Think Again (Meta)

I originally planned to run this meta in January 2024 in the lead-up to the Grammys. So here's my prediction (dated August 2023): BOYGENIUS wins big! "Not Strong Enough" was one of my favourite songs from 2023. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIX_ouNJsTs

Grid was ok except that I had to reveal the 2D/20A cross. Meta was tricky for me since I'm not that familiar with the Dreamworks animated canon, and it wasn't easy to Google. Also unfortunate that L.P.J. seems to be a real band :) Wound up peeking at the solution to get JULIEN and then it was simple from there obviously. Fun idea that produced a rabbit hole I might try to develop into something. :) :)

Got it nudgelessly (yay!) tho stymied by a reference to a Dreamworks film, Joseph: King of Dreams… and the same number of letters at that!

Had BOYGENHUS (king Arthur) and Google told me that, yes, boygenius is a band ;)

One minor nit, the Star Trek character is KHAN. (NEEEEERD!… I know.) maybe a better clue for 41A would be “belonging to actress Madeline”?

Didn't know of this band before, but now I'm really intrigued and will check them out!

Had the right idea, but still needed the nudges. Didn't think of actually putting the new words in the grid. And, did you know there is a group called L.P.J. Band? 'Cause I sure do now.

I got the alternate names on my own - as someone who knows "Friends" only from crosswords, I was very confused when PHOEBE wasn't working LOL. Google quickly obliged with the name of the group. This musical dinosaur never heard of them before but I checked out a few videos - nice!

And ooh did not see that entering the alternate names would also spell the answer going down. Nice touch!!

These boys are simply spectacular. Saw Lucy live 3-ish years ago... her guitarist had COVID and Bartees Strange (look him up if you don't know him - incredible artist!) filled in for him on short notice. Epic performance.

I had BOY GENEUS b/c I had JOSEPH for the alternate king. I had difficulty with the grid fill, but the parts I had trouble with didn't affect the meta. I think I've heard of the band but don't know anything about them.

Very neat puzzle! I'm going to have to check this band out!

Sure, I got it -- with a letter reveal on a grid entry, all of the nudges, and at least two websites I googled open so I could peruse them the entire time! :-) Grammys, what are they? :-) Thanks anyhow, Ben -- it's a tribute to your puzzles that I will even attempt one on a topic I'm clueless about.

Well.......

As I never heard of the band it was hard to guess. BOY was the only thing that crossed Lucy (which by the way Rita came to my mind first). Nothing crossed Phoebe and Jip Uma LPS and Tate all crossed Julian (Farquaad was the obvious first guess). I figured GEN was the likeliest to parse and googling boygen the band came up.

Clever idea.

When I first tried 38A, I immediately went "haha Phoebe like Phoebe Bridgers" and lo and behold!

Beautiful meta!

Late to the party. Solved without nudges. A good one again by Ben!

Google to the rescue!

Got the right idea but thought, "boy that is too easy". Then when there was no well-known band with RITA, URSULA and RAMSES I thought, well maybe we are to use different names for the people RITA COOLIDGE, URSULA ANDRESS, RAMSES ?. But hey wait a minute I thought it strange that Lisa's twin was picked when Phoebe was the more well known, and LUCY in the sky is as well known as Lovely RITA, but JOSEPH did not compute. Finally I remembered the Penguin. Nice puzzle Ben and even though you probably don't qualify for the BOY anymore, GENIUS!!

Thanks Ben