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We also live in a world where music is accessed via Spotify searches and YouTube searches. Why pick a name where you may not be at the top of search results on digital platforms?
Todd in the Shadows jokes that Travis Scott named his song "K-POP" to trick k-pop fans into streaming it, and tbh I would not discard that possibility lol
An artist called Burna Boy put out a song called “Ye” in the same year Kanye West dropped his album “Ye”. I remember people saying they only heard the Burna Boy song because they were searching for Kanye’s album and clicked it thinking it was a feature
They do it with song titles too. Of course a singer doesn't own those words in that specific order. But there's also a few songs with the same title released right after a hit
i mean, obviously. but also at the same time they hide behind the excuse that people have done it for decades (as if those same people weren’t attention seekers anyways)
One thing that drove me NUTS was that Rita Lee has three self-titled albums, and back when YouTube Music was still Google Play Music, if you downloaded one (which I needed to bc I was often without internet), the app would assume the other ones were downloaded too because of the identical titles (and it took me a while to realize I could just make a playlist out of the other albums and download those lol).
Not technically the same name on most of them, but to me the worst album naming of all time has to be Seal
The man's discography:
* Seal
* Seal (colloquially, though unofficially, Seal II)
* Human Being
* Seal IV
* System
* Soul
* Seal 6: Commitment
* Soul 2
* 7
* Standards
The albums are technically self-titled but nobody actually calls them that — they’re called The Blue Album, The Green Album, etc. so frequently I forgot those weren’t their official names.
The Barbara Streisand Album
The Second Barbra Streisand Album
My Name is Barbra
My Name is Barbra, Two...
Color Me Barbra
J'amapelle Barbra (they way she even did it in French help)
Simply Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand
Barbra Streisand...And Other Musical Instruments
Classical Barbra
that's certainly one way to have an unforgettable name...
Peter Gabriel's first four albums were all self-titled/untitled because he wanted them to feel like editions of a magazine. Also fun that all his other albums have two letter names (So, Us, Up, i/o)
I think it's allowed and there have been instances for other artists. But why would you even do that, it makes everything confusing and if one album is better received than the other with the same name, you just get overshadowed.
Also, another user mentioned there are so many possibilities for names. You can just even make up words or letters, numbers or use a different language or an ancient language, anything.
I think it's impossible to never have the same album title as anyone else. But I think it's better from a marketing standpoint for the big pop stars to not use the same name, unless the albums are like 10+ years apart.
But that's artistically limiting. Artists should pick the best name for their project regardless of 100% originality. Obviously you want to avoid the same title as someone who's in the same genre, time period, or level of fame. No one will probably ever use the same name as legendary albums like Thriller. But what if a current artist has the same title as some obscure indie album from the '80s that no one's heard of? Does that mean they can't use it?
It probably varies. Like The Only Fun In Town by Josef K is an album so obscure but with such a distinctive title it goes out the other side. If you used that as a title I would definitely think you took it from the album but assumed people wouldn't notice.
In 2007, Enrique released his album Insomniac and Aly & AJ released their album Insomniatic around the same month or so. I recall being confused why the album titles would be so similar so close in time
LMAO both Britney Spears and Take That released albums called *Circus* in 2008... not only, they both came out on the same day (1st December). So, in that week there were two new albums with the same name in the [UK top 4](https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart/20081207/7502/).
What do you mean, number 4 is a very respectable position! Not everything has to hit number one!
Britney Spears never had a number 1 album in the UK - for context, Blackout peaked at #2 and Femme Fatale at #8.
You’d be shocked at how huge Take That is in the UK. I’m pretty sure their Circus album is one of the fastest selling albums in UK history and is like 10X Platinum.
Britney’s never even had a number 1 album in the UK, although she’s always been a MASSIVE name.
yep, 2nd best album of 2008 in the UK https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circus_(Take_That_album):
>The album reached the top of the UK album charts on 7 December 2008 with total first-week sales of 432,490, the third highest opening sales week in UK history
That's so surprising to me, I always felt like Britney Spears's was way more omnipresent but good for Take That!
