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

[British] Sea Power doesn't really count

Scalping -> Scaler

As this band has grown and the opportunity to travel further has presented itself, we've become aware of the wider context surrounding our previous name and how offensive it can be to Indigenous cultures. We want to apologise to anyone affected by this, that was never our intent.

— SCALER (fka SCALPING) (@scalerband) September 4, 2023

I also forgot

Andrew Jackson Jihad --> AJJ

Dead Girlfriends —> Default Genders

this somehow feels more offensive or at least easier to intepret as such

I forgot about Rich Brian, an amazing name

also i didn't know about Pearl Milling Company until now lol

I had to look up why the Morning Benders was offensive

It really is insane that a whole-ass band can put together a whole-ass record as "Viet Cong" and not one friend pulled them aside and said "Hmmm, maybe this isn't the best look"

Dixie Chicks, because Chicks is the name of another (imo better) band, whose existence they have accidentally erased, I know I have talked about this before, sorry.

Young Turks —> Young

This is pretty bad

"Slaves" and "Soft Play" are both terrible band names, but for entirely different reasons, so well done there I guess

DJ Joey Negro --> Dave Lee

Scalping just changed their name to Scaler

Oh I see that was mentioned upthread.

Say, has anyone heard of this band Insane Clown Posse?

There's a French guy calling himself "NxxxxxS" who makes "phonk" music, and I would suspect he would be forced to change his name eventually, but the entire "phonk" aesthetic has kind of a suss relationship with black culture in its DNA

Let's see what happens if an AIDS Wolf reissue program kicks off.

Wasn't there an artist called Lady A who was not best pleased by the former Lady Antebellum bunch muscling in on her name?

What's problematic about the name "Lady Antebellum"?

it's the word used to describe the pre-civil war south ("the good old days") by every touring minstrel show from 1870 to 1930

I guess. It also just refers to the period before the Civil War (or, literally, any war).

Probably gonna vote for Lady Antebellum just because of the whole "Hey, your new name? I've been using it for years — see you in court" thing.

But here's a potential write-in:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flex_(singer)

Rich Brian

These guys keeping their name

Initially, the band had two running ideas for band names: Nazipenis and Turbonegro. They were advised that a band named Nazipenis would never sell records, so they chose Turbonegro as a more consumer-friendly choice.

HAHA there's a whole thread for Flex under his....other name, which is the title of the thread

hated when Dying Fetus rebranded as Dolly Fingers

Jesus the reason behind Flex's "name" makes it somehow even worse!

Then, without having finished the recording of that album, the producer asked him to record a song on the occasion of Mother's Day in Panama called "La balada de N****", although after the recording it was learned that his mother had died due to an expired medication in dialysis treatment.[5]

Dead Girlfriends had that name for all of five minutes, they were originally Elite Gymnastics

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?

One Little Indian —> One Little Independent

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

― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 12 September 2023

Nah, quite a few examples in the poll predate OLI’s name change in 2020 - Preoccupations changed their name in 2015, Rich Brian changed his in 2018.

One band I was thinking might change their name is Black Kids, but they seem to be fairly inactive.

missing slaves -> rain city drive (there were two bands active last decade under the name 'slaves' and they both got a lot of shit for it and took a decade to change their names)

"Men have been enslaving men for as long as we've had gods to hide behind,"
"Every man is a slave to what we love – whether it be women, drugs, music or sports. Through art we are all equals".

vs.

"Our band name relates to people not being in control of their day to day lives. Slaves was our way of getting off the paths we didn't want to walk down anymore. The music we make is motivational and aimed at people personally as well as collectively."

voted POP ETC. that one is truly unfathomable

Kate, I def did not invent the term “sex nerds”

― kirsten gilla band (Whiney G. Weingarten)

no of course not... there's an idea a lot of people have that we're like cruel, scary people who are into transgression for its own sake and maybe there are some people like that out there! but mostly the people i know are nerds. my favorite are the bob vila types. there's this whole subclass of kinksters whose main thing is building the most _amazing_ dungeon furniture. there are few things i'm worse at in the world than that kind of thing, personally, so i'm grateful there are people who can do that and like it!

my favorite are the bob vila george clooney types.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oVd4X2ITfg

i'm sorry george clooney's character in that movie is a fuckin' amateur. i mean look at how janky that thing is. not only that, but he's reinventing the wheel. why bother when the sybian already exists? (to be fair the sybian may well have been the real-world inspiration for clooney's device.)

your real high-quality dungeon furniture isn't just supergluing a dildo to a chunk of wood. there's often serious engineering work involved, and, of course, _extensive_ consideration given to safety. literal unfinished two-by-fours attached to a pulley? give me a break. clooney's character is one of those arrogant clueless Big Dick Daddy Doms who keep showing up where they're not wanted and generally make people uncomfortable.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

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

https://static.stereogum.com/uploads/2025/07/Dancehall-LuisKramer-1-1752695374-1000x667.jpg

Clock is ticking, boys

https://www.stereogum.com/2315671/dancehall-announce-new-album-100-music-hear-fun/music/

“Spicy brain” 🤮