"A rose by any other name" eh? Sorry, but "The Silver Beatles" wouldn't sound as sweet. In an alternate universe, the Beatles kept their first name and never got famous. John Lennon is still alive, Michael Jackson's estate is currently tied up in The Kinks catalog, and nobody knows how to play punch-buggy because those cute little Volkswagen cars don't even exist!

Sure, for some bands a name change isn't consequential - when "Charlatans" became the "Charlatans UK", their sound didn't change - but newly established acts, it can be a make it or break it moment. Diddy knows the key to regaining attention rests in re-branding, so he's been changing his for years, from Puff Daddy to Puff Diddy to P. Diddy to whatever it is now. Like a modern Captain Ahab, his quest for redemption continues!

Other monikers haven't lasted so long. In a before-and-after video investigation, MOG recounts the end effect of a slate of five up-and-coming bands' ridiculous, idiotic, and sometimes actually ok new names.

1. The Friends of Dean Martin ==> The Friends of Dean Martinez

As relaxed and amiable as Dean Martin may appear when singing about love and how the "moon shines in your eye like a giant pizza pie", he's really not cool with random people claiming to be his friends.

And so it was that The Friends of Dean Martin were forced to change their name to "The Friends of Dean Martinez". This was possibly the best thing to ever happen to the band. After changing their name, they began to embrace their desert roots, and now you can hear a distinctly southwestern flair to their music. Listen to "All the Pretty Horses", which is perfectly suited to accompany this fan-made montage of beautiful horses.

2. Final Fantasy ==> Owen Pallett

Whenever I mention "Final Fantasy", people assume I'm talking about the video game, and I'm never talking about the video game. After working for years under "Final Fantasy" and wreaking havoc on my ability to have a normal conversation about music, Owen Pallett was just recently asked by the makers of the Final Fantasy video game series to pick a different name.

His next album, Heartland, will be released under his own name. In addition to dropping the video game name, he won't be basing his next album on the Dungeon and Dragons schools of magic. Instead, he will be exploring "nothingness", something we can understand... without having to learn a board game or a mana move.

3. Starfucker ==> PYRAMIDDD

Starfucker started off in the Portland music scene, playing fun music with a funny name, and everyone had a jolly good time... because it was Portland.

After they really began to take off about a year ago, they decided that their name was a little offensive (yah think!?), and that they wanted to be able to sell more commercials to Target. The only thing between them and super-stardom was that the FCC didn't like their name (or so they thought).

They chose the name PYRAMIDDD by the worst method ever, voting, and further democratized their music by taking the few elements that had the most popular appeal and simply reusing them with very little alteration.

Their name change made official what anyone listening to their music could tell: when it came to their name, they chose money over music.

4. Say Hi to your Mom ==> Say Hi

More subtle than changing a name to remove an expletive, Say Hi to your Mom very tastefully changed their name to simply "Say Hi" to prove that they're not people at the table who insist on reading every fortune cookie with the words "IN BED" at the end.

5. Tip ==> T.I.

Rapper Clifford Harris began his career rapping under the name "Tip", but changed it to "T.I." upon receiving his first record deal out of respect to the already established rapper Q-Tip. While his name was once short for "The International Playa", "T.I." is now an acronym without meaning.

We'd spend some time analyzing T.I. vs T.I.P., except that he's already done that for us with his album "T.I. vs T.I.P."

To wrap up: What band name changes have I missed? Feel free to post in the comments section with videos.

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