Hi.

I want to know what people think and why.
It's a simple thought convention.

Like a Pepsi taste test, do you recognize the artist by his new name or by the band he has been a part of before composing?

Two examples:
1) Anthony Gonzalez vs. M83
2) Tom Holkenborg vs. Junkie XL

An older example would be Marilyn Manson and Orbital composing for film.
But they did not have separate identities.
They used their stage names.

Gonzales appeared to attempt to distinguish his composition apart from his band music (M83).
But most people simply credited M83 as the same identity.

With the recent release of the Mad Max: Fury Road soundtrack, we are given a choice of both names.
They will simply not state Tom Holkenborg without adding Junkie XL in some form (in paranthesis or with AKA).

I would much prefer identify them as individuals and not their band name.
They are doing separate work.

It feels like the artists get less credit than they deserve.
I would like to lay blame on commercial venues like iTunes and the like that distribute mainstream and serialized works of effort.
The typical target audience are not the ones who would think as Gonzales or Holkenborg as individuals but rather their previously assumed identity.
The lowest common denominator, if you will.

Which is entirely sad.
As a human species gifted with technology and other social advancements, shouldn't small things like an identity still be something to be considered and given due respect?

I choose to know their individual name.
Because they are doing individual work. Even if they work along side other artists like Joseph Trapanese.

What is the rationale in choosing their most popular name that they have tried to separate from for sake of the project?

It really depends on how the artist wants to be credited. Some people like living under the guise of a persona for everything that they do, and that's completely fine. There comes a certain stigma with name recognition from the general public, because after a while people expect the same kind of product from you and feel betrayed when they get something unexpected. Take Garth Brooks, when he used his Chris Gaines persona to produce a pop album that sounded drastically different than his country rock of prior years. He developed an alternate persona because it was so drastically different from what he had done before and created a character around that music.

When it comes to crediting individuals in film score, one only has to look at Danny Elfman for the precedent. He was in Oingo Boingo, but in films, he is credited by his actual name. On the albums, he was also credited as Danny Elfman. In the internet era, if someone wants to look up information on a composer, it is incredibly easy to do so, so the difference in crediting is largely an artistic and marketing choice.

I would go with what's ultimately on the labels/covers, etc.
It's all in the fine print.

But, I agree in case of Gonzelas VS M83... I read an article how the studios promoted it in a fashion that M83 gets all the credit just for doing one original song while Gonzales himself gets low-balled. He was pissed. I was pissed because I knew most people would automatically label everything as M83 & Trapanese. Which most did do here.

It just creates a lot of unneeded confusion, imo.

Speaking of Trapanese, when he worked with Daft Punk, I'm pretty sure DP only wanted to be credited as DP as they have been for centuries.
Their collabertaion with Trapanese seemed to be the same as other artists working with composers in the past.
I don't know lot a bout Daft Punk so I'm happy knowing them just as DP.

JunkieXL/Holkenborg case, I dont really know JunkieXL aside from the few tracks he throws on a lot of soundtracks. So if he wants to be known as Holkenborg for composing Mad Max, his name with his band name in paranthesis (Junkie XL) is probably just for reference for youngin's to learn the difference of what they're trying to do (in his case, compose for film).

:laugh: Chris Gaines. :doc::doc::doc:

Yeah, there is a lot of stigma.
and it's real bad when it comes from the studio.

Can I tell the difference between M83/Anthony Gonzalez? No, not really. M83's music is very cinematic, but I don't think if I listened to Oblivion beforehand, not knowing it was Gonzalez that I'd be able to say "oh this is definitely M83". I would say StarWaves is the only M83-sounding cue in the score. Off the top of my head.


I would go with what's ultimately on the labels/covers, etc.
It's all in the fine print.

But, I agree in case of Gonzelas VS M83... I read an article how the studios promoted it in a fashion that M83 gets all the credit just for doing one original song while Gonzales himself gets low-balled. He was pissed. I was pissed because I knew most people would automatically label everything as M83 & Trapanese. Which most did do here.

Not me!! (Thread 190117)

Not me!! (Thread 190117)

You are the some that actually gave credit when he asked for it.

I remember a couple releases I had to re-tag them.
I think those were the iTunes or something before bluray came out with the isolated score.

Oh yeah don't even get me started on the way Apple tags/labels things.