Supergroup

A band formed by other musicians who are already famous for their other work.

Not to be confused with the VH-1 reality show (which was, surprisingly enough, about forming a supergroup). Not to be confused with other |supergroups.

Supergroups have a bad tendency not to last very long, most breaking up after five years on average. What usually happens from there is that the members return to the respective acts they were famous for in the first place.

Examples of Supergroups include:

(With the bands that the members are from listed.)

• 8in8 (Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, Damian Kulash, and Neil Gaiman) was a one-off effort that released one album.
• Angels and Airwaves (Blink-182, Hazen Street, Box Car Racer, The Offspring, Rocket From The Crypt, Social Distortion, 30 Seconds to Mars, The Distillers)
• Any Band (Korean artists Boa, Xiah Junsu of TVXQ/DBSK, Tablo, and Jin Bora)
• Asia (King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Yes, The Buggles)
• Atoms for Peace Music/(Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Forro in the Dark)
• Audioslave (Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine)
• Automatic Baby (REM, U2)
  • Perhaps the shortest lived supergroup ever. They only performed one song together at a concert for Bill Clinton.
• Bad Company (Free, Mott the Hoople, King Crimson)
• Black Country Communion (Glen Hughes, Jason Bonham, Joe Bonamassa and Derek Sherinian)
• Blind Faith (Music/The Yardbirds, Cream, Traffic, Family)
• Bloodbath (Opeth, Katatonia, Edge of Sanity)
• Broken Bells (The Shins, Danger Mouse)
• The Brothers Martin (Joy Electric, Starflyer 59, Project 86)
• Chickenfoot (Joe Satriani, Van Halen, Red Hot Chili Peppers)
• Child Rebel Soldier (Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Pharrell Williams)
• Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains (Primus, Buckethead, Parliament-Funkadelic)
• Cream (The Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, Graham Bond, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers)
  • The first to be called a supergroup, making Cream the Trope Namer.
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, The Hollies)
• Damn Yankees (Ted Nugent, Styx, Night Ranger)
• The Damned Things (Fall Out Boy, Anthrax, Every Time I Die)
• Damnocracy (formed for the aforementioned VH-1 TV show; Skid Row, Anthrax, Ted Nugent, Biohazard, Foreigner)
• The Dead Weather (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Greenhornes, Queens of the Stone Age, The Kills)
• The Deep End (The Who, Pink Floyd, Big Country, Eurythmics, Roxy Music, Medicine Head, Billy Nichols)
• Demons and Wizards (Blind Guardian, Iced Earth)
• Dethklok (Brendon Small, Strapping Young Lad, the Mothers of Invention, the Steve Vai band)
• Dio (Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Ratt, Sweet Savage, Rough Cutt, ACDC, Rising Force, Dokken, Whitesnake, L.A. Guns)
• The Dirty Mac (The Beatles, Cream, The Rolling Stones, The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
• Down (Pantera, Corrosion Of Conformity, Eyehategod, Crowbar).
• Electronic (New Order, The Smiths, and, for three songs, one or both Pet Shop Boys)
• Emerson Lake and Palmer (The Nice, King Crimson, Atomic Rooster)
  • Legend has it that this was nearly Hendrix, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer (HELP). Whether there's any truth to this legend or not, it wasn't meant to be anyway, for reasons that are all too well-known.
• Fantomas (Faith No More, The Melvins, Mr. Bungle, Slayer)
• The Firm (Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, Roy Harper, Uriah Heep)
  • The other Firm (Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown, Nature + Dr. Dre on production)
• Fleetwood Mac (The Bluesbreakers, Chicken Shack, Buckingham-Nicks)
• For My Pain... (Reflexion, Charon, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Nightwish)
• French Frith Kaiser Thompson (Captain Beefheart Magic Band, Henry Cow, avant-garde guitarist Henry Kaiser, and Richard Thompson), a "supergroup"composed of 4 critically-loved musicians with almost no mainstream popularity. Thompson jokingly quipped that the fact that his presence on the album would broaden its audience was mostly a statement on the others' careers.
• fun. (The Format, Anathallo, Steel Train)
• The Good, The Bad, and the Queen (Though officially their name was simply a list of the members, who are Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon, Simon Tong and Tony Allen)
