Free Republic

Throughout music history, bands have been formed by members who were friends or perhaps created by ambitious producers looking for the next Big Sensation. On the other hand, there are also bands that were born out of cartoons, television programs, and movies. They generally only performed as musical acts on the screen yet achieved the success of a traditional group by releasing records and videos, blurring the lines between real and fiction. While they may not have received major awards or recognition, real people did lend their voices to these pieces of vinyl. snp The Archies The Banana Spits The...

German music producer Frank Farian - founder of the disco band Boney M - has died at the age of 82, according to his family. They released a statement on Tuesday via Farian's agency saying he had passed away at his home in Miami. Boney M, which formed in 1976, had a string of hit singles including Daddy Cool, Rasputin and Rivers of Babylon. Farian also went on to found the duo Milli Vanilli, who were involved in a lip-synching controversy.

<p>Nigel Godrich has had no problem working with what some would consider the best artists ever. The real challenge is the acts that never were.</p> <p>"It's always terrible," Godrich said of movies that contain an artificial group. Action-romance "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" has four of them.</p>

BUTTE, Mont. -- A band that headlined a fair last weekend is accused of masquerading as the rock group Redbone, whose hits included the 1970s song "Come and Get Your Love." The band at the Butte-Silver Bow Fair performed under the name Redbone, but the real Redbone was playing in Wisconsin, said Ron Kurtz, Redbone's manager. "I've been in the business for 40 years, and I've never ran into anything this blatant," Kurtz said Thursday from his office in Burbank, Calif. He said the fair board was conned. Fair officials said they dealt with a man who identified himself as...