To-do list:
- Due to Face Of The Band's examples being in poor shape due to inconsistent usage along with outright misuse, it is being disambiguated, so move or remove wicks accordingly.
- Related tropes that wicks may fit:
- Note that disambiguating (previously, cutting) does not preclude taking related concepts to the Trope Idea Salvage Yard or the Trope Launch Pad afterward.
OP credits go to Adept
Problem: Despite the Face Of The Band supposedly being about the most prominent/visible/recognizable member of a band, a lot of on-page examples list more than one name, with some entries even listing the one member who is not prominent because apparently everyone else are the "Faces" of the band.
There are also ZCE issues with almost all the examples, and the wick check shows that the majority of the wicks simply mention the "Face"'s names without giving any explanation about how or why they're more recognizable than the others. This makes me think that this page as-is is way too subjective, even for a YMMV.
Proposed Solution: Turn into Trivia and require more objective evidence that the member are designated as the band's front-man (e.g. they're more prominently featured in album covers, photoshoot and other promotional materials, is the band's spokesperson in interviews, etc.). Also remove non-band examples.
Wick check:
Wick checks for Face Of The Band.Results
- Music Albums Artists F To M: "The band is good, but they'd be nothing without Alex Harvey"
- Versus: The Throbbing Masses ascend to this, with their new hit single "Scooby-Doo", and Josh dramatically leaving the band due to Creative Differences (despite Tyler protesting that they can't be the Throbbing Masses without "the throbbingest of the masses").
- Panic! at the Disco: People usually think of Brendon, the lead singer, before Ryan Ross, the main songwriter during the A Fever You Can't Sweat Out and Pretty. Odd. eras.
- The Vines: Craig Nicholls, who writes nearly all the songs and has been the only original member for many years.
- Wonder Girls: Sohee was by far the most well known member back when she was in the group.
- Canadian History: Gord Downie founds the rock band The Tragically Hip
- SKYND: Skynd is always front and centre, to the point that quite a few people don't even realise that it even is a band.
- Nijisanji EN: Luxiem: Vox is presented as the Face Of The Band and is always at the center of Luxiem.
- D: Asagi, to the point where people forget that there are four other members.
- Lovejoy: Given his popularity in the Minecraft community and the fact that he was releasing music long before the band was formed, it's unsurprising that people consider Wilbur Soot this.
- Anohni and the Johnsons: Anohni, though very much with the whole ego aspect.
- The Wanted: Nathan. Ask anyone who doesn't actually follow the band to name a member and it will be him. Him dating the much more popular Ariana Grande only made him even more of a face.
- Men at Work: Colin Hay, who wrote most of the lyrics, sang most of the songs and over-acted in most of the clips.
- Iron Maiden: Either Eddie, Bruce Dickinson or Steve Harris.
- Kataklysm: Maurizio Iacono. Sylvain Houde as well, even though he's been out of the band for almost 20 years.
- Sunscreem: Although Lucia Holm is the main singer and Face Of The Band, Paul Carnell gets a few moments in the spotlight
- The Sisters of Mercy: To the public at large, Andrew is the only member of the band besides Doktor Avalanche anyone can ever remember without consulting the Wikipedia article, unless you happen to be a fan of The Mission.
- Good Charlotte: Benji & Joel were treated as such by the press when the band first achieved mainstream success.
- Switchfoot: Jon and Tim are both really popular.
- Blood on the Dance Floor: Dahvie is the most notable member, though these days for all the wrong reasons. Within the LGBT community, however, Jayy is more recognized.
- Status Quo: It's no secret that Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt are Status Quo to most people.
- Morbid Angel: Trey Azagthoth or David Vincent. Pete Sandoval to a lesser extent. Entry isn't even sure who the Face really is.
- Sub-Radio: Averted. Their music videos make sure to feature every member, and they have multiple camera for their live streams so that everybody gets moments in the limelight.
- The String Cheese Incident: Averted. They refer to themselves in interviews as a "democratic ensemble", and everyone who's not a drummer gets a few of their songs into each setlist.
- Crocodile Hunter: Some people accused Terri of pushing Bindi too hard into being the face of Australia Zoo.
- Video Games: when picking up an SMG, he might say "This is just like Counter-Strike!"; and he has a Heavy bobble head on his desk
- Troper Entries A-D: A fat, bald, Eastern European soldier with a large appetite and a deep voice that is seen by the audience as the Face Of The Band. Heavy or Mârlanu
- BEMANI: Yoshitaka Nishimura, otherwise known as DJ YOSHITAKA, become the face of the franchise in The New '10s, serving as the head producer for beatmania IIDX, Popn Music, REFLEC BEAT, SOUND VOLTEX, and BeatStream. On top of that, he's known for a number of "boss" songs, most notably "FLOWER", a song that has been crossed over into nearly every active BEMANI series. It is often joked that he practically runs the entire BEMANI franchise now.