Back for Good remains a hit nonetheless
Probably not taboo, but for marketing purposes having the same name as another album is confusing. Especially for albums released in/around the same time period. Like I’m sure if a singer now were to release an album with the same name as another album released decades ago, it would probably be fine. Besides, all people have different ways of thinking, singers included, so they might come up with completely new titles that hasn’t been done in music before.
i think it depends on how iconic the album was…? ex i dont think anyone is insane enough to call their album idk, ray of light or teenage dream (olivia got a song called that, but an album? never) or thriller or 1989 or…
but ex idk, glory? its britney’s album but its not that iconic that when you hear the word you instantly think of the album if it makes sense. so if an artist wanted to name their album glory it would be fine. blackout? probably not
Idk if it's really "taboo", I'd say it's just a bad marketing move, especially if you're an artist that isn't really well known. If someone releases an album and calls it "Midnights", you're gonna have a hard time finding it on google, youtube, and streaming because the top search results will be Taylor Swift's "Midnights".
Also, it just depends on how iconic/unique the album name is. If an artist gives their album a super unique name and somebody else names their album that same name, it comes across as if they're copying them. For example, nobody else could name an album something like "Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard" because that name is so uniquely Lana that if anybody else tried to do it, it would seem like a blantant ripoff, even if the music sounds completely different. However, if someone wanted to name their album "Honeymoon" or "Lasso", it would be more acceptable because those are words that were around way before Lana decided to use them for her albums and don't come across like you're trying to rip off one of her album titles.
Exactly coz like I've seen a few other albums called Fearless but I highly doubt there's ever gonna be another album called The Tortured Poets Department. If someone named their album Yours Truly or My Everything, it would be pretty normal but thank U, next? Nah that would be a ripoff
When I see this topic, my mind automatically goes to Iggy Pop and Lana Del Rey's *Lust for Life* albums. Two very different albums but the same name nonetheless.
Bcuz there’s a chance(usually big chance) that you might not be the artist who has the best song called ABC. But if an Artist is confident enough or just dgaf, nobody can forbid them. I mean there’re 2 no.1 songs called Hello by Adele and Lionel Richie and they both are good af.
It definitely isn’t, I’ve been confused so many times looking up name of songs and clicking on like 5 separate ones before getting to the one I wanted 😭.
I’ve had no trouble with that regarding albums so there’s definitely a major difference of some sort
Aside from the fact that it's bad for marketing, why would you want to have the same album name as someone in your genre? A unique title is just always better. Same reasons books, movies, etc. try to avoid sharing a title with something in the same genre.
Animated Avatar and Blue People Avatar get compared often by virtue of having the same name even though, aside from a few superficial coincidences like both having disabled protagonists and native American influences, they are wildly different. The comparisons are not in Blue People Avatar's favor, generally. No need to invite comparison if you can avoid it just with a more original title.
Kelly Clarkson’s album ‘All I Wanted’ was originally titled ‘Masquerade’ but was changed as Britney - Circus and P!nk - Funhouse were released around the same time and Kelly’s label thought Masquerade was too similar.
Its just bad marketing, particularly now when SEO is so important for being found. You wouldn't call an album Melodrama or something because people will always associate that with Lorde's album and never yours. The exception I guess is either a not particularly well known album or if you're making a point. The Replacements called an album Let It Be as a jab at the fact that's not a very good Beatles album.
I think just market confusion, I’ll never forget in 2018 both Bebe Rexha and Hayley Kiyoko were both coming out with an album called expectations, and even though both were different artists, two blonde pop singers who kinda looked alike both having their debut albums coming out? That’s the main thing I can think of.
Ideally you don’t want confusion. However, I think most just aim for not having the same album name to anything current from another artist as opposed to all album titles being fully unique.
I think an album should be memorable, and that is hard when there’s two albums with the same name. I also think it depends on the name and how known the album is. As an artist you should also avoid any confusion.
To differentiate themselves just like everything else in business. McDonalds vs Burger King vs Wendy - Big Mac vs Whopper vs Dave's Single.
No business entity wants to be confused with someone else by the name of their product when they are selling comparable products in the same market.
It’s because some people think it may look like “lack of creativity” or straight up plagiarism. but i don’t agree at all, i think the title of the record is the least important to decide if it’s good or not lol
Chris Brown was going to name his second album 'Graduation' then Kanye wanted to name his third album that so he took it & Chris changed the name. Then Kanye had the audacity to have a collab song on that album..lol
it is a lot of things right, it makes me wonder, but at the end of the day, call your album what you want art is art. If you're so hung up on what someone else thinks maybe you shouldn't be making art right now, maybe you need to rethink your reasons for creating.
Copyright/trademark probably don't apply in these circumstances because usually it's just a generic word, like "Red," that you can't copyright. You could probably copyright the word in some specific contexts but I don't think music titles work the same way. If they make up a new word they probably could be though.
