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

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this better be Rich Brian

Definitely voting Lady Antebellum for the "let's deal with our problematic name by stealing the name of a Black artist and making her unfindable on streaming services" move.

I didn't know that "bender" was a gay slur. It sounds pretty inoffensive tbh

Futurama very not woke

Every time I look at the choices, I get to Rich Brian and burst into laughter

Had never heard Slaves/Soft Play before this thread. Terrible names but not bad, a less boring Idles.

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?!?!

― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Tuesday, September 12, 2023 5:00 PM (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

that "dude" seems like they ID as nonbinary, not sure if that's a problem for you

Aotearoa New Zealand band Shihad tried to break into the US market around the time of 9/11 and were advised to rebrand because their name apparently sounded too similar to jihad.

They renamed themselves Pacifier. Ugh.

After failing to break into the US market they returned to Aotearoa and reverted back to Shihad.

This is possibly a bad example because their initial name wasn't even offensive but their new name definitely was. Well, offensively bad at least.

The Halo Etc.

I really like what I've heard of Cindy Lee, their music is a kind of perverse psychedelic take on beach rock from the 60s, dream- and bangle rock from the 80s/90s, and noise.

Act of Tenderness is an album for the ages

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

― budo jeru, Tuesday, September 12, 2023 4:12 PM (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

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

― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Tuesday, September 12, 2023 4:15 PM (four weeks ago)

I already addressed this and it is not "a problem for me" geez!

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spooky black -> corbin

Missed this poll.

Preoccupations is my bête noire, just because it was SO AVOIDABLE. Viet Cong was an obviously provocative name — when their tape came out I was shocked: “Holy shit, you can do that?” And if they’d given it even a second’s thought they could have come up with some kind of half-assed real reason why they named themselves that (“something something American imperialism something something the struggle”). Instead they were your bog-standard clueless white guys about it: “duuuuh…. We just thought it sounded cool” and got rightly pilloried.

And then they chose the dumbest most boring name this side of Window Lamp.

And yeah, Women, I’m pretty sure it’s Matt Flegel (brother of Cindy Lee) who keeps coming up with these.

Fuck, VC were SO GOOD for a while. “Death” (written for Women guitarist Chris Reiner who just up and died .. for literally no reason, not drugs or anything, just .. whatever the adult version of SIDS is …) makes Tonight’s the Night sound like Gilbert O’Sullivan.

“something something American imperialism something something the struggle”). Instead they were your bog-standard clueless white guys about it: “duuuuh…. We just thought it sounded cool”

the latter is the better excuse

Well, the former is more a 'justification'

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