I’m sorry. I forgot to include a link: Joy Division - Wikipedia
And then when they changed their name after Ian Curtis killed himself, they changed it to New Order, which is just as bad. I don’t think it can ever be justified or explained, outside of that scene (post-punk/industrial) being obsessed with the imagery of Nazism.
They did it because their fans have called them “Lady A” for a long time. It makes a lot of sense in that respect. I’m not even that much of a fan, but I knew immediately to whom Lady A referred.
Black keys changed their name to We’re Actually 2 white guys
(Googles “Black keys changed their name”; finds nothing.) OK, he’s joking again. I’ll rate this one as funny.
Well, duh. It’s not like they just made up the name.
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. Even if bands didn’t name themselves after Nazi concentration camp brothels, 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.
Dunno what the lawyers here think, but from what I’ve read, if Anita White wants to fight about it she’s got a good chance of winning, even if she never formally trademarked her stage name.
The band Lady A probably won’t be able to use it if the singer Lady A wants to fight it. The band The English Beat was just The Beat but there was already a band called The Beat in the US so they couldn’t use it here. As I recall, they were briefly The Beat U.K. before The English Beat.
A good friend of mine had a band called Alarm who performed live shows in Kansas and Missouri. The Welsh group The Alarm were going to embark on a US tour opening for U2 in the early 80s. My friend found out when his phone started ringing off the hook with his friends calling him to congratulate him. He and his band mates sold the rights to the name for several thousand dollars and used the money to move to California.
There was a DC goth band called Madhouse back in the day. Prince wanted the name for a side project and offered them $50,000, which they happily took.
ETA: Lady A seems pretty set on keeping her name and it would be pretty terrible optics for the former Lady Antebellum to fight her over it, so I guess it will be name three for them.
McIntosh stereo company let Apple use the Macintosh name as long as Apple did not get involved with sound. Eventually they said Apple was involved with sound and they sued Apple. I don’t know the outcome but I assume Apple paid them off. If you don’t know McIntosh is very high end equipment, $2000 would be a cheap item for them.
There was a similar trademark dispute between the computer company and Apple Records.
Black flag is now: Oh Yeah big deal, we are 4 white guys!!
Maybe Lady Antebellum could be Lady A-Minus and Lady A could be Lady A-Plus.
Apple Records still exists. I figured wrong that it went away long ago.
Which I believe was the reason that the Beatles took so long to have their music on iTunes.
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How about, White Lady A. Or maybe, Crazy Cat Lady A. Just thinkin’.
Lady My Belle Ami
Looks a whole damn lot like a set list at the station I once worked in in the 80s…
Some years ago I saw a poster for a lineup of bands playing at a nearby club, and judging from the names, they all seemed to hew to a certain genre. The one name that stuck out to me was “Anal [c-word]” and the wordmark rather resembled that anatomy, too.