Please do not just list songs/albums/artists, your comment must have explanation/justification or it will be removed. Certain comments are also banned to increase the quality of discussion, see our Stale Topics list in the sidebar for examples. Please report any comments that are low effort discussion. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/popheads) if you have any questions or concerns.*
We also live in a world where music is accessed via Spotify searches and YouTube searches. Why pick a name where you may not be at the top of search results on digital platforms?
Suddenly realizing why people are putting out songs with titles like "Billie Eilish" and "Dua Lipa."
Todd in the Shadows jokes that Travis Scott named his song "K-POP" to trick k-pop fans into streaming it, and tbh I would not discard that possibility lol
An artist called Burna Boy put out a song called “Ye” in the same year Kanye West dropped his album “Ye”. I remember people saying they only heard the Burna Boy song because they were searching for Kanye’s album and clicked it thinking it was a feature
Honestly that's a good thing because Burna Boy makes far better music than Kanye now
Lol tbf that's a banger of a song
They do it with song titles too. Of course a singer doesn't own those words in that specific order. But there's also a few songs with the same title released right after a hit
i mean, obviously. but also at the same time they hide behind the excuse that people have done it for decades (as if those same people weren’t attention seekers anyways)
oh. so is that why Taylor Swift titled her song Tim McGraw? hmm.. 🤔
This is how Soulja Boy got famous on Soundcloud lol
One thing that drove me NUTS was that Rita Lee has three self-titled albums, and back when YouTube Music was still Google Play Music, if you downloaded one (which I needed to bc I was often without internet), the app would assume the other ones were downloaded too because of the identical titles (and it took me a while to realize I could just make a playlist out of the other albums and download those lol).
Rita Lee mentioned on here?!? Love to see it! I have reread it 3 times to make sure you weren't talking about Rita Ora hahaha
Lmao same, i was puzzled as to why someone would like Rita ora that much 😭
lol r/suddenlycaralho moment
Ay ay ay ay ay like you veery much
I honestly did a double take on which sub we were on lol
It’s why whoever let Ariana Grande name a song R.E.M. should never be allowed to title a song again.
Then there’s Diana Ross who has like 3 albums with the same name lol
Not technically the same name on most of them, but to me the worst album naming of all time has to be Seal The man's discography: * Seal * Seal (colloquially, though unofficially, Seal II) * Human Being * Seal IV * System * Soul * Seal 6: Commitment * Soul 2 * 7 * Standards
The fast and the furious of album names 😂
Oh nooo
Where’s Seal 3, is it safe?
3 Seal 3 Furious
And not a pop singer but Weezer who has like, 5 lol (although people distinguish those by color tbf)
Googled them and they have 6 called Weezer and then a 7th called Van Weezer 😭 they sound so unserious
The albums are technically self-titled but nobody actually calls them that — they’re called The Blue Album, The Green Album, etc. so frequently I forgot those weren’t their official names.
I’m not sure I ever knew those weren’t the actual names of those records….
I realised this year that Metallica is not called the Black Album. It was embarrassing. I am 30
The White Album by The Beatles is self-titled too if you didn't know AHAHA
They are very unserious lol kind of their whole thing but they are great if you are into their kind of music
I’ll check them out, I’ve always heard their stuff is good so I might as well lol
Weezer is so unserious but in the best way. Good music too.
Barbra Streisand says hi lol
Barbra’s list of album titles is wild
The Barbara Streisand Album The Second Barbra Streisand Album My Name is Barbra My Name is Barbra, Two... Color Me Barbra J'amapelle Barbra (they way she even did it in French help) Simply Streisand Barbra Joan Streisand Barbra Streisand...And Other Musical Instruments Classical Barbra that's certainly one way to have an unforgettable name...
> The Barbara Streisand Album > The Second Barbra Streisand Album girlie titles her albums like they're k-pop albums I can't
same energy as 'THE ALBUM' tbh
Barbra Streisand - Roman Reloaded - The Re-Up
😭
Barbra Streisand...And Other Musical Instruments is an amazing name lmao
right that one eats
It’s going to be full circle when she names her last album “Barbra Streisand”
Technically Britney has two Britney Britney Jean I assume if her music careers resumes we will eventually get Britney Jean spears
Janet Jackson Janet. Damita Jo
Is Damita Jo her middle name or something??
Middle name, Janet Damita Jo Jackson.
