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Once and for All: How Do You Pronounce MGMT?

Photo: Jon Bergman

We’ve enjoyed MGMT’s album Oracular Spectacular since it came out last fall, but with the band playing at McCarren Pool later this month — and the subject of a profile in our own magazine this week — we realized we still don’t know for sure how to pronounce the band’s name. Is it “Management,” which we’ve heard used to be their name before some other band laid claim to it? Is it just the letters pronounced in order — “Em Gee Em Tee”? Or is it some mumbled version of “Management” with the vowels removed (“Mij-mit”)?

Some blog commenters claim it’s one thing; others claim it’s another. Rolling Stone says it’s “Management.” David Letterman says it’s “Em Gee Em Tee.” Time for some totally necessary Vulture detective work!

We called the band’s label, Columbia, and a publicist told us it’s definitely pronounced “Em Gee Em Tee.” This seems to be confirmed by this video, in which MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden pronounces it that way. But we wouldn’t put it past these guys to change it again, to “Magma” or something.

Related: The Slow Burn [NYM]

Once and for All: How Do You Pronounce MGMT?