These days it doesn't matter much what you name your band, because Bandcamp doesn't have any silly content standards for you to worry about. That's nice for punk and metal, because those dudes love to name their bands after completely sick shit. And they wonder why they have a reputation for being disagreeable...
It was different back in the day though, when the PMRC standards were still in place and you could hardly get away with having a curse word on your albums without Walmart refusing to sell it. That makes it all the more fun to look at bands whose names would have made Tipper Gore have a heart attack.
10. Perfect Pussy This New York punk band is one of the most popular in the indie-rock world right now, but their name is even censored on their YouTube account.
9. Pearl Jam This one should be really obvious, but the band has still maintained it was named after the great homemade jam from Eddie Vedder's great-grandmother used to make. Yeah, right.
8. Stone Temple Pilots Though their meaningless name isn't dirty in and of itself, they were really just going for the intials "STP," and one of their ideas to achieve that goal was to call themselves "Shirley Temple's Pussy." You can imagine how well that would have gone over in the early '90s.
7. Starfucker Apparently realizing that their name wasn't exactly marketable, this band has even attempted to change or abbreviate their name a few times just to distance themselves from the bad word.
6. Anal Cunt Anal Cunt was about nothing more than being offensive (check song titles like "Hitler Was a Sensitive Man"), so I doubt they much cared about the marketability of their name. Still, most releases simply said "AxCx" on them.
5. Rotting Christ Debuting in the '80s, Rotting Christ probably has a much easier time getting booked these days than they did when they started. It still didn't stop Megadeth's Dave Mustaine from once getting them removed from a bill they were on together due to his own Christian beliefs, though.
List continues on the next page.
4. Circle Jerks It's a good bet Tipper Gore wouldn't even know what a circle jerk is, being as pure of mind and heart as she is, which made it all the better when Keith Morris decided to call his new, post-Black Flag band that.
3. Eyehategod Never shy of controversy, Eyehategod have certainly offended a good many parents. It was probably easier to just abbreviate it as "EHG," but less fun to say.
2. Pussy Riot If you're a 12-year-old like I am, you probably got a good giggle out of the mainstream media constantly reporting on Pussy Riot after their issues with the Russian government.
1. Dying Fetus It may not be as vulgar as many names on this list, but did you know some people really, really don't like the idea of dead babies? Shocking, I know.
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