbell, who would later become famous in Def Leppard.
- The Dirty Mac (The Beatles, Cream, The Rolling Stones, The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
- Device (Disturbed, Filter)
- Down (Pantera, Corrosion Of Conformity, Eyehategod, Crowbar).
- Dr. Octo Tron (KoolKeith) + (DelThaFunkeeHomosapien) whose logo resembles New York's underground supergroup {Non Phixion}
- Dreamcar (No Doubt, AFI)
- Electronic (New Order, The Smiths, and at various times also Pet Shop Boys and Karl Bartos)
- Emerson, Lake & Palmer (The Nice, King Crimson, Atomic Rooster)
- Legend has it that this was nearly Hendrix, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer (HELP). Keith Emerson and Greg Lake did have plans on having Hendrix in the band, but the drummer was going to be Jimi's long-time drummer, Mitch Mitchell (HELM). When getting Hendrix into the group didn't pan out, they decided to go without a guitarist and recruited Palmer to complete the lineup.
- Eyes Adrift (Nirvana, Meat Puppets, Sublime)
- Volcano (Meat Puppets, Sublime, The Ziggens). Effectively a continuation of Eyes Adrift after Krist Novoselic left the group.
- Fantômas (Faith No More, Melvins, Mr. Bungle, Slayer)
- Fantômas-Melvins Big Band took it further, consisting of the entire current Melvins lineup playing alongside Fantomas and performing songs by both bands - they only existed for one tour and never produced any original material, but a Live Album and later a DVD were also released.
- Featured (Curve, KMFDM, Nitzer Ebb)
- FFS (Franz Ferdinand, Sparks)
- Fight or Flight (Disturbed, Evans Blue, Ra, Bellevue Suite)
- The Firm (Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, Roy Harper, Uriah Heep)
- Five Finger Death Punch (Motograter, U.P.O., WASP, Alice Cooper)
- Flame (Nosie Katzmann, Tom Keil, Kim Sanders, J.D. Wood)
- Folkearth (Folkodia, Eluveitie, Forefather, Nae'blis, Yggdrasil, Broken Dagger, Tverd, and more. Just see this...
)
- For My Pain... (Reflexion, Charon, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Nightwish)
- French Frith Kaiser Thompson (Captain Beefheart Magic Band, Henry Cow, avant-garde guitarist Henry Kaiser, and Richard Thompson), a "supergroup"composed of 4 critically-loved musicians with almost no mainstream popularity. Thompson jokingly quipped that the fact that his presence on the album would broaden its audience was mostly a statement on the others' careers.
- fun. (The Format, Anathallo, Steel Train)
- Gaia (Armin Van Buuren and Benno de Goeij)
- The Good, The Bad, and the Queen (Though officially their name was simply a list of the members, who are Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon, Simon Tong and Tony Allen)
- GOOD Music (Like Young Money, more of a record label, but they did release an album; includes Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Big Sean, John Legend, Pusha T, Cyhi the Prince and Teyana Taylor)
- GOT the Beat is composed of seven of SM Entertainment's top female artists (BoA, Taeyeon and Hyoyeon of Girls' Generation, Seulgi and Wendy of Red Velvet, and Karina and Winter of aespa).
- Gouryella was originally a collaboration between Ferry Corsten and Tiësto, but became a solo alias of the former after the two parted ways due to creative differences.
- Gravediggaz (RZA, Prince Paul, Too Poetic, Frukwan)
- The Greedies (Sex Pistols, Thin Lizzy)
- GTR (Yes, Asia, Genesis)
- The Gutter Twins (The Twilight Singers/The Afghan Whigs, Screaming Trees/Mark Lanegan Band/Queens of the Stone Age)
- Halloween Junky Orchestra (L'arc-en-Ciel, SCANDAL, Mucc, Acid Black Cherry, and etc. They only formed as a gathering of musicians for the annual Halloween party that Hyde throws, so the group lasted only long enough for that.)
- The Halo Effect (many, but chiefly In Flames and Dark Tranquillity)
- Hardline (Brunette, Journey and later Edge of Forever, Eden's Curse)
- The Head Cat (Motörhead, the Stray Cats)
- Helix (Assemblage 23, Mari Kattman of Day Twelve)
- Hellyeah (Pantera, Mudvayne, Damageplan, Nothingface)
- The Highwaymen (Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson)
- The Highwomen (Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires)
- Hindu Love Gods (Warren Zevon, R.E.M.)
