History FandomEnragingMisconception / Music

* Music/{{Nightwish}} fans will get upset if you spell the band's name as Night Wish. It's one word.

* Phil Collins was not a founding member of Music/{{Genesis}} (the band having released two albums and going through three drummers before hiring him); claim otherwise around Genesis fans, and prepare to get laughed out of the room.

* ''Music/BruceSpringsteen'''s ''Music/BornInTheUSA'' is ''not'' a patriotic song. It is supposed to be a criticism of how Vietnam veterans were treated. This misconception has often been carried over to newcomers who think Bruce is an overly patriotic all-American figure, to the frustration of fans and the artist himself. Because of how prevalent the misunderstanding is, Springsteen now plays the song as a somber acoustic number instead of its bombastic studio arrangement.

** If you refer to as "Slim Shady" as if it's just a nickname for the rapper (a la calling Music/LilWayne "Tunechi"), you will be laughed at -- Slim Shady is a VillainProtagonist ''character'' who Eminem plays in (many of) his songs. But if you want to ''really'' wind Stans up, take one of the more button-pushing Slim Shady songs (the usual favourite is "Criminal") and claim it represents Eminem's literal real-life beliefs about gay people (rather than being, again, the satirical words of a HeroicComedicSociopath character).

* If you refer to Music/{{Eminem}} as "Slim Shady" as if it's just a nickname for the rapper (a la calling Music/LilWayne "Tunechi"), you will be laughed at -- Slim Shady is a VillainProtagonist ''character'' who Eminem plays in (many of) his songs. But if you want to ''really'' wind Stans up, take one of the more button-pushing Slim Shady songs (the usual favourite is "Criminal") and claim it represents Eminem's literal real-life beliefs about gay people (rather than being, again, the satirical words of a HeroicComedicSociopath character).

* If you refer to Music/{{Eminem}} as "Slim Shady" as if it's just a nickname for the rapper (a la calling Music/LilWayne "Tunechi"), you will be laughed at -- Slim Shady is a VillainProtagonist ''character'' who Eminem plays in (many of) his songs. But if you want to ''really'' wind Stans up, take one of the more button-pushing Slim Shady songs (the usual favourite is "Criminal") and claim it is a description of Eminem's literal real-life beliefs about gay people.

* There is no one named Hootie in the band Music/HootieAndTheBlowfish. The name came from the nicknames of two of their college friends. Asking which one is Hootie will likely get you mocked.

* ''Music/BruceSpringsteen'''s ''Music/BornInTheUSA'' is ''not'' a patriotic song. It is supposed to a criticism of how Vietnam veterans were treated. This misconception has often been carried over to newcomers who think Bruce is an overly patriotic all-American figure, to the frustration of fans. Because of how prevalent the misunderstanding is, Springsteen now plays the song as a somber acoustic number instead of its bombastic studio arrangement.

* In general, calling instrumental music "songs" could elicit groans at your lack of musical knowledge. Some say Music has to have lyrics to be classified as a song, others disagree. Instrumental music that is intended to invoke song or has the word "song" in its title e.g. "Songs Without Words" by [[Music/FelixMendelssohn Mendelssohn]], may be exempt from this, however. So you take your chances.

* ''Music/BruceSpringsteen'''s ''Music/BornInTheUSA'' is ''not'' a patriotic song. It is supposed to a criticism of how Vietnam veterans were treated. This misconception has been brought up so repeatedly that Springsteen now plays the song as a somber acoustic number instead of its bombastic studio arrangement.

* In general, calling instrumental music "songs" will elicit groans at your lack of musical knowledge. Music has to have lyrics to be classified as a song. Instrumental music that is intended to invoke song or has the word "song" in its title e.g. "Songs Without Words" by [[Music/FelixMendelssohn Mendelssohn]], may be exempt from this, however.

* In general, calling instrumental music "songs" could elicit groans at your lack of musical knowledge. Some say Music has to have lyrics to be classified as a song, others disagree. Instrumental music that is intended to invoke song or has the word "song" in its title e.g. "Songs Without Words" by [[Music/FelixMendelssohn Mendelssohn]], may be exempt from this, however. So you take your chances.

