As the political season rolls around, again Republicans are besieged with the penalty for not being hip: Rockstars complaining about the use of their music.
This happened twice in the past week. Mike Huckabee used the “Eye of the Tiger” song to triumph the jail release of the Left’s current focus of hate, Kim Davis. I don’t think anyone even realizes “Eye of the Tiger” is an actual song anymore, they just think it’s that music they use when a great football play is being re-run on the evening news.
Then it happened again, when Donald Trump came out to an old REM song at the “Stop the Iran Deal” rally. It probably would have gone completely unnoticed were it not for a somewhat sarcastic mention in the Weekly Standard, by Shoshana Clara Weissmann.
I feel sorry for the organizers. Just playing REM at the event, must have been a monumental task. I can only imagine how many Goodwill Stores they had to rummage thorough just to find a cassette player.
The trend of using rock songs on the campaign trail started back during the Clinton Era, when the Clintons chose (Ironically) a Fleetwood Mac song as the theme of the campaign, to prove they were a new generation full of vitality. Unfortunately back then, Al Gore and his wife, Tipper had already ticked off a lot of musicians with her Parents Music Resource Center, so they were limited in the musical choices they could make.
Back then, “Rock the Vote” was just getting of the ground, rock was all about rebellion, and politics were still pretty uncool. It was before politicians realized what a mass of uninformed voters was available in the youth of America. Since then politicians have gone out of their way to appear cool, from Senator Obama dancing on the Ellen DeGeneres show, to last week’s appearance of Donald Trump in a Jimmy Fallon Donald Trump skit.
Legally, there isn’t much a musician can do about it. If they signed on with a Music Licensing company, all the candidate has to do is pay a couple hundred bucks, and they get to play any song at their campaign event. Musicians know that it’s a possibility when they sign away those rights. But normally the prospect of free mailbox money is too overwhelming for them to resist.
So instead, they run to the media and make a big stink about Republicans besmirching their art. And the media is more than willing to publish their outrage, as if some great injustice has been perpetrated. Meanwhile musicians who haven’t been able to write a hit in twenty years, and haven’t seen an invite to the VMA awards in a decade, are suddenly the lead story on all the tabloid shows
Sure, there’s plenty of music Republicans can use, that won’t generate a complaint. Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, and several Country Western artists. Which kind of reinforces my point. Republicans have a huge problem appearing cool.
It’s like musicians have control of the only planet where the Hipness Spice is found, and they refuse to sell it to anyone who sports an R after their name. It’s definitely going to be a problem as the campaign moves forward, if the party of old white men can’t get permission from other old white men to play their music.