# Lady Antebellum is now Lady A **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 11, 2020, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486 "2020-06-11T21:20:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![shstrang98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@shstrang98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shstrang98)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/101 "2020-06-16T14:16:41Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > But I will still have unclean thoughts about the girl. > > [https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/11/entertainment/lady-antebellum-name-change/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/11/entertainment/lady-antebellum-name-change/index.html) She is cute. This crap has to come to an end. No sane person thinks slavery was a good idea but damn. This PC stuff has run amok. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/102 "2020-06-17T05:08:42Z")
I guess they are sharing the name. > **[Lady A and the former Lady Antebellum agree to share the name](https://www.avclub.com/the-original-lady-a-and-the-band-formerly-known-as-lady-1844057840)** > > Everyone seems happy with this decision, but it's impossible to know for sure. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/103 "2020-06-17T05:21:59Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > I guess they are sharing the name. > > [https://news.avclub.com/the-original-lady-a-and-the-band-formerly-known-as-lady-1844057840](https://news.avclub.com/the-original-lady-a-and-the-band-formerly-known-as-lady-1844057840) Lol! From your link: > [@](#): > > Unfortunately, their continued refusal to just _look things up before settling on a band name_ hurt them once again, with a blues singer named Anita White stepping forward to point out that she’s been performing under the name Lady A for 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/104 "2020-06-17T05:41:55Z")
> [@shstrang98](#): > > This crap has to come to an end. No sane person thinks slavery was a good idea but damn. This PC stuff has run amok. My god! A band decided to change its name! The horror! The horror! ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/105 "2020-06-17T10:27:36Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > I guess they are sharing the name. > > [https://news.avclub.com/the-original-lady-a-and-the-band-formerly-known-as-lady-1844057840](https://news.avclub.com/the-original-lady-a-and-the-band-formerly-known-as-lady-1844057840) It seemed pretentious of Billy Joel® to [register his name as a trademark](https://trademarks.justia.com/858/59/billy-85859506.html), but with stuff like this going on, I can now see why. I wonder why more performers don’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/106 "2020-06-17T10:49:36Z")
Despite the happy tone of Lady A’s (the country music group) announcement, [things look a bit bleaker from Lady A’s (the blues singer) perspective:](https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/lady-antebellum-lady-a-1.45795425) > [@](#): > > “I received a draft agreement from the Antebellum camp,” Seattle-based blues/gospel singer Anita White, 61, told Newsday in an email Tuesday. “I’m not happy about [it] yet again after talking in good faith. … Their camp is trying to erase me and I’ll have more to say tomorrow. Trust is important and I no longer trust them.” And another little tidbit that Newsday researchers dug up: > [@](#): > > A rapper named Lady A has some sparse credits at [AllMusic.com](http://AllMusic.com), most recently in 2015 as the remix engineer on the 2015 album “Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh)” by Rich Homie Quan. Pass the popcorn, this is going to be entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/107 "2020-06-17T12:07:14Z")
They could pass on their group to their children. I’m sure there wouldn’t be any copyright issues with calling yourself Kid A. ---
**Author:** ![BeagleJesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5daacb/32.png) [@BeagleJesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeagleJesus)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/108 "2020-06-17T13:37:59Z")
So a bunch of white folks finally figure out that their country and western stage name promotes and celebrates American slavery and white supremacy and their well thought solution to this problem is to go out and appropriate the stage name of a black artist? I have met some clueless people in my life, but at this point in time it’s hard to believe that they aren’t doing this shit on purpose. What message are they trying to send to their fans? “The pro-black crowd might be able to pressure us to change our name, but have no fear racist white people of America that call fans, we’ll just appropriate a new name from some black person because that’s the American way! And if the black person doesn’t like it, well we have more money and better lawyers so what are they gonna do about it anyway? #MoreThanOneWayToBigot, #NeverGonnaChange” ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/109 "2020-06-17T13:48:27Z")
Don’t see any reason to get so upset over a band name. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/110 "2020-06-17T16:05:59Z")
> [@BeagleJesus](#): > > “The pro-black crowd might be able to pressure us to change our name, but have no fear racist white people of America that call fans, we’ll just appropriate a new name from some black person because that’s the American way! And if the black person doesn’t like it, well we have more money and better lawyers so what are they gonna do about it anyway? #MoreThanOneWayToBigot, #NeverGonnaChange” From a purely practical standpoint, it seems like the worst possible way to go about it. By changing the name, they piss off the right wing AllLivesMatter and HeritageNotHate crowd by ‘bowing to political corectness’, but by clumsily trying to take the name of a black artist they piss off just about anyone who would approve of the name change. Maybe they’re shooting to change it back later and give a ‘we tried to change our name but those PC jerks still hated us so we’re keeping it’ narrative, but I think it’s more likely that they’re just REALLY clueless. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/111 "2020-06-17T16:16:43Z")
