Offensive Rock Band Names

Slate has an article today on offensive rock band names. That is so already been done! No, I'm kidding, because there can never be enough written on the topic. I merely wish to humbly call attention to Salmons and Macaulay (1988/89), "Offensive Rock Band Names: A Linguistic Taxonomy", published in Maledicta 10:81-99.

A funny story about that article: Joe and I were both Assistant Professors at Purdue when we published that masterpiece (if I do say so myself). It got mentioned in US News and World Report in an article by John Leo, which prompted a Purdue alum to contact the University insisting that we be fired. To our amazement, the administration actually defended us on the grounds of academic freedom. We did both eventually get tenure.

I'm too technologically challenged to post a pdf of the article here; I'll see if Mr. Verb will do it, or maybe Joe can supply a link.

By the way, the image (which I hope will raise Mr. V's cuss-o-meter score) is of the band that Joe & I think hits the highest number of sensitive spots for our culture: sex, religion, and dirty words! Wahoo!

Update, Wed., 7:15 am (by Joe): Ahhhhh, the good old days, when I was going to bed at 3 a.m. instead of getting up at that hour. Anybody interested can download the above-mentioned paper here. Apologies, Mr. V, if the paper offends your delicate sensibilities.

Update, Nov. 16, 2008 (by Joe): The downloadable .pdf has been removed.