Right Song/Wrong Audience
The inappropriate use of songs at political events
Just as the best literature and political writing tends to have a left-of-the-dial bent, so does music. Well-researched intellectual, academic political discourse from the left fills the shelves of libraries. If you are looking on the right, try an airport bookstore. You can save money as you will not need a companion dictionary to read them.
The rock and roll lifestyle is the place of the outlaws, the outsiders, and, of course, liberal causes. This is why it is always a constant surprise that uncool people, almost always a man in a suit, again and again, appropriate songs with swagger and defiance and are tone deaf to the juxtaposition of the lyrics, the songwriters’ motivations, and, of course with their own policy positions.
Yes, the rousing chorus that rocks a stadium of acolytes produces a feel-good bounce: we like the man, we like what he is saying, and he is backed by upbeat music; what is not to like about this experience?
Of course, as the chorus fades out and the rhetoric on stage begins, that all seems fine, but if you pause the volume fade out and play on, what would that audience hear?
The standout fail in this space is Bruce Springsteen and Born in the USA. Long established as a blue-collar voice of…