- Hollywood Vampires (Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, Aerosmith plus an All-Star Cast of guest musicians)
- The Honeydrippers (Led Zeppelin, Chic, Jeff Beck)
- Humble Pie (The Small Faces, The Herd, Spooky Tooth, Colosseum)
- I Am Legion (Noisia, Foreign Beggars)
- Immaculate Consumptive (Marc Almond, Nick Cave, Lydia Lunch, J.G. Thirlwell}
- Iron Savior (original lineup; Helloween, Gamma Ray, Blind Guardian)
- Isles & Glaciers (Chiodos, Pierce The Veil, Emarosa, Underminded, the company we keep)
- Jack Ü (Skrillex and Diplo)
- JAM Project (Hironobu Kageyama, Masaaki Endoh, Masami Okui, Hiroshi Kitadani, and Yoshiki Fukuyama, and formerly Ichirou Mizuki, Eizo Sakamoto, and Rica Matsumoto.)
- The Jeff Beck Group existed as sort of an anti-supergroup - Jeff Beck, formerly of The Yardbirds, was unquestionably the leader and then-most famous member, though Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Aynsley Dunbar went on to become famous as members of other groups or solo.
- Journey (Santana, Steve Miller Band, The Mothers Of Invention/The Jeff Beck Group)
- Kamaya Painters (Tiësto + Benno de Goejj)
- Killer Be Killed (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Sepultura, Soulfly, Mastodon, The Mars Volta, Converge)
- Krallice (Behold... The Arctopus, Orthrelm, Bloody Panda, Geryon, Gorguts, etc.)
- La Coka Nostra (House of Pain + Limp Bizkit + Slaine)
- The Last Hard Men (Skid Row, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Breeders, The Frogs). While their first recording was a Cover Version of Alice Cooper's "School's Out" for Scream, they ended up producing a full album of original material, albeit one that lingered in Development Hell for four years before it's eventual release.
- Liquid Tension Experiment (Dream Theater, King Crimson, Dixie Dregs)
- Les Claypool's Bucket Of Bernie Brains (Primus, Buckethead, Parliament-Funkadelic)
- Lock Up (Napalm Death, Cradle of Filth, At the Gates; formerly members of Terrorizer, Rage Against the Machine, and Hypocrisy)
- Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends (Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck, The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
- Lost Dogs (Adam Again, The Choir, Daniel Amos, The 77's)
- Lost Tribe (UK trance DJ-producers Matt Darey and Red Jerry)
- LSD (Labrinth, Diplo, and Sia)
- The Lucid (Fear Factory, Megadeth, Sponge, Bang Tango)
- Lucy Pearl, (Raphael Saadiq from Tony! Toni! Toné!, Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest, and Dawn Robinson from En Vogue [due to the group's feminine name, the uninitiated thought she was the titular Lucy]). D'Angelo was also involved but left the group early.
- Mad Season (Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees)
- Magnetic Man (Skream, Benga, Artwork)
- McBusted (McFly and Busted)
- MD.45 (F.E.A.R., Metallica, Megadeth, Suicidal Tendencies)
- (The) Mighty Dub Katz (Fatboy Slim, G Money)
- Mike + the Mechanics (Genesis, Squeeze, Sad Café)
- The Millennium (The Association, Sagittarius, The Music Machine)
- The Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins - really a supergroup In Name Only, because didn't perform together live as a band, but they did do some recording sessions together).
- Monsters of Folk (Bright Eyes, Lullaby for the Working Class, My Morning Jacket, She & Him)
- Motorcycle (Gabriel & Dresden, Jes)
- Mount Westmore (Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, E-40, Too $hort)
- Mr. Big were a subversion. They were predominantly a group of well respected session musicians, with two members from underground acts (Racer X, The Eric Martin Band). Basically, they were a super group of people who weren't famous.
- MYC (DJ Manian and Yanou of Cascada, Cyrus Sadeghi-Wafa)
- Necromancing the Stone (Brimstone Coven, Arsis, The Black Dahlia Murder, The Absence)
- Neon Horse (The Crucified, Stavesacre, Starflyer 59, Project 86)
- Nevermen (Faith No More, TV on the Radio, cLOUDDEAD). CLOUDDEAD's Doseone worked with the other two members separately on other projects before the group was officially formed: "How U Feelin?" by Mike Patton's Peeping Tom was a collaboration with Doseone, while "Deathful" by Doseone's group Subtle featured TV On The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe.
