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Blue Öyster Cult

American rock band

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 26, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Blue Öyster Cult is an American rock band formed on Long Island, New York, in the hamlet of Stony Brook, in 1967.

They have sold 25 million records worldwide, including 7 million in the United States. Their fusion of hard rock with psychedelia and penchant for occult, fantastical and tongue-in-cheek lyrics had a major influence on heavy metal music. They developed a cult following and enjoyed mainstream success with "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (1976), "Godzilla" (1977) and "Burnin' for You" (1981), which remain classic rock radio staples. They were early adopters of the music video format, and their videos were in heavy rotation on MTV in its early period.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Blue Öyster Cult” as american rock band. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1967, 1976, 1977, 1981—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Blue, Öyster and Cult can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as american rock band. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 26, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1967, 1976, 1977 and 1981.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Blue Öyster Cult”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Blue Öyster Cult primary sources, Blue Öyster Cult archive and Blue research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Blue Öyster Cult”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Blue Öyster Cult” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.