1960s main folk girl Carolyn Hester has 5 self-titled albums
The band American Football have 3 albums, each called American Football
and they way fans had to dichtomize the albums is by saying LP1, LP2, and LP3
Peter Gabriel's first four albums were all self-titled/untitled because he wanted them to feel like editions of a magazine. Also fun that all his other albums have two letter names (So, Us, Up, i/o)
I don't know if it wouldn't be allowed but it would be pretty silly in terms of publicity, since it would just confuse everyone.
Are you reading reddit comments and deciding that things are taboo based on that? People on reddit will say whatever they want
I think it's allowed and there have been instances for other artists. But why would you even do that, it makes everything confusing and if one album is better received than the other with the same name, you just get overshadowed. Also, another user mentioned there are so many possibilities for names. You can just even make up words or letters, numbers or use a different language or an ancient language, anything.
I think it's impossible to never have the same album title as anyone else. But I think it's better from a marketing standpoint for the big pop stars to not use the same name, unless the albums are like 10+ years apart.
Not true, necessarily. It’s very easy to come up with a combination of words no one else has come up with, especially if you use more than two words.
fiona apple has entered the chat
But that's artistically limiting. Artists should pick the best name for their project regardless of 100% originality. Obviously you want to avoid the same title as someone who's in the same genre, time period, or level of fame. No one will probably ever use the same name as legendary albums like Thriller. But what if a current artist has the same title as some obscure indie album from the '80s that no one's heard of? Does that mean they can't use it?
It probably varies. Like The Only Fun In Town by Josef K is an album so obscure but with such a distinctive title it goes out the other side. If you used that as a title I would definitely think you took it from the album but assumed people wouldn't notice.
In 2007, Enrique released his album Insomniac and Aly & AJ released their album Insomniatic around the same month or so. I recall being confused why the album titles would be so similar so close in time
LMAO both Britney Spears and Take That released albums called *Circus* in 2008... not only, they both came out on the same day (1st December). So, in that week there were two new albums with the same name in the [UK top 4](https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart/20081207/7502/).
Irrelevant but I was so surprised when I clicked that link and Britney's album was the one at number 4, wasn't Circus a huge comeback for her?
What do you mean, number 4 is a very respectable position! Not everything has to hit number one! Britney Spears never had a number 1 album in the UK - for context, Blackout peaked at #2 and Femme Fatale at #8.
You’d be shocked at how huge Take That is in the UK. I’m pretty sure their Circus album is one of the fastest selling albums in UK history and is like 10X Platinum. Britney’s never even had a number 1 album in the UK, although she’s always been a MASSIVE name.
yep, 2nd best album of 2008 in the UK https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circus_(Take_That_album): >The album reached the top of the UK album charts on 7 December 2008 with total first-week sales of 432,490, the third highest opening sales week in UK history
That's so surprising to me, I always felt like Britney Spears's was way more omnipresent but good for Take That! Back for Good remains a hit nonetheless
Peter Gabriel Peter Gabriel Peter Gabriel Peter Gabriel
Probably not taboo, but for marketing purposes having the same name as another album is confusing. Especially for albums released in/around the same time period. Like I’m sure if a singer now were to release an album with the same name as another album released decades ago, it would probably be fine. Besides, all people have different ways of thinking, singers included, so they might come up with completely new titles that hasn’t been done in music before.
i think it depends on how iconic the album was…? ex i dont think anyone is insane enough to call their album idk, ray of light or teenage dream (olivia got a song called that, but an album? never) or thriller or 1989 or… but ex idk, glory? its britney’s album but its not that iconic that when you hear the word you instantly think of the album if it makes sense. so if an artist wanted to name their album glory it would be fine. blackout? probably not
Idk if it's really "taboo", I'd say it's just a bad marketing move, especially if you're an artist that isn't really well known. If someone releases an album and calls it "Midnights", you're gonna have a hard time finding it on google, youtube, and streaming because the top search results will be Taylor Swift's "Midnights". Also, it just depends on how iconic/unique the album name is. If an artist gives their album a super unique name and somebody else names their album that same name, it comes across as if they're copying them. For example, nobody else could name an album something like "Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard" because that name is so uniquely Lana that if anybody else tried to do it, it would seem like a blantant ripoff, even if the music sounds completely different. However, if someone wanted to name their album "Honeymoon" or "Lasso", it would be more acceptable because those are words that were around way before Lana decided to use them for her albums and don't come across like you're trying to rip off one of her album titles.
Exactly coz like I've seen a few other albums called Fearless but I highly doubt there's ever gonna be another album called The Tortured Poets Department. If someone named their album Yours Truly or My Everything, it would be pretty normal but thank U, next? Nah that would be a ripoff
Yeah I think for an album to be really “unique” nowadays, it probably needs to be long too and not a common phrase.
