"Rock music in its lyrics often talks ahead of the time about what's going on in the country."- Edmund G. Brown
Politicians have a long history of having music played at their rallies. Often it has absolutely nothing to do with their policies, sometimes even contradicts them. Reagan famously thought Springsteen's "Born in the USA" was about his brand of blind, sheep-like patriotism and was, of course, wrong on that as in many other things.
This year, however, things are taking an interesting turn. John Mellencamp asked the McCain campaign to stop using his songs. Good call. One, I wouldn't want to be associated with the War Party. Two, anyone who knows anything about Mellencamp or his songs would be silly to think that he expresses conservative values.
McCain did pull any such songs from his rallies' playlist.
"BOSTON has never endorsed a political candidate, and with all due respect, would not start by endorsing a candidate who is the polar opposite of most everything BOSTON stands for."- Tom Scholz, guitarist/lyricist, Boston
Mike "Rapture Bunny" Huckabee has been playing Boston's "More than a Feeling" at his rallies of late. He received a letter asking him to stop doing so. Once again, I wouldn't want to be associated with this kind of thought either.
No news if Huckabee has stopped playing the song.
Personally, I love this. Barring country and Nazi death metal, most musicians aren't right wing idiots. And even country singers are probably pretty moderate seeing as they actually travel the country and interact with more than their neighbors. I hope other performers take a look at what is being played at campaigns and stop folks from allowing their music to subtly endorse policies they don't believe in.
That said, Jack Cafferty recently asked what songs symbolize the candidate's campaigns. Some of the answers are pretty funny.
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