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Supergroup

xkcd 2905

I love their cover of 1,200 Balloons, Dalmatians, and Miles.

Explanation ➲

In popular music, a supergroup is a musical group formed by collaboration of existing solo artists and members of other musical groups.

This comic shows a marquee announcing a concert by a supergroup formed from members of 10 musical groups whose names all begin with a number. The name of the supergroup is the sum of all those numbers, 176, followed by the names of the original groups without their numbers. It's reasonable to estimate that there could be up to 32 members of the supergroup (see below).

Musical groups mentioned in the comic:

Sum: 21 + 5 + 4 + 2 + 100 + 3 + 9 + 1 + 1 + 30 = 176

It should be noted that this summation, taken literally, is mathematically wrong, as it not only adds numbers with different units and dimensionality (eg, pilots are not the same dimensionality as seconds), but one of the summands (3 in 3 Doors Down) is an ordinal number and another (9 in Nine Inch Nails) is part of an adjective phrase, which is analogous to saying that four metres and one metre cubed add up to seven metres.

The title text indicates that this supergroup performs a medley or mashup of songs whose titles begin with numbers. The title of this "supersong" is similarly formed by adding the numbers and following with the rest of all the titles. Notably, none of the referenced songs were written by any of the referenced artists.

Songs mentioned in the title text:

Sum: 99 + 101 + 1000 = 1200

"I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by the Proclaimers is about walking "500 miles, and [...] 500 more", therefore a thousand miles in total. There are two more songs titled (or known as) "500 Miles", by Hedy West and Tori Amos, which could be added up to replace "A Thousand Miles" (or "1000 Miles") in the tally as well.

The supergroup could have 32 members:

  • Twenty One Pilots: This band has 2 members, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun.
  • 5 Seconds of Summer: There are 4 members in this band, including Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, Calum Hood, and Ashton Irwin.
  • 4 Non Blondes: Originally, this group had 4 members, but it disbanded in 1994. The lead singer was Linda Perry.
  • 2 Live Crew: This group's core lineup included 2 to 4 members over different periods, with notable members being Luther Campbell, Brother Marquis, Fresh Kid Ice, and Mr. Mixx.
  • 100 gecs: This band consists of 2 members, Laura Les and Dylan Brady.
  • 3 Doors Down: This band typically has 5 members, although the number has varied with lineup changes over the years.
  • Nine Inch Nails: Officially, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are the only constant members of Nine Inch Nails, with a changing lineup of touring members and collaborators.
  • OneRepublic: This band has 5 members, including Ryan Tedder, Zach Filkins, Drew Brown, Brent Kutzle, and Eddie Fisher.
  • One Direction: Originally, there were 5 members in this band, but after Zayn Malik's departure in 2015, it continued with 4 members until their hiatus.
  • Thirty Seconds to Mars: This band has had various lineups but is centered around Jared Leto and Shannon Leto, with other members joining and leaving at different times.

Sum: 2 + 4 + 4 + 2 + 2 + 5 + 2 + 5 + 4 + 2 = 32

These counts mostly reflect the bands' most well-known lineups and may vary with time due to changes in membership or the band's status. Combined groups may feature fewer than the sum of their original memberships, even down to just single musicians/vocalists coming from any or all of their prior collaborations. On the other hand, especially for worthy causes, it is possible that groups with many changing lineups could perhaps rustle up far more members than they ever had at a given time, never mind any prominent artists who may guest-star in their own right. It is unclear whether the band names would be pro rated in these circumstances (for example, if only one of 100 gecs joined the supergroup, would they only count for 50?).

Potential connection to mathematical supergroups

Randall may be making a subtle reference to mathematical physics, in which a supergroup is a generalization of a group based on the concept of supersymmetry.

Readers with a background in mathematics or physics might find their expectations thwarted upon realizing that the comic is about mundane musical collaborations. But then, "every supergroup carries a natural group structure, but there may be more than one way to structure a given group as a supergroup"[1], which applies to both contexts.

Miscellaneous numeric observations

100 gecs provides the most "bandname per member" (100 / 2 = 50), with OneRepublic and One Direction each vying for most "members per bandname" (both 5, at their most complete). Counting the songname mashup ratios is more complex: if it is not a single "1000 miles", perhaps the two Proclaimers can be said to be each singing 500 miles, to match the other solo artists' alternate 500s (depending upon which source(s) are chosen as canon), but a single luftballon requires just slightly over 1% of Nena (whether the eponymous singer or shared throughout her band of five) and a lone Dalmatian slightly less than 1% split amongst an uncertain number of originators.
  1. ↑ Supergroup (physics) on Wikipedia, accessed 2024-03-13