Say you’re running for office. You want to latch on to an inspirational song. Something peppy and uptempo, with a message of optimism. Here’s what you do: you call up the band that made that song and ask politely if you can use it in your campaign. Why? Because that way you can avoid having them angrily request that you stop using their song, at which point you kinda have to switch to a new song anyway. Just this week Maroon 5′s Adam Levine has angrily requested Fox News stop using his song, calling the channel “evil” and across the pond Conservative pol Teresa May has found her usage of a Dandy Warhols song met with a threat to politely cease doing so “tear their fuggin heads off.”
The point being, this is all very avoidable! And yet, historically, this has happened over and over, and over again. Especially to Republicans because, let’s face it, most musicians aren’t quite so into the GOP. A brief history.
