[x] Legal Name Changes Post Musical Career?

Looking at the main Joan Of Arc page I can't see a place to put the "band appears as:" statement under the applicable albums. To me, a band alias is just a bit of graphic trickery to show how the band was represented on an album at hand, ever other instance of the band should be shown with it's acknowledged proper name: Joan Of Arc. If an alias is important enough to be displayed then it is probably important enough to be entered in as a new band. The alias should be used only for stylistic alterations of the name: Ultravox! vs Ultravox, Firehouse vs FireHouse or in this case a translated version of the name.

On the same token I think we should keep aliases on a very tight rope and not get too crazy with them. For example there is the case of:
Black Randy & Metrosquad
and
Black Randy & His Elite Metrosquad
It's the same band, they just got tricky with the name. I don't think this should qualify as an alias because it is neither a trivial nor a stylistic rendering of the name although in my heart I'd prefer just the single band.

As for the 2preciious issue, this does not resolve that issue because that is still a single album released in two markets under two names. If it were two albums released then we might have the alias option available but there since it is a single album it should only be represented in the system once.


Kevin

From 'Rules 3.0'; the very last rule

"Once Is Never Enough 5 : When an album is re-released under a different band name, both albums are included"

Is this not in conflict with your last statement?

Hmm. I'm not sure I like the narrowness of your alias usage in theory, but in practice I can easily see how it keeps us from walking slippery lines. Because really, if you start allowing somewhat broad aliases, then why not go hole hog and allow complete band name changes to still be "the same band"? --and that seems clearly out of the question, as everything becomes very vague and ambiguous at that point.

I do kinda wish something showed up on either the discography page, the album page, or both to indicate the naming goofiness though. Maybe just "(released as Jeanne d'Arc)" or something below the album title? and on the album page, put the commonly recognized band name in parens/brackets after the for-this-release band name?

I dunno though, it would probably look much more stupid and less useful for bands like Ultravox or Firehouse.

MrPomp:
You are very correct about the re-release under a different name would appear to conflict with my previous statement (I actually realized that just prior to reading your post) however the subtle difference which needs to be clarified in the Rules is the idea of the "foreign market". This is the break point.

If an album is released by a band in one market and then the exact same album is released in a foreign market under a different name, we only honor the unaltered band name version.

If an album is released by a band in one market and then the exact same album is released by a different band (non-trivial band name change) in the *same* market, ie non-foreign, then we honor both versions.

"2preciious: s/t" was released in one market and then as a different band (non-trivial name change) as "Lee Aaron & 2 preciious: s/t" in a foreign market. As it is the same album with two different bands, in two different markets, we only respect the first version.

A counter example:

"Geza X: You Goddam Kids" is released in the US in 1981. It is then re-released in the US as "Geza X And The MommyMen: You Goddam Kids" so the non-trivial band name change in the same market allows the addition of both bands although it is the exact same album.

I realize the "foreign market" clause wasn't listed in the Once Is Never Enough section, and it will be added, so the confusion is understandable. Is everything clear on this now?


PK:
The aliasing of a band name should only be applicable to trivial name changes or stylistic band name renderings that are discounted by the "The" Rules. It should not extend futher than that. Things that qualify include:
- "The" in a band name that is later dropped: The Misfits
- Punctuation that is later dropped: Ultravox!
- Spellings of the word "And": &
- Foreign band name translations: Jeaane d'Arc
- Alternative capitalization schemes that do not include all uppercase or all lowercase that are later dropped: FireHouse

As for displaying the "default" band name, you are correct in speculating that in almost all cases the alias will seem less than useful when the difference is something like "Firehouse" vs "FireHouse". As a result highlighting the difference is probably not the best idea. The band alias is only to show the correct rendering of the band name as it appears on the cover art of the album page. I feel that should be about the only use of it.


Kevin

Gee, our first comment spam!

No, it's at least the third, if not more.