- Pokémon: The Series: Most people who don't play Pokémon still know what a Pikachu is. Likewise, most parents automatically equate Pokémon to Ash and Pikachu.
- Canon Immigrant: The character became so popular that he's been added to the eight reindeer from "A Visit From St. Nicholas"/"'Twas The Night Before Christmas" and has become the Face Of The Band in the public consciousness.
- Mystery Jets: Blaine Harrison
- The Fall: Pothole to Mark E. Smith.
- Vacanta Mare: Mugur Mihăescu
- Godflesh: Justin Broadrick
- ReVamp: Floor Jansen
- Pretenders: Chrissie Hynde.
- Sneaker Pimps: Kelli, until the band replaced her with Chris. Nobody seems to remember Liam Howe, even though he founded the band with Chris.
- Virtual Celebrity: The face of the Genki Rockets is the fictional character Lumi
- One-Steve Limit: Pothole to Kevin Rowland
- Three Days Grace: Pothole to Adam Gontier.
- Suicidal Tendencies: Mike Muir definitely.
- Streetlight Manifesto: Toh Kay
- Pearl Jam: Eddie Vedder, to the point where "Weird Al" Yankovic made a song about him.
- Camel: Pothole to Andrew Latimer
- Dire Straits: Mark Knopfler
- Jimmy Eat World: Egocentric Team Naming: Averted, even if lead singer Jim Adkins serves as the Face Of The Band.
- Black Flag: Henry Rollins, despite Greg Ginn being the band's headmaster.
- Combat Clothing: the symbol of the gang as a mask with the American flag
- Heart (Band): Ann and Nancy Wilson, who have also remained the only constant members of the band's ever-changing lineups.
- The Show Must Go Wrong: Also, the Face Of The Band has suffered a fugue state, and isn't singing the words that he probably should be singing within the context of the show/album.
- Friendship Is Magic: Background Ponies: Being the most popular pony within her band, many fans think of her as this. Not sure if this is talking about an in-universe Face Of The Band or if it's a "Not a Band"-type example
- Easter Egg: This is evidently a rather morbid reference to the Werner Herzog film Stroszek, which earned notoriety for being the last film Face Of The Band Ian Curtis watched before ending his life.
- The Masked Singer
- Bands tend to be represented by the most recognizable members of them, such as Crocodile being Nick Carter, the most recognizable member of Backstreet Boys. The Russian Dolls avert this, since they’re an entire band instead of one member.
- Inverted and addressed directly by the Butterfly, who acknowledged her history of working with giants. Michelle Williams is talented in her own right, but was easily overshadowed by Kelly Rowland and especially Beyoncé.
- Lead Bassist: The Face Of The Band: This bass player is well known for non-musical reasons...
Edited by Berrenta on Jul 28th 2023 at 9:31:22 AM
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
"Frontman" is an offsite synonym of "lead vocalist"/"lead singer", but I've never seen "face of the band" used anywhere other than TV Tropes.
As for that old TRS thread, it seems like this thread is another case of a newer TRS thread cleaning up an older thread's unfinished business if clarity issues with the definition and examples were a known problem even in the early years of the site.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 21st 2023 at 4:42:11 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
See, I just don't know if "band frontman" is a noteworthy concept, considering it's just sort of the way bands are structured. Where would it even go, Trivia?
In my experience, it's only been noteworthy in situations that cause tensions between the lead singer and the rest of the band because of how the lead singer is seen as the band's "representative". The cases I'm aware of were either about how the marketing and interview focus is disproportionately on the lead singer, so it's like the rest of the band are just backing support for a lone artist and therefore feel left out in the cold when they should be equals... aggravated if the lead singer has issues that affect the reputation of the band because, instead of being seen as one bad apple, they're treated like every member of the band has the same issues.
Either way, it's about tensions between a lead singer and their band due to disproprtionate marketing/interview/review coverage acting like the lead singer is the band's representative to the detriment of the rest of them. So, in short, I'm not sure the concept of being the "face of the band" is any different to I Am the Band... or, perhaps more accurately, a resistence within the band to being perceived as an unofficial Artist and the Band.
Edited by Wyldchyld on Jul 21st 2023 at 6:27:50 PM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
Bonnie's Artistic Cousin
I've seen that happen in fiction too, the issue is that we're talking about real life bands here, which is where we can't really get into things like drama and friction between band members without it getting too gossip-y and off-topic. And my question still remains about where such a trope would even go, because having a trivia trope about the drama occurring between bandmates seems a little like we're asking for people to complain or take sides or something.
Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 21st 2023 at 1:29:16 PM
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
My roundabout point is that I don't think it's tropable for real life for the reasons you cite. It's far too hot a potato. And anything that's more milquetoast would be real life examples of I Am the Band or Artist and the Band anyway. I'm not sure it's enough of a thing by itself beyond a stock phrase for prominant lead singers or sometimes managers.
Edited by Wyldchyld on Jul 21st 2023 at 6:32:19 PM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
Bonnie's Artistic Cousin
Yeah, exactly.
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
the Retromancer
This may be Spotlight-Stealing Squad but for musicians, which is NRLEP.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
I hooked a crowner since it's been three days. I only added cutting as an option because as previously mentioned, the poor state of the current examples means any salvageable concepts would have to be taken to TLP from scratch.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Calling in favor of cutting. If anyone wants to Yard anything, that can be done independently of this thread.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
How sweet it is
1426 wicks including the redirect
Just found The Face, an objective trope for group (not necessarily bands) representatives/spokesperson/etc., which I suppose we can move plenty of this trope's examples to.
Just finished cleaning the wicks from The Face Of The Band redirect, and sent both the redirect and the trope's subpages to the Cut List.
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
Started working on Face Of The Band. 1330 left.
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall
While we're cleaning, I was wondering if we should just disambiguate the page.
A lot of the examples I've cut could go to The Face, I Am the Band, Artist and the Band, and Series Mascot, so maybe this could help with the clean-up.
under construction
We also have Stuck in Their Shadow for when one or two members (maybe three at the most, if there are at least five members in the group) are noticeably overshadowed by the others, especially when there is more than one "face". There is also The Band Minus the Face for when the most important member (usually the singer) leaves (or dies) and the rest of the members continue without them. I also think this could be disambiguated instead of outright cut.
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_up_emote.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
making disambig.
He/Him
A disambig would be helpful for In-Universe examples on work/character pages.
But whenever I'm cleaning for wicks in the YMMV namespace (which btw is like 728 at the time I'm writing this), I'm still just gonna say it's been cut. Because, it essentially has.
Edited by AudioSpeaks2 on Jul 27th 2023 at 10:08:58 PM
Art Museum Curator and frequent helper of the Web Original deprecation project
Disambigging is a kind of cut (a cut with links), 'cuz the trope no longer exists. So you're still correct!
OK, tropes are listed on the OP for cleaning help.
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
I still think converting to a disambig would be better, or at least listing a basic definition of each of the tropes listed in the OP, similar to a disambig. That would really help with wick cleanup.
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall
How sweet it is
I'm down with the disambiguate idea.
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
I agree with disambiguating this.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Double posting because I went ahead and disambiguated since the subpages were already cut.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
He/Him
<1000
Now down to 3 digits
Art Museum Curator and frequent helper of the Web Original deprecation project
How sweet it is
Updated OP as we are not outright cutting any more.
she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
Any idea where to move this example to:
- The Runaways:
- The deconstructs Face Of The Band by showing how much the rest of the band resents the endless focus on Cherie Curie and how Cherie herself hates all the excessive spotlight, especially since she's still a teenager. And of course in this case the person being pushed as the Face Of The Band is only just the singer, while Joan Jett is the true Face hence why she kept her music career going. Bonus points for being based on fact too.
Crown Description:
- Despite the Face Of The Band supposedly being about the most prominent/visible/recognizable member of a band, a lot of on-page examples list more than one name, with some entries even listing the one member who is not prominent because apparently everyone else are the "Faces" of the band.
- There are also ZCE issues with almost all the examples, and the wick check shows that the majority of the wicks simply mention the "Face"'s names without giving any explanation about how or why they're more recognizable than the others.
- In addition, despite the definition being exclusively about musical groups, a lot of misuse interprets "band" more loosely to refer to other groups.
- Due to current examples being in poor shape due to inconsistent usage along with outright misuse, cutting was suggested. Note that cutting does not preclude taking related concepts to the Trope Idea Salvage Yard or the Trope Launch Pad afterward.
Huh, I thought "face of the band" was a widely used term in rock circles, but when I googled it, it's really only this site that uses it. Lead vocalist/frontman is used elsewhere (funny enough, the Wikipedia page for Lead vocalist which has frontman as a redirect uses the exact same Fall Out Boy example as I did).
Since this isn't a widely used term, and defining it either as "most prominent" or simply "lead vocalist" has their issues (the former, too subjective as to be contentious; the latter, not tropeworthy), then I can get behind a cut.
ETA: Also, since this hasn't been mentioned yet, there was a previous TRS thread
from 2011 for this trope on the very same issue that just petered out without any resolution
Edited by amathieu13 on Jul 21st 2023 at 4:07:45 AM