The People who Started Using Umlauts in Rock Titles

Dear linguistic misfits,

I don't know who you are. I haven't bothered finding out who was first. Perhaps it was Blue Öyster Cult

Or perhaps it was Motörhead

Or perhaps it was some other band altogether - there are certainly a lot of examples to choose from.

There are even new examples.

To be fair, the newer examples are probably mostly in jest, parodying the heavy usage of unnecessary umlauts in the past.

But no matter what the reason, there are still facts that remain. One of those facts is that the gratuitous use of umlauts looks extremely silly.

No matter what the old rock legends say, a couple of extra dots over a letter does not make you look "hardcore" - at least not to people who speak languages where those dots are actually used. To many of us it looks absolutely ridiculous.

People from bands like Motörhead and Blue Öyster Cult have said that the addition of the umlaut does not mean that we should pronounce their names differently than if they were using regular old Os. But to those of use who are used to actually using letters like for instance Ö, it is automatic. Whenever I see an album cover with gratuitous umlauts it's pronounced wrong in my head, which really detracts from the whole visual appeal.

So, to whatever band started this trend, I just have to say that I'm angry at you. Why did you have to go and do a stupid thing like that? I generally enjoy the kind of music that the umlaut-bands play but I don't like their album covers.

Wärm rëgärds and sëäsöns grëëtïngs,

Marcus