** Saying with a straight face that Yoko was the sole cause of the break-up of The Beatles. At the very least, it will expose you as a newbie or casual Beatles fan, someone who hasn't spent a lot of time diving into their history. If you had, you would know it's clear that, while John focusing more on his relationship with Yoko and bringing her into the studio certainly exacerbated things, the biggest culprits were money problems, particularly the disagreement over whether Lee Eastman or Allen Klein should handle their finances, and the ever-common "CreativeDifferences".
** Implying that John was the sole creative force behind the band, or the "smart one." This will almost certainly earn you grief from fans pointing out that while John was certainly extremely talented and witty, Paul was responsible for classics like "Eleanor Rigby," "Penny Lane," "Hey Jude" and "Let it Be," as well as being the catalyst for the ''Sgt. Pepper'' and ''Abbey Road'' albums and being proficient at bass, piano, guitar and drums. And then there's the fact that George's fascination with Indian music dictated the group's many dalliances with that genre.

* In general, calling instrumental music "songs" will elicit groans at your lack of musical knowledge. Music has to have lyrics to be classified as a song. Instrumental music that is intended to invoke song or has the word "song" in its title e.g. "Songs Without Words" by [[Music/FelixMendelssohn Mendelssohn]], may be exempt from this, however.

* Never EVER wonder out loud how many bass drums Music/IronMaiden 's Nicko [=McBrain=] uses while drumming. The answer is one.

** Their drummer's last name [[ItIsPronouncedTroPAY is pronounced "peert,"]] NOT "pert." In the words of Geddy Lee, take the word "ear" and put a "P" in front of it and a "t" at the end.

*** Additionally, believing that John actually said that Ringo "wasn't even the best drummer in the Beatles" will pretty consistently earn you ridicule from the fanbase.

* Don't call into a classic rock station and request "Music/TheWho's Teenage Wasteland". Not only will they not play it, but they may come to your house and work you over. The title is [[Music/WhosNext "Baba O'Riley."]]

** Not all electronic music was made with or entirely inside an actual computer, much less ''by'' a computer. A great deal of it was made before computers could do that, let alone in that quality. And when Peter Zinovieff of Electronic Music Studios became the very first private person to own a computer, [[Music/WendyCarlos Walter Carlos]]' fully-electronic ''Music/SwitchedOnBach'' had already been released. Electronic musicians who use hardware to make their music will take offense to the assumption that everyone, themselves included, has just clicked their music together on their PC.

** Another enraging one of these to the fandom to dismiss either her or them as silly teenagers over a decade into her career. She's in her early 30s now and her fanbase, while still containing teenagers, is mostly 20 & 30 somethings. When she endorsed Democratic candidates in the 2018 midterm elections ([[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment the merits of which we won't discuss here]]), she and her fans were dismissed by a couple of people because to quote former Governor Mike Huckabee, "13-year-olds can't vote". People quickly jumped on it as patronizing and sexist as her fanbase has never really been 13-year-olds and certainly wasn't at that point.

* Do not misattribute songs by Inner Circle—most famous for "Bad Boys" (which you might recognize for its use as the theme song to ''Series/{{COPS}}'') and "Sweat (A La La La La Song)"—to [[Music/BobMarley Bob Marley and the Wailers]]. They may both be Jamaican {{Reggae}} bands, but calling Inner Circle songs "Bob Marley songs" will give away your CriticalResearchFailure. The fact that Marley has many classic songs under his belt ("Get Up, Stand Up", "I Shot the Sheriff", "Three Little Birds", "Buffalo Soldier", etc.), while those outside Inner Circle's most dedicated fans usually only recognize "Bad Boys" and "Sweat" (both of whom were written after Marley's death in 1981), doesn't exactly help matters in this context.

None of his albums was made completely with analog machines, not even ''Oxygène'', so don't say that.\\

* Music/JethroTull is a band. Their lead singer and flutist is Ian Anderson. Get it straight. [[labelnote: Historical note]] there ''was'' a man named Jethro Tull in RealLife - an 18th-century agricultural reformer, whom the band was named after. [[/labelnote]]