Every kid has a dream. Every person has a dream, actually. Those dreams evolve as we grow up. When I was in third grade, I wanted to be a teacher (really original, I know). But now, I find my life taking a bit of a School of Rock turn. My current dream of the day is to start a band. And I want that band to be called The The’s.

Think about it. Think about all the bands with “the” as their common factor. The Shins, The Clash, The Used, The Temptations, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Doors, The Cure, The Ramones, The Bee Gees, The Offspring, The Monkees, The Sex Pistols…I could go on forever but I’ve probably gone on far too long as it is.  Oh, one more!  The Who - officially one of the most generic, John Doe band names of all time. I typed in “the” on Yahoo’s music page. It showed five results and then had a link that said “See All 1,000 Matches”.  Wow.

In an age where everyone is hyped on originality, where simple baby names such as Bill and Sarah are spelled “Byl” and “Cerah”, a reflection on the “the” phenomenon is one I take seriously. The is, by nature, simple. It’s three letters. It’s probably one of the most used words in the English language (I just used it three times in this sentence) and it is sprinkled liberally over the music world.

I like to think the music-makers of our universe are trying to send a message through their name selections. Maybe they are trying to tell us to slow down a bit, to enjoy life a bit more, to take note of the simple things in life and how wonderful those little things really are.

Or they could just be trying to sell albums and think of something catchy that also fits on a T-shirt. Yeah, that’s much closer to the truth than my little rose-colored dream. Also exiting the rose-colored dream world is my three-hours old dream of starting up The The’s.  A band entitled *drum roll* The The already exists in the United Kingdom.  Maybe I could make a United States chapter?

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