From The Archies to The Wonders to Daisy Jones & The Six
Today’s launch of Daisy Jones & The Six, Amazon’s 10-episode adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reed’s best-selling novel about the rise and fall of a fictional Seventies rock band, makes us wonder where The Six lands in the long and sometimes illustrious history of fake bands and singers in film and television. It’s a strange but often very fascinating subgenre of music, and it’s our attempt to find out which of the fake greats are the real greats.
We’ve set the following eligibility rules: 1) original songs only, with apologies to Blues Brothers, The Commitments and other great fantasy cover artists; 2) No biographies or other films in which musicians play themselves (eg, Prince in purple rain Or in Eminem 8 miles); and 3) it must be some kind of actual fictional musical act, rather than someone singing an original song in the background of a movie, show, or stage musical. We had a long discussion about what to do with the Monkeys, before it was decided that at a certain point, they had become the real band Pinocchio and therefore didn’t qualify. (Otherwise, it would have been “daydreaming believer.” Very much high ranking.)
