Making up the words: Fictitious bands to add to your playlist today

What happens when made-up groups play original tunes, in films and TV series? The fantasy feels more real, and dream records are born. Our pick of the best.

When Aurora, the 11-track debut album by Daisy Jones and The Six, hit Billboard’s emerging artists chart in the middle of March, it went straight to the top. It topped iTunes charts too. This is most unusual. The band does not exist. It’s a fictitious group from the show of the same name on Amazon Prime.

Songs by the fictional band Daisy Jones and The Six, from the show of the same name, have topped real-world Billboard charts

The series, based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling 2019 novel, follows the rise and fall of the ’70s music group (which itself is loosely modelled on Fleetwood Mac). The songs have been created especially for the series.

This isn’t the first time that a made-up band has played music we love. Here are some notable not-quite-the-real-things.

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The Blues Brothers

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Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi performed their fake-band sketch on Saturday Night Live so often, it was no surprise that the characters ended up in their own movie, in 1980. The plot – musician brothers on a mission from God to stop their childhood orphanage from shutting, while also getting the band back together – is flimsy. But The Blues Brothers packed enough soul, jazz and blues (and cameos) in for the actors to actually go on tour after the film’s release. In suits, sunglasses and fedoras.

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Sex Bob-Omb

(Big Talk Productions / Kobal / Shutterstock)

The band from Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010) played some cool original music. Musician Beck handled instrumentation, curated the soundtrack and wrote Garbage Truck and Threshold. Plus there’s that killer opening line: We are Sex Bob-Omb! (cue guitar and cymbals). Two albums, for soundtrack and score, accompany the film. They feature music by Beck, Broken Social Scene, Metric, Black Lips, T Rex, the Rolling Stones, Frank Black and Plumtree.

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Stillwater

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How does a fictional young writer break into Rolling Stone magazine in the ’70s? By following the era’s biggest music sensation for a profile. Stillwater, the band in Almost Famous (2000), is headed for self-destruction even as the tour bus sets off. It embodies every rock ‘n’ roll cliché from the era: flashy costumes, long hair, debauchery, groupies (these call themselves Band Aids). Music by Led Zeppelin, Elton John and others make up the soundtrack. Stillwater’s own score is not half bad.

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School of Rock

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What else would you call a band formed by schoolchildren trained by a substitute teacher who was dumped by his rock group? The 2003 film celebrates the genre. There’s music by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC. But the story stays light, even a little silly (it helps that Jack Black plays the teacher). School of Rock play some original tunes too, written for the film by New York City band The Mooney Suzuki.

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Lady Parts

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The band is from We Are Lady Parts, a critically acclaimed 2021 sitcom about a Muslim female punk band looking for a lead guitarist and hoping to land a gig. Six original tracks are part of the show’s first season, including the irreverent hits Bashir with the Good Beard, Ain’t No One Gonna Honour Kill My Sister But Me, and Voldemort Under My Headscarf.

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Hedwig and the Angry Inch

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Come for the weird plot: A transgender East German sings her life’s story in sleazy US dives as she trails her plagiarising ex-boyfriend rocker on tour. Stay for the great music: The titular band performs glam-punk-rock songs in the style of David Bowie and Lou Reed. The 2001 film is based on the off-Broadway megahit. If you hear only one song, let it be The Origin of Love, which weaves in Greek myth, fear and queerness.

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Autobahn

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Flea, the bassist from Red Hot Chili Peppers, is part of this band of nihilists that features in the 1998 stoner classic The Big Lebowski. They don’t seem to be doing too well, even if the music, playing in the background of scenes, is an obvious rip-off of the pathbreaking ’70s German electronic band Kraftwerk. In real life, movie fans have built a cult around Autobahn. You can even buy merch and album art from their fictional LP, Nagelbett.

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Spın̈al Tap

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When a band, one in a mockumentary, has a metal umlaut, expectations are high. The one from This Is Spinal Tap (1984) plays heavy metal and comes with a full fictional backstory. They played psychedelic pop, progressive rock, jazz fusion, funk and reggae before they switched to metal. More than one drummer has died in a freak accident. In the real world, the actors have regularly played, together and separately, as Spın̈al Tap.

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The Oneders

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Doomed to be introduced as the O-Knee-Ders (It’s ONE-ders!) the band’s had only one big hit. It’s made them, indeed, one-hit oneders. That Thing You Do! (1996) is the story of the making of that hit (it’s the drums) and the breaking up of the band (it’s the ego, and really the ’60s). The song plays several times in the movie, at different tempos; each feels different.

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The Weird Sisters

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Glam-rock, magic and a bagpipe… The band played at the Hogwarts Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). If the music felt real enough, and very British, it’s because Jarvis Cocker of Pulp wrote the songs. He and bandmate Steve Mackey and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway featured in the film, as performers. It’s too bad muggles can’t attend their gigs.