movieguru

It makes me thing of when Pizza Hut changed their name to "The Hut".

mspmms

And that is not going so well

BobO'Link

I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten,
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.

In Dixie Land where I was born, early on a frosty morn',
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.

Oh I wish I was in Dixie, hooray! hooray!
In Dixie Land I'll take my stand to live and die in Dixie,
Away, away, away down South in Dixie,
Away, away, away down South in Dixie

Ohio-born Daniel Decatur Emmett is most frequently credited with the song's composition. It originated in the minstrel shows of the 1850s and quickly became popular throughout the United States. During the Civil War it was adopted as a de facto national anthem of the Confederacy with the lyrics frequently changed to some that more explicitly tied the song to the events of the Civil War. It was also one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite songs.

Josh-da-man

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...-white-1302517

And now they're suing a black woman who has been performing under the name "Lady A" for years in order to steal her name.

It's like an episode of South Park.

Decker

Wow, that is hard to fathom., Why not go with Lady Ant? Or maybe La Belle?



mspmms

They will now be known as Lady Assholes.

Tom Banjo

It really is like South Park, isn’t it? Change name to something less racist, then sue a black woman when it turns put she’s already using the name. It’s rare to see something that tone deaf!

brayzie

I looked up “Lady A” and “Anita White” on Amazon music and got nothing. I wouldn’t be surprised if the band didn’t know of this other singer.

How can they use the name of Lady A if it’s already taken by Anita White? Is the name not copyrighted by her?

Anyways, a very bad look for them considering the reason they changed it.

mspmms

White has performed under the name “Lady A” while touring and on recorded music since 2010.

Click through my post and the tweet below to know the details:

mspmms

Lady A, the Blues Singer, Responds to Band’s Lawsuit: ‘They Always Knew What They Were Gonna Do’

link

brayzie

I saw that from her Wikipedia page but I can't find any music from her on the more mainstream plat forums and I never heard of her prior to this.

Lady Antebellum is suing her, but not for any damages, only that they both be able to use the same name. I don't know how that's going to work but whatever. Anita White was asking for $10 million from the band and says $5 million is for herself and the rest would go to charities of her choice.

And this is from the article:

So they applied for it in 2010, the same year that White released her first album, but it was granted in 2011, so...how does that work? If they got the legal trademark in 2011, legally, what's the problem? If they applied for it way back then, and they already had it as a trademark since then, how were they supposed to know that some singer out there was using it as well? What is the reasoning that Anita White didn’t attempt to get her professional name trademarked?

It seems like the "optics" is the only thing that's at issue. Rich white band vs. not-rich black woman during the time of heightened white supremacy in the country and nationwide protests.

I found Lady A/Anite White's music on YouTube. "We Need You in Old Folks Home." I would honestly be surprised if the country band using the same name or if she started going by "Anita White formerly Lady A", would mess up her career but who knows. I'll check out more of her music later. I don't think she even had a Wikipedia entry prior to this controversy.

I would think that "Lady 'Bellum," would be the an easier name change, but it probably has some other meaning that would mess things up. They got shit for changing it "Lady A" as well because the "A" is still a reference to Antebellum South. I get that they want some similarity to their original name so it won't be too disparate.

EDIT

I found Lady A/Anita White on Amazon. I has to specifically type in one of her albums names for it to pop up, and even then her name goes to other music and songs that have “Lady” in the tire.

She’s on iTunes but you have to scroll past Lady Antebellum and Lady Gaga to find her albums. Her music is definitely better than that YouTube song I listed.

Mabuse

Yaz became Yazoo and The Beat became The English Beat because obscure bands in America had those names.

I see this as no different Lady Antibellum look dumb.

Decker

Yaz became Yazoo? I never knew that.

Why Lady Antebellum ever used that name is totally beyond me - whether they were trying to appeal to the racist block of Country fans or whether they just thought the name was interesting and based on a Southern style of home, as they claim. Either way it shouldn't have taken long before someone told them what the word Antebellum refers to -- it's not like it's some antiquated name from decades ago when people were less enlightened -- they were founded in 2006.

They should be smart and claim a name that isn't used by anyone, recognizable as them and is totally inoffensive. Like how Jefferson Airplane became Jefferson Starship, these guys should become Lady Cerebellum.

brayzie

I don't think they were trying to appeal to racists. The whole southern identity is based on notions and culture that were firmly established prior to the Civil War:
-Culture of Honor
-Southern Hospitality
-Southern Gentleman/Southern Lady
etc

And most of the above was perpetuated because it's easy to be an extremely hospitable gentleman to your guests when you're rich from slave labor. So of course they're going to cling to things like "antebellum" which means "pre war" in Latin, and of course younger southerners are going to like the Confederate flag and what it means to them because to them it feels rebellious as the Confederacy are literally known as "rebels."

