Soon, hundreds of musicians will flock to New York from all over to play the annual city-wide festival, CMJ Music Marathon. Every band is looking to break out and become the hot new buzz band. But with over 1,300 artists performing at over 80 venues across five days, some bands are bound to get lost in the shuffle. You might think for an artist, the best way to stand out is to pour your heart and soul into your songwriting, practice your songs endlessly, and put in years of hard work building up a fanbase that connects with your lyrics. WRONG. In reality, all you have to do is come up with a clever band name, sit back, and watch the buzz pile up, baby. Studies show that most people won’t even listen to a band that doesn’t have an exclamation point or a bad word or a pun in its name. It’s just science.
But how are you, the music-consuming public, supposed to keep track of all these up-and-coming artists? Take our quiz below and see if you can identify which bands below are the real bands playing CMJ and which are made up. Good luck, music fans! Look for Gringo Star when you TAKE THE QUIZ HERE…