• The Head Cat (Motorhead, the Stray Cats)
• The Highwaymen (Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson)
• Humble Pie (The Small Faces, The Herd, Spooky Tooth, Colosseum)
• Isles & Glaciers (Chiodos, Pierce the Veil, Emarosa, Underminded, the company we keep)
• JAM Project (Hironobu Kageyama, Masaaki Endoh, Masami Okui, Hiroshi Kitadani, and Yoshiki Fukuyama, and formerly Ichirou Mizuki, Eizo Sakamoto, and Rica Matsumoto.)
• The Jeff Beck Group existed as sort of an anti-supergroup - Jeff Beck, formerly of the Yardbirds, was its only noteworthy member, though his sidemen - Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Aynsley Dunbar - went on to be famous as members of other groups,
• Liquid Tension Experiment (Dream Theater, King Crimson, Dixie Dregs)
• Led Zeppelin (The Yardbirds, the Band of Joy)
• Les Claypool's Bucket Of Bernie Brains (Primus, Buckethead, Parliament-Funkadelic)
• Lock Up (Napalm Death, Cradle of Filth, At the Gates; formerly members of Terrorizer and Hypocrisy)
• Lost Dogs (Adam Again, The Choir, Daniel Amos, The 77's)
• Mad Season (Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees)
• Magnetic Man (Skream, Benga, Artwork)
• The Millennium (The Association, Sagittarius, The Music Machine)
• The Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins - really a supergroup In Name Only, because didn't perform together live as a band, but they did do some recording sessions together).
• Monsters of Folk (Bright Eyes, Lullaby for the Working Class, My Morning Jacket, She & Him)
• Neon Horse (The Crucified, Stavesacre, Starflyer 59, Project 86)
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (The Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution, Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Haut, Magazine, The Cramps, Gun Club, Gallon Drunk, The Triffids, Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes, Sonic Youth, The Dirty Three, The Saints)
• Northern Kings (Finnish bands Tarot (also Nightwish), Sonata Arctica, Charon, Terasbetoni)
• Oysterhead (Primus, Phish, The Police)
• The Palpatations (Eric Clapton, The Who, Traffic, the Faces, Blind Faith)
• A Perfect Circle (Tool, Nine Inch Nails, The Smashing Pumpkins, Marilyn Manson)
  • Not necessarily. The leader of the band, guitarist and songwriter Billy Howerdel, was never in a major band before starting A Perfect Circle. He was just lucky and connected enough (he was Tool's guitar tech for many years, and gave Maynard a demo tape of his songs) to give his songs an All-Star Cast.
• Pigface (Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Tool, KMFDM, The Pixies, Skinny Puppy, Throbbing Gristle, Killing Joke, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, and Shonen Knife, among others)
• Power Station (Robert Palmer, Duran Duran, Chic)
• Praxis (Primus, Buckethead, Parliament-Funkadelic, Jungle Brothers, Bill Laswell)
• Rainbow (Elf, Deep Purple)
• Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band (Ringo Starr and whoever he has with him)
• Southern Pacific (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Doobie Brothers, Pablo Cruise)
• SuperHeavy (The Rolling Stones, Joss Stone, Eurythmics, A.R. Rahman, Damian Marley)
• Temple of the Dog (Music/Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone)
  • Though actually Pearl Jam wasn't formed until after the Temple of the Dog collaboration.
• Teriyaki Boyz (Wise'N'Son Pub, m-flo, Rip Slyme)
• Them Crooked Vultures (Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin)
• Transatlantic (Spock's Beard, Dream Theater, The Flower Kings, Marillion).
• The Traveling Wilburys (George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison)
• U.K. (King Crimson, Yes, Roxy Music, Frank Zappa, Soft Machine). Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa) replaced Bill Bruford when they pared down to a keyboard-drums-bass trio)
  • Half of the original lineup of U.K. formed Bruford (Yes, King Crimson, Soft Machine, Egg, National Health; Hatfield And The North, David Sancious).
• Velvet Revolver (Guns N' Roses, Stone Temple Pilots, Wasted Youth)
• Wild Flag (Sleater-Kinney, Helium)
• Whitesnake (Deep Purple, Paice Ashton & Lord, Juicy Lucy, the Wailers, the Streetwalkers)
• Young Money (more of a record label, but they did release an album, includes Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Gudda Gudda, Tyga)
• Zwan (The Smashing Pumpkins, A Perfect Circle, Chavez, Slint)
• The Adrenaline Mob (Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, Symphony X, Fozzy, Stuck Mojo, Disturbed).