- The New Pornographers (A very long story: On one hand, each member is involved in at least three different projects of note, very often including solo—e.g. A. C. Newman and Neko Case; on the other hand, only Newman and Case are really all that famous outside The New Pornographers)
- New World Punx (Markus Schulz and Ferry Corsten)
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (The Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution, Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Haut, Magazine, The Cramps, Gun Club, Gallon Drunk, The Triffids, Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes, Sonic Youth, The Dirty Three, The Saints)
- The Night Flight Orchestra (Soilwork, Arch-Enemy, Mean Streak)
- NKOTBSB (New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys)
- Nick and Knight (Nick Carter and Jordan Knight)
- No Devotion (Lostprophets, Thursday)
- Northern Kings (Finnish bands Tarot (also Nightwish), Sonata Arctica, Charon, Terasbetoni)
- Northward (Nightwish, Pagans Mind, TNT). In addition, Volbeat's Jacob Hansen produced the album, and Sabaton's Hannes van Dahl Chris Rörland made the cover art.
- Nx Worries (Anderson .Paak, Knxwledge)
- One More Angel (Ian Van Dahl, MC Shamrock, Esther Sels)
- The Orphanage (Aesop Rock, Blueprint, Eyedea, Illogic, Slug (of Atmosphere))
- Outkast (Andre 3000 and Big Boi, the latter originally part of Goodie Mob)
- Oysterhead (Primus, Phish, the Police)
- Pailhead (Ministry, Minor Threat)
- The Palpatations (Eric Clapton, The Who, Traffic, the Faces, Blind Faith)
- A Perfect Circle (tool, The Smashing Pumpkins, Marilyn Manson, The Vandals)
- Pigface (Public Image Ltd., Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, tool, KMFDM, The Pixies, Skinny Puppy, Throbbing Gristle, Killing Joke, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, and Shonen Knife, among others. Just see this...)
- Pistol Annies (Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, Angaleena Pressley). In a departure from the norm, Lambert has maintained her solo and Pistol Annies careers concurrently.
- Planet Perfecto (Paul Oakenfold, Ian Masterson of Trouser Enthusiasts)
- Plastic Ono Band (John Lennon of The Beatles, Eric Clapton, The Who)
- The Postal Service (Death Cab for Cutie, Rilo Kiley)
- Power Station (Robert Palmer, Duran Duran, Chic)
- Praxis (Primus, Buckethead, Parliament-Funkadelic, Jungle Brothers, Bill Laswell}
- Prophets Of Rage (Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, Cypress Hill). named after a Public Enemy song, though of course the name is probably also meant to tie in to Rage Against The Machine, who were frequently called "Rage" for short.
- Pure NRG (Solarstone and Giuseppe Ottaviani, the latter formerly from NuNRG)
- Pyg (The Tigers, The Tempters, The Spiders, The Golden Cups)note
- Rainbow (Elf, Deep Purple)
- The Resistance (The Haunted, In Flames)
- Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band (Ringo Starr and whoever he has with him)
- Romantic J (Juniel and Lee Jonghyun of CN Blue).
- Roxette (Per Gessle of Gyllene Tider, Marie Fredriksson). In a departure from the norm, their success and popularity before Roxette had been limited to their native Sweden.
- Run the Jewels (El-P and Killer Mike)
- Saint Asonia (Three Days Grace, Staind, Stereomud, Finger Eleven)
- Sammy Hagar and the Circle (Van Halen, Chickenfoot, Bonham, The BusBoys)
- Scandroid, composed of Klayton and Varien, though the latter left shortly before the third single release.