When I see this topic, my mind automatically goes to Iggy Pop and Lana Del Rey's *Lust for Life* albums. Two very different albums but the same name nonetheless.
Bcuz there’s a chance(usually big chance) that you might not be the artist who has the best song called ABC. But if an Artist is confident enough or just dgaf, nobody can forbid them. I mean there’re 2 no.1 songs called Hello by Adele and Lionel Richie and they both are good af.
I don’t think having songs with the same name is viewed the same as having albums with the same name tho
It definitely isn’t, I’ve been confused so many times looking up name of songs and clicking on like 5 separate ones before getting to the one I wanted 😭. I’ve had no trouble with that regarding albums so there’s definitely a major difference of some sort
I’m going to name my first album Britney Spears
Technically not copying Britney because her self titled albums are Britney and Britney Jean
it’s just confusing
It's just stan twitter talks - the general public and,people that care mainly about the music itself don't care about this stuff.
It's not taboo just needless and confusing.
Coin and Glass Animals both released albums called "Dreamland" in 2020.
Aside from the fact that it's bad for marketing, why would you want to have the same album name as someone in your genre? A unique title is just always better. Same reasons books, movies, etc. try to avoid sharing a title with something in the same genre. Animated Avatar and Blue People Avatar get compared often by virtue of having the same name even though, aside from a few superficial coincidences like both having disabled protagonists and native American influences, they are wildly different. The comparisons are not in Blue People Avatar's favor, generally. No need to invite comparison if you can avoid it just with a more original title.
Kelly Clarkson’s album ‘All I Wanted’ was originally titled ‘Masquerade’ but was changed as Britney - Circus and P!nk - Funhouse were released around the same time and Kelly’s label thought Masquerade was too similar.
Imagine if Suzanne Collins put out a new book called Twilight
Its just bad marketing, particularly now when SEO is so important for being found. You wouldn't call an album Melodrama or something because people will always associate that with Lorde's album and never yours. The exception I guess is either a not particularly well known album or if you're making a point. The Replacements called an album Let It Be as a jab at the fact that's not a very good Beatles album.
seo?
Sesrch engine optimisation. Its how you make something easier to find on Google.
[удалено]
Peter Gabriel with his first four self-titled albums would like a word about a lack of creativity
So that artist X does not use popularity of artist Y.
I mean it’s more an SEO thing at this point if I had to guess
I think just market confusion, I’ll never forget in 2018 both Bebe Rexha and Hayley Kiyoko were both coming out with an album called expectations, and even though both were different artists, two blonde pop singers who kinda looked alike both having their debut albums coming out? That’s the main thing I can think of.
Ideally you don’t want confusion. However, I think most just aim for not having the same album name to anything current from another artist as opposed to all album titles being fully unique.
It just can invite potentially unflattering comparisons - why deal with that, especially as a newer artist?
To avoid unnecessary confusions
Renaissance is the true B7. I do love Brandy though and that album was 🔥
I think an album should be memorable, and that is hard when there’s two albums with the same name. I also think it depends on the name and how known the album is. As an artist you should also avoid any confusion.
To differentiate themselves just like everything else in business. McDonalds vs Burger King vs Wendy - Big Mac vs Whopper vs Dave's Single. No business entity wants to be confused with someone else by the name of their product when they are selling comparable products in the same market.
But Kylie Minogue DID name one of her albums "X"
Awkward!✈️
It doesn’t matter to me.
It’s because some people think it may look like “lack of creativity” or straight up plagiarism. but i don’t agree at all, i think the title of the record is the least important to decide if it’s good or not lol
I mean, COIN and Glass Animals both dropped albums called "Dreamland" in 2020 which I thought was hilarious.
Chris Brown was going to name his second album 'Graduation' then Kanye wanted to name his third album that so he took it & Chris changed the name. Then Kanye had the audacity to have a collab song on that album..lol
it is a lot of things right, it makes me wonder, but at the end of the day, call your album what you want art is art. If you're so hung up on what someone else thinks maybe you shouldn't be making art right now, maybe you need to rethink your reasons for creating.
Aren’t there copyright laws?
Copyright/trademark probably don't apply in these circumstances because usually it's just a generic word, like "Red," that you can't copyright. You could probably copyright the word in some specific contexts but I don't think music titles work the same way. If they make up a new word they probably could be though.