First, it was Paul Ryan who said he was a big Rage Against the Machine fan. This prompted RATM guitarist Tom Morello to comment in an August 16, 2012 Rolling Stone editorial: “Paul Ryan’s love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. Charles Manson loved the Beatles but didn’t understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn’t understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine.”
Then, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy, in a September 29, 2012 interview in The Observer, regarding their number one 2009 album The Resistance, complained that: “In the US the conspiracy theory subculture has been hijacked by the right to try to take down people like Obama and put forward right-wing libertarianism.” Bellamy defined himself as “a left-leaning libertarian – more in the realm of Noam Chomsky. It doesn’t all have to be about guns and land protection, y’know? So yeah, I do find it weird. [The anthemic song] Uprising was requested by so many politicians in America for use in their rallies and we turned them down on a regular basis.” Which prompted arch-conspiracy theorist and right-wing nut job extraordinaire Glenn Beck to write Bellamy a bizarre fanboy letter that blathered on about the dangerous power of art. Citing Lenin and Trotsky no less, Beck stated “The youth rises up, power structures crumble, and worse leaders are inserted”, and contended that he and Bellamy probably had much more in common politically than the Muse frontman would care to admit, and that “I will still play your songs loudly.”
I’m writing this column in October, for the December issue. I have no way of knowing whether we’re three-quarters screwed or totally screwed, but I’m not one to argue that the worse things get, the greater the possibility for revolutionary change. However, the full catastrophe of the November elections is still ahead, meaning that I have to tread water until then. But its actually not hard to figure out why wingnut Republicans secretly, or not so secretly, yearn for the music of the likes of RATM and Muse, despite the left leanings of those musicians.
Now, it might be a bit simplistic to categorize whole types of music as either Democratic or Republican (rock = Democratic, country = Republican, hip hop = Democratic, etc.). If we go by which musicians have endorsed Romney versus Obama however, one reason quickly becomes clear. Anne Kiplinger, in her humorous October 13, 2012 Music Mom blog “Obama or Romney? Let the musicians decide!” on ChicagoNow.com, contends that “Romney has about 8 supporters in the music industry and Obama literally has all the rest, so it wouldn’t even be a fair fight.” In the Romney camp, she identifies Donnie and Marie Osmond, Gene Simmons, Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Pat Boone, Trace Adkins, The Oak Ridge Boys, and Hank Williams Jr. (Megadeth’s brain addled singer Dave Mustaine can be included in this group.) In Obama’s camp, she provides the following, partial list: “Marc Anthony, Jeff Beck, Mary J. Blige, Jon Bon Jovi, David Byrne, Colbie Caillat, Mariah Carey, Cher, Common, El Debarge, Earth, Wind & Fire, Gloria Estefan, Foo Fighters, Ben Folds, Peter Frampton, Lady Gaga, Al Green, Cee Lo Green, Josh Groban, Buddy Guy, Herbie Hancock, Jennifer Hudson, Mick Jagger, Quincy Jones, R. Kelly, Alicia Keys, B.B. King, Carole King, Beyoncé Knowles, Jay-Z, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Adam Levine, Ludacris, Joel Madden, Madonna, Chris Martin, Ricky Martin, Dave Matthews, Bette Midler, Nicki Minaj, Moby, Janelle Monáe, Jason Mraz, Ne-Yo, Randy Newman, Katy Perry, Pink, Pitbull, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kelly Rowland, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Barbra Streisand, Trey Songz, James Taylor, Toni Tennille, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Eddie Vedder, Pete Wentz, will.i.am and Stevie Wonder.”
If I were Republican, I’d sooner slit my wrists than confine my popular music listening to the meager list of sad sack musicians who have endorsed Mitt Romney for president.
There’s another reason, of course. Republicans, especially younger Republicans, fancy themselves as rebels against a supposed liberal establishment, a liberal media, and a liberal culture. Whether or not there’s any objective truth to this characterization of the status quo, these Republican “rebels without a clue” thus tend to identify with rebellious music and rebellious musicians. Unfortunately for said Republicans, rebellious music and rebellious musicians often incline toward the left end of the political spectrum. So, Paul Ryan wants to mosh to RATM’s thunderous metal rap, while ignoring the band’s commie lyrics. And Glenn Beck wants to crowd surf while Muse noodles away at their alt-rock, while putting a rightwing spin to the group’s left anarcho lyrics.
The human capacity to see what we want to see, hear what we want to hear, and think what we want to think, despite mountains of facts, even all of reality, to the contrary, is endless.
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