Making great music is not easy.
You need the right style, the right timing, plenty of talent and the right look – and even then it might not be enough. Because you need that all-important, magic quality: a combination of personalities that will add up to more than the sum of its parts.
Sometimes you strike gold straight away, but sometimes it takes a lineup change or two to get it just right, leading to a host of bands having family trees that stretch out like giant oaks.
So can you identify your birch from your weeping willow? Or, to stop messing about with metaphors, can you spot the band from the history of its members?
Take a look at the timelines below, taken from their Wikipedia page – with only dates, releases and initials of the bandmembers to guide you – and see how many you can correctly identify – the answers are at the bottom.
(Credit to Joel De’ath for the idea!)
1. US Indie/rock
2. UK indie
3. US/UK soft rock
4. US R&B/pop
5. US rap
6. US metal
7. US grunge
8. UK pop
9. UK indie/rock
10. UK pop
11. UK indie/electronic
12. UK rock ‘n’ roll
SCROLL DOWN FOR THE ANSWERS
- R.E.M.
- Arctic Monkeys
- Fleetwood Mac
- Destiny’s Child
- N.W.A.
- Metallica
- Nirvana
- Sugababes
- Oasis
- Take That
- New Order
- Rolling Stones
(Image: Rex)
