worst band name or record label name change of the social justice & social media era

Flex was 2008, a pre-social justice era change afaic

Same with The Muslims --> The Soft Pack, also 2008

90s PC culture forced naked toddler to change their name to creed

I didn't realise until now that TBM and TBM were the same artist

you're forgetting when Anal Cunt changed their name to Pudenda A.C.

the band name Viet Cong isn't half as offensive as the Presidents of the United States ftr

the entire "phonk" aesthetic has kind of a suss relationship with black culture in its DNA

― kirsten gilla band (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, September 12, 2023 3:04 PM (one hour ago)

yeah but it's bcuz the entire genre is made exclusively by 11-13 white european & russian boys

Lady Antebellum struck me as tone-deaf right out of the gate, not malicious or defiant but coming from that gentry-level of Southern self-serving privilege that really irks me. From wiki

On the BBC Radio 2 Drivetime Show August 9, 2010, the band explained that the name comes from when the group did a photo shoot in historical costumes at antebellum houses.

i have a special place in my heart for the bl4ck mad0nna one bcuz i remember 10 years ago saying to my friends "i'm not sure she should be calling herself that..." and being told in response "well no you don't get it, it's actually a reference to a classic art trope" and being like "uh huh..."

that said my vote is going to lady a for changing their name in the spirit of restorative justice and then immediately suing a black woman in order to steal her identity

Slaves —> Soft Play

holy shit

Lady A is def the biggest fiasco of the bunch, plus it still technically has Antebellum in there, just shortened. Plus “Lady A” is kind of weird as a name for a whole band. I really don’t know what the alternative would be besides just changing the band name to “Lady” or fully alienating their audience by going with “Lady Antifacist” or something.

the Need You Nows

Lady Douchebag

“The Chicks” is pretty aesthetically unpleasing too, though obv I understand the impulse

Though they are certainly all better justicewise, none of the new names actually improve on the original name except Rich Brian

One Little Indian —> One Little Independent

here is how it started...and then it sucked even more shit!

Lady Douchebag

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, September 12, 2023 4:44 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's 2020, I'm a little douche and I need your name

Love this poll

expected to google for the band Women to see that they changed their name to Wombats or something but nope!

band members via wikipedia:
Matthew Flegel – bass, percussion, vocals (2007-2012)
Michael Wallace – drums (2007-2012)
Christopher Reimer – guitar, samples, vocals (2007-2012; deceased)

omg they are wrapped up with the band Viet Cong! I remember this now! Apparently another dude in the band started a group called Cindy Lee? What the actual fuck is wrong with these men?!?!

Voted for Rich Brian bc it made me laugh and i needed to laugh desperately

I can understand why Whities changed their name, but it was just referencing white labels, right?

(It always takes me a minute to remember what AD 93 is, even though I get their emails like every week)

Young Turks —> Young

This is pretty bad

they obviously spent about 0.5 seconds thinking about that.

I wonder if Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel and Big Black would have renamed if around now?

I can understand why Whities changed their name, but it was just referencing white labels, right?

i had always thought it was in reference to having a whitey, but have no idea if that was the origin or not.

xp at ll tbf cindy lee is the drag project of a nonbinary person

oh ok, then that is ok! i'm sorry -- i haven't paid much attention to any their music bc their naming conventions were so wack

Ohhh right, I'm not up on my (UK?) drug slang.

the song that Cindy Lee did this year with Freak Heat Waves is really good btw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAoSD9S7dpY

If Whities was a specific reference to their status as white interlopers in a black art form… it would still be fine!

ehhh

average white band was a long time ago and it wasn't that funny at the time

Whitey was formed in Denton in the early 1990s, the brain child of Corey Korn while playing in another Denton band called the Cowtippers. The original name was to be Kill Whitey (an ironic twist on a mainly white funk band), but Corey thought it might be too extreme and shortened it to Whitey like a fucking coward.

they obviously spent about 0.5 seconds thinking about that

probably about how long they spent thinking up the original name which was awful too

"Slaves" having to change their name is making me think of like some San Francisco leather sex nerds are having an S&M session, and one says "lick my fucking boot, slave" and the other is like "Wow. I think you should use this moment as a learning opportunity to reflect on the spectre of American slavery"

That's my YouTube sketch, please like and subscribe

If those two dudes from Kent said that their band name was a BDSM reference then it might’ve gone different than their “anybody living the rise-n-grind life is a slave, to a degree, no?” expliqué

a) that has absolutely happened before and probably happens a lot in the bay area but b) our fetishes are formed within a real sociohistorical context so it's worth at least thinking about

For some reason I had conflated the Blessed Madonna with a different musician and couldn't really figure out why the name was that big of a deal, until I googled a photo of her and was like, "oh, yeah".