Did any of us stop watching "Dukes of Hazard" growing up, or refused to buy it on DVD in the early 2000s? Anyone boycott the film in 2005? Did people get mad when Kanye West was wearing the Confederate Flag in 2013 and selling shirts emblazoned with it and captioned "I ain't comin' down"?

Lady Antebellum is in a tough situation. They change the name because obviously they're risking boycotts or negative publicity by keeping the name. People now will be hesitant to work with a group with that name. Major outlets are going to be reluctant to book them for anything big. And that hurts their livelihood. So they change it to "Lady A" so it's at least somewhat familiar and not a HUGE rebrand for them. Their alphabetical listing remains virtually unchanged and apparently they've had this nickname for a while.

But their fans don't see it like that. They just see that their caving to the "woke" crowd, to the SJWs.

And now this with the blues singer Lady A.

That said, I haven't read their full statement on the name change, but I think they were acting like they didn't know what it meant, and chose the name solely based on seeing the description of a house referred to as "antebellum." I get that band names can be chosen pretty randomly based just on what sounds cool, but this is a little hard to believe. Nobody apparently ever has any idea that any of this stuff could be possibly considered offensive and possibly contribute negatively to society.

I don't see the Confederate flag as representing slavery. My mind doesn't even go there. And really, the war was about states' rights.

We just thought "antebellum" meant pretty house.

I didn't think it was offensive at the time to repeatedly wear blackface, say the N-word, and repeat racist black stereotypes. I was actually fighting against racism by doing that.

Decker

Minor point, but by the time they made the movie, they already knew better.

And this was before Lady Antebellum released their first single. They should have known better. That's all I am saying.

The Cow

The confederate flag was still on the car in the movie.

brayzie

Isn't the Confederate Flag still on the car in the 2005 movie?

Decker

Really? I didn't realize, and never saw the movie. Couldn't see it in the images I looked at. It's on the roof, thought it was on the hood.
Well they were idiots too, clearly. The seventies was one thing, but this century is another and people should know better.

brayzie

Not to nitpick, but why? Apparently the only controversy was that the humor was cruder and sexual themes played up more, but it was a number 1 film.

Considering that Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated just 10 years before The Dukes of Hazzard debuted on TV, shouldn't people have known better back then? I mean segregation and things like church bombings were a regular thing just a decade earlier.

Decker

That is a great point, but change takes time. Just look at any comedy from the 80s. My daughter makes me feel like a total racist for liking any of them as they all have ethnic, racial and gay jokes in them. Even the really classy and well-respected ones. What was acceptable in the 70s and 80s just doesn't fly today. It's a slow-moving process but it takes time to change perception of what is acceptable and what isn't.
It probably seemed progressive to have a black entertainer like Sammy Davis prominently featured as an equal star in the Rat Pack, but watching their act today is kind of horrifying as it seems so racist by modern standards

brayzie

I'm only 1 minute into the video and I'm already pissed. Frank Sinatra sexually assaulted Sammy Davis Jr over and over.

I respectfully disagree about it being a matter of change taking time. Our society values pleasure, financial success and entertainment over doing what's right.

People will continue to do stuff like this, support it, and make excuses for it as long as it doesn't hurt them financially or socially. They knew it was wrong then, they knew it was wrong 30 years later. But they could get away with it both times and profit from it, so that's why it continued to happen.

Tom Banjo

It is. There’s this whole bit where they’re driving through Atlanta and black people in other cars are yelling and cussing them, and Bo & Luke are like “what’s their problem?”

Throwing Copper

God can that fucking new album please come out already! Only a few more days. I like the three songs they’ve put out so far for Gaslighter

Mabuse

I’m in no way trying to defend the show, but Dukes is like a burlesque of Southerness. It’s a bunch of Hollywood folks idea of southerness. Like the Beverly Hillbillies.

Josh-da-man

The 1970s were a bit before my time, but "Southern culture" was sort of fad for a while, of which The Dukes of Hazzard was a part of.

It might have started with Lynyrd Skynyrd.

But there was sort of a pop culture interest in "Good Old Boys" vs. "Corrupt Redneck Sheriffs" that you saw in movies like Convoy and Smokey and the Bandit.

Some hippies of the 60s, particularly if they were rural or from the South, would adopt the Confederate flag as a symbol of rebellion against society. Which, in turn, probably led to Lynyrd Skynyrd and the "long-haired country boy" which then begat the Duke Boys.