what about the Group Formerly Known as Lady Antebellum? And they can use that Prince symbol since he won’t complain. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/112 "2020-06-17T17:11:09Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > From a purely practical standpoint, it seems like the worst possible way to go about it. By changing the name, they piss off the right wing AllLivesMatter and HeritageNotHate crowd by ‘bowing to political corectness’, but by clumsily trying to take the name of a black artist they piss off just about anyone who would approve of the name change. Maybe they’re shooting to change it back later and give a ‘we tried to change our name but those PC jerks still hated us so we’re keeping it’ narrative, but I think it’s more likely that they’re just REALLY clueless. I really do think that they are clueless idiots. Their fans really did refer to them as Lady A for short which is no different than, say, Led Zep or something. They just didn’t bother to do their homework as any intelligent person would have done. Their management/PR team, who are the ones who are paid to do this shit, should be replaced. The should change their name to Lady A Band or something and their fans can call them whatever they want. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/113 "2020-06-17T17:35:20Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > what about the Group Formerly Known as Lady Antebellum? And they can use that Prince symbol since he won’t complain. That seems really stupid, since it doesn’t fix their branding problem of having a name that directly calls back to ‘when slavery was around in the US’. The issue is not ‘someone forced them not to use the name’, it’s ‘a lot of their target market finds their name repulsive and they’d like to make more money more than they’d like to keep the name’. Prince did the whole ‘Artist Formerly Known as Prince’ deal because he was contractually limited in what albums he could release under the ‘Prince’ name, but not under ‘a symbol that doesn’t even have a pronunciation’. Note that he reverted back to using Prince as his name once the contract with Warner Brothers expired. Lady Antebellum doesn’t have a similar issue, so copying what Prince did doesn’t make sense. Also they can’t use ‘that Prince symbol’ as it’s trademarked and his estate has maintained the registration, and certainly would complain (as in sue) if another musical act tried to perform using it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/114 "2020-06-17T18:18:59Z")
How about “Lady Postbellum”? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/115 "2020-06-17T19:05:27Z")
My suggestion about “formerly known as” was made in jest. ---
**Author:** ![LLCoolL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/llcooll/32/3596_2.png) [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/116 "2020-06-18T07:22:04Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > … But it was a different time. Edgy was in. Giving your band a directly offensive name was a way to show you were cutting edge. … there were a lot of band names chosen deliberately to offend or named after repulsive things, such as The Dead Kennedys, Butthole Surfers, The Slits, The Circle Jerks, N.W.A., Cherry popping’ Daddies, Steely Dan, and **Ted Nugent**. Ha-ha! Nice dig… ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/117 "2020-06-18T14:46:21Z")
> [@LLCoolL](#): > > Ha-ha! Nice dig… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2020, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/118 "2020-07-09T01:29:45Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > There’s also the issue of the blues singer Lady A not quite liking the name change. Black “Lady A” White sued by white “Lady A” that became “Lady A” because black lives matter, causing serious damage to a large number of irony meters. > **[Band Lady A Sues Blues Singer Who Says She's Used That Name for 30 Years](https://www.newsweek.com/band-lady-sues-blues-singer-who-says-shes-used-that-name-30-years-1516446)** > > "It shouldn't have taken George Floyd to die for them to realize that their name had a slave reference to it," Anita White said. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/119 "2020-07-09T14:48:36Z")
Apparently they are not trying to prevent Lady A from using the name and only suing to have the court declare that it’s ok for The-band-formerly-known-as-Lady-Antebellem to use the name as well, but geez what a mess. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486/120 "2020-07-10T20:57:28Z")
> **[Blues Singer Lady A: 'I Should Not Have to Bend to Band's Will Because...](https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/lady-a-lawsuit-interview-1026047/)** > > “If they’re saying that they’re an ally, they are lying to the American public,” singer says after group formerly known as Lady Antebellum files lawsuit against her It’s a really, _really_ bad look to want to change your name because it has racists overtones, only to try and get the Justice System to help you steal a black woman’s name so you can use it. I’m not a fan of the group but I hope that others will avoid their future output regardless of the name they issue it under. They seem like a bunch of jerks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lady-antebellum-is-now-lady-a/855486.md?page=7)