Music-news.com reported today that the brand new superband composed of Black Sabbath’s Glenn Hughes, Foreigner’s Jason Bonham, Planet X’s Derek Sherinian and Bloodline’s Joe Bonamassa is now completely nameless.

Previously known as Black Country, the band has been forced to abandon their name because of a copyright infringement claim made by a previously existing band of the same name. Regardless, they will undoubtedly come up with a new moniker soon, but it did get me thinking about superbands and how they are affecting music right now.

Superbands are effectively those bands that are made up of members of previously successful bands and there seem to be quite a few around at the moment. The Crooked Vultures (Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and Queen Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme), Dead By Sunrise (Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington, Anthony Valcic and Julien-K’s Elias Andra, Brandon Belsky, Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck) and The Dead Weather (The Kills’ Alison Mosshart, Queens Of The Stone Age’s Dean Fertita, The Raconteurs’ Jack Lawrence and The White Stripes’ Jack White) seem to be the most popular superbands around right now. However, the idea of a superband has been around since the 1960s.

Cream was the first supergroup in 1966. Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker had all been in hugely successful bands before that. They were followed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (with a really imaginative name there!), Humble Pie and Blind Faith, which was another Eric Clapton band, before 1970. However, the concept has really taken off since the turn of the Millennium, with no less than 38 superbands being identified in the last 10 years.

As such, it appears as if superbands are here to stay and ill have a huge part in music in the coming years. Why not? They give music fans everywhere exactly what they want, which can only be a good thing!