- Sequential Access (Decoded Feedback, Leæther Strip)
- Shrinebuilder (Saint Vitus, The Melvins, Neurosis, Sleep)
- Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak)
- Silvertear (Pascal Schutters, Jonas Steur, Christophe Chantzis & Erik Vanspauwen of Ian van Dahl)
- Slash's Snakepit (Guns N' Roses, Alice in Chains)
- Sinsaenum (DragonForce, Sunn 0, Slipknot, Loudblast, Daath)
- Southern Pacific (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Doobie Brothers, Pablo Cruise)
- Sphinx (Roland "Rollo" Armstrong (brother of Dido and co-producer of Faithless), Rob Dougan, Sabrina Johnston)
- Starbound (Dream Fiend, Killstarr)
- Steel Dragon from Rock Star qualifies on the soundtrack. The Steel Dragon songs are performed by Miljenko Matijevic (Steelheart), Zakk Wylde and Nick Catanese (Black Label Society), Jeff Pilson (Dokken) and Jason Bohnam (Son of legendary Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. Jason has played with them several times as well).
- Street Sweeper Social Club (Rage Against the Machine, The Coup)
- SuperHeavy (The Rolling Stones, Joss Stone, Eurythmics, A.R. Rahman, Damian Marley)
- Swan Lake (Destroyer, Wolf Parade, Frog Eyes)
- Temple of the Dog (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam* , Mother Love Bone)
- Teriyaki Boyz (Wise'N'Son Pub, m-flo, Rip Slyme)
- Them Crooked Vultures (Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin)
- The Throne (Jay-Z and Kanye West)
- Tin Machine (David Bowie, Reeves Gabrels, Tony Sales, and Hunt Sales)
- Tinted Windows (Cheap Trick, The Smashing Pumpkins, Fountains of Wayne, Hanson)
- Tired Pony (Snow Patrol, R.E.M., Belle and Sebastian, Jacknife Lee)
- Tomahawk (Mr. Bungle, Melvins, Helmet, The Jesus Lizard)
- Transatlantic (Spock's Beard, Dream Theater, The Flower Kings, Marillion).
- The Transplants (Rancid, Operation Ivy, The Slackers, blink-182). Their name even alludes to this fact.
- The Traveling Wilburys (George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison)
- Tremonti (Alter Bridge, Creed, Van Halen)
- Troublemaker (Hyunseung of B2ST and Hyun A of 4Minute)
- Tuatara (R.E.M., The Screaming Trees, The Chills, Critters Buggin, Minus 5, Los Lobos)
- Twenty Ten (The Living Tombstone, WoodenToaster, iBringDaLULZ, Mic the Microphone)
- Twilight (Leviathan, Nachtmystium, Krieg, Isis, Sonic Youth, and plenty of others)
- U.K. (King Crimson, Yes, Roxy Music, Frank Zappa, Soft Machine); Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa) replaced Bill Bruford when they pared down to a keyboard-drums-bass trio)
- Half of the original lineup of U.K. formed Bruford (Yes, King Crimson, Soft Machine, Egg, National Health; Hatfield And The North, David Sancious).
- Unisonic (Helloween, Pink Cream 69, Gotthard)
- Ursula's World (Grace, Mal Scott, Man With No Name)
- VAMPS (Hyde of L'arc~en~ciel and K.A.Z/Kazuhito Iwaike of Oblivion Dust)
- Velvet Revolver (Guns N' Roses, Stone Temple Pilots, Wasted Youth)
- Veracocha (Ferry Corsten + Vincent de Moor)
- Versailles (Lareine, Hizaki Grace Projectnote , Aikaryu, Jakura, Sugar Trip)—one of the few supergroups who managed to become more famous than their members' original bands; all but Lareine and HGP are pretty much unknown now to anyone who isn't a hardcore fan.
- Westworld (TNT, Riot, Rainbow, Danger Danger)
- Wild Flag (Sleater-Kinney, Helium)
- Whitesnake (Deep Purple, Paice Ashton & Lord, Juicy Lucy, the Wailers, the Streetwalkers)
- Wiseblood (Foetus, Swans)
- Wovenwar (As I Lay Dying, Oh, Sleepernote )
- Yellow Magic Orchestra (Ryuichi Sakamoto, Happy End, the Sadistic Mika Bandnote ) — another rare example of a supergroup becoming more famous than the original acts there; in the west, Sakamoto became the group's Breakup Breakout after their first dissolution.
- Young Money (more of a record label, but they did release an album, includes Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Gudda Gudda, Tyga)
- Zwan (The Smashing Pumpkins, A Perfect Circle, Chavez, Slint)
- ZZT (Zombie Nation, Tiga, not to be confused with the aforementioned Tyga)