I don't know, I'm an American and I can hear def the word "slaves" without thinking specifically of the African slave trade. I may be the minority in that opinion though?

I don’t think I’ve ever thought of that word as a reference to any other context!

I’m not into BSDM so I can’t say for sure but I think it’s “sub”, not “slave”, that is in more general usage

a slave tends to be a specific type of sub

The only time I see “slave” and think “this isn’t about the slave trade” is when I’m syncing old software/hardware devices

Maybe those Kent dudes were actually just really into word clock

it definitely sounds like they're from Kent

I don’t think I’ve ever thought of that word as a reference to any other context!

idk, "sex slave," "slave to the grind," "wage slave," "slave girls," "slave to love"

There's def a move to change "slave" in software language, but that also has the "master/slave" language which makes that connection a little more closer

yes and master/slave terminology for DB management is no longer acceptable any longer at lots of tech companies.

"What did your last slave die of?"

I’m a Soft Play 4 U

Not one ILXor spoke up, retroactive bans for all involved

"I'm A Slave 4 U": Preliminary Classic Or Dud

look if people don't want to believe the frisson of songs in this vein isn't partly rooted in things we'd rather not think about then they don't have to, they would be wrong though

please don't cancel Grace Jones

it's not nothing and the whole pseudo-arabic signifying forbidden sensuality thing in 00s pop isn't nothing either for that matter

If I remember correctly, VC were starting to get protests from the Hmong communities in the Midwest and they decided to change the name because it meant nothing to them.

But I always thought it was cute that Gang of Four publicly defended their band name.

Well, there was four of them, so there was that.

(Plus, there was only ever one Viet Cong)

when did the band form / name themselves? all I can find is 1976 but mao died in september and the gang were arrested / denounced in october and the name takes on whole new connotations after that - I'd always assumed it was a possibly tongue in cheek "anti-revisionist" response to the rise of deng but it seems too early for that and maybe I'm thinking about it more than they did in any case

Can’t tell if my syntax was poor or if Mark G is making a joke, but here’s what I was referring to.

https://pitchfork.com/news/58779-gang-of-four-on-viet-cong-name-controversy-ridiculous-undemocratic-anti-progressive/

oh I thought you meant defending *their* bandname

those capitalist roaders at p4k seem to think it's a loaded bandname but I don't recall reading about any Go4 controversy, it's not like their lyrics were about chucking teachers out of upper storey windows. I'm of that age when I first saw that term on the tv news, it was in reference to the fookin' SDP.

I've never heard of any controversy about Go4's name

“something something American imperialism something something the struggle”

i once chatted with a member of the soft pack/muslims where he was on some bullshit like that, complaining about "having" to change the name because no one understood the complex multivalent political/religious/historical commentary they were making maaan, iirc the holocaust was somehow involved even? it was truly moronic and embarrassing

most artists are dumb

MC Hamas is probably thinking twice right now

same with Vanilla ISIS

BBQ, I don't follow but when the SDP party formed in the UK, the originators were called "The Gang Of Four". That's what I was referring to.

"Gang of (Number)" is also a common name for a group of legislators from different parties collaborating on a bill

Also, Gang of Four was an explicitly political band

Mick Lynch spotted at a recent Gang of Four gig, so that all checks out

Gang Of Four definitely took the name from the Maoist political faction but I can't see why that would casue any offence.

some people are really really offended by communism

Wait till they hear my band Gay Chuevara

vg+

xp
And chucking teachers out of windows.

a few more I found...

Eskimo Callboy changed to Electric Callboy in 2022
Spirit Animal changed to Record Heat in 2020
there was another, Florida-based band named Slaves who changed their name to Rain City Drive in 2021