Check Out How Your Favorite Musicians Stumbled Into Choosing Their Now-Iconic Names

The 1975 Had Nearly 10 Other Names

Photo Credit: Roberto Ricciuti/WireImage

The 1975 went through several different incarnations since frontman Matty Healy assembled the band in 2002. Their most recognized former name is Drive Like I Do (and a couple music videos of previously released, pre-1975 tracks are still floating around YouTube). They also went by Me And You Versus Them, Forever Enjoying Sex, Talkhouse, The Slowdown, and Bigsleep. As Drive Like I Do, the band regularly performed Fall Out Boy covers and wrote some of the 1975’s biggest hits (that sounded slightly less like hits without the label’s recording budget). The 1975 stumbled upon their eventual name in a book of beat poetry Healy got from an artist.

“On the back page there were loads of suicidal messages and it was dated ‘1st June, The 1975’,” he told Fame Magazine. “The use of the word ‘The’ preceding the date really stuck with me.”