Politicians traditionally use popular music to define their campaigns. It’s hard not to associate Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” with the Clinton campaign in 1992 and “Only in America” from Brooks and Dunn will always be linked to Dubya in our minds. Adding a little bit of Rock n’ Roll (or a little bit of country), adds excitement to rallies that might not be generated from grandstanding politicians.
Another tradition is using music without the permission of the artist. The concern is not only copyright violation. Politicians represent a viewpoint and using a song for a campaign gives the appearance of the artist’s implicit endorsement of the politician. Not learning from Bruce Springsteen’s well-documented beef with Reagan for the use of “Born in the USA,” candidates are identifying themselves with music without consulting with the artist. To speak in (VERY) broad strokes, musicians tend to be liberal (especially if they’re not country artists). Alice Cooper and Ted Nugent aside, the rock world is a pretty liberal scene. As such, the recent crop of Republican hopefuls are finding themselves at odds the music world (again).
In the last election cycle, the band Heart made Sarah Palin stop using “Barracuda” and John Mellencamp made John McCain stop using his songs. Jackson Browne actually sued McCain for using his music without permission. In 2011, Charlie Crist had to apologize to David Byrne from the Talking Heads for using their song without permission (after Byrne filed suit). Tom Petty sent cease and desist letters to Michelle Bachman, something he had to do previously with former President W. Bush.
Not one to learn from his mistakes, Newt Gingrich is now facing the same heat for using the Rocky theme “Eye of the Tiger” during his appearances. Although Mr. Gingrich doesn’t seem to learn much from his own mistakes (insert token wife joke), you’d think he’d have the wisdom to learn from the mistakes of others. Or at least to choose a more appropriate song. I suggest “The Wanderer” by Dion or the theme song to Rolie Polie Olie.
For Stephen Colbert poking fun at this issue, see his recently issued statement concerning his SuperPAC
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