Over the last 8 years there have been a number of famous musicians who have been picking sides in the world of American politics. Many Trump supporters and rally goers were probably never aware of it but former President Donald Trump is a big time music lover as are so many others of the Baby Boomer generation. What makes the Baby Boomers so interesting is their taste in music can be quite eclectic. Here is a portion of Trump’s rally playlist as found on Spotify:
- Start Me Up – The Rolling Stones
- Saturday Night’s Alright – Elton John
- Devil’s Sidewalk – Neil Young
- All Right Now – Free
- Only in America – Brooks & Dunn
- She’s a Rainbow – The Rolling Stones
- I Won’t Back Down – Tom Petty
- In the End – Linkin Park
- God Bless the USA – Lee Greenwood
- You Can’t Always Get What You Want – The Rolling Stones
- I’m Still Standing – Elton John
- Bright Lights, Big City – Neil Young
- Free Fallin’ – Tom Petty
- Let’s Spend the Night Together- The Rolling Stones
- In the Air Tonight – Phil Collins
So there is a reason for the songs on this list. Donald Trump is a music lover and he is involved in every detail of his campaigns. These are songs he likes. These are songs he grew up with. I can relate since I was one of those weirdos who preferred The Rolling Stones over the Beatles and took heat for it.
There is a good reason for this playlist and the almost 100 songs on it, too. When we went to see President Trump in 2020, we were there at 9:00 in the morning and did not leave until 9:00 at night. That is 12 hours of waiting with mostly, no Trump. The music both helps pass the time, and lets you feel a little bit closer to the man you have come to see.
From a technical side, normally the Trump legal team would just pay the royalty fees to either, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) or Broad Cast Music Incorporated (BMI) and get to legally play these songs to the public within guideline rules and regulations.
But lately we have seen artists (or relatives of the dead) coming out saying they do not want President Trump playing their music as if to say, “Your royalty money is no good here.”
Wikipedia offers this list.
- ABBA
- Adele
- Aerosmith
- A-ha
- The Animals
- The Beatles
- Beyoncé
- Bruce Springsteen
- Celine Dion
- Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Earth, Wind & Fire
- Eddy Grant
- Elton John
- Everlast
- Foo Fighters
- Free
- Guns N’ Roses
- Isaac Hayes
- Johnny Marr
- Leonard Cohen
- Linkin Park
- Luciano Pavarotti
- Neil Young
- Nickelback
- Nico Vega
- The O’Jays
- Ozzy Osbourne
- Panic! at the Disco
- Pharrell Williams
- Phil Collins
- Prince
- Queen
- R.E.M.
- Rihanna
- The Rolling Stones
- Sinéad O’Connor
- Tom Petty
- Twisted Sister
- Village People
- The White Stripes (Seven Nation Army)
- Yoann Lemoine
“Many musicians have copyright gripes with Trump, but only some can win in the courts” – Business Insider
Almost 8 years ago one single artist would come to perform for Donald Trump’s inauguration when all of the others refused and that was Toby Keith. This made sense for two different reasons, he represented the only artist with a spine and an independent thinking mind and he had the largest catalog of patriotic America songs of all artists.
“Toby Keith at the Trump Inauguration”
Sadly, country singer Toby Keith passed away this year after a lengthy illness.
Most recently the artist Isaac Hayes has been in the news because of his Trump hating offspring.
“Federal judge orders Trump to cease using Isaac Hayes’ song ‘Hold On, I’m Coming’”
CONCLUSION:
The list of artists we found at Wikipedia is not complete as we know of other artists who have come out against Donald Trump even though he was not using their music:
- Maren Morris
- Pink
- Taylor Swift
Like so many other Trump supporters we have a simple solution this problem. We just quit listening to the music of these Trump hating artists. There is a lot of good music being produced every single day so it is very easy to change the channel and change the artist. We are not doing this to be mean but because these artists are partisan and ignorant. We claim this for 4 reasons:
1. They have yet to learn “The customer is always right,” and not all of their customers are Democrats.
2. Most of these music artists cannot even verbalize their reasons for hating Donald Trump.
3. Some are not even US citizens meaning they have no skin in the game and should remain neutral.
4. Some seem to be simply following the herd mentality of doing what others have done before them.
Trump is not without his partisan music supporters as well though. His list might be shorter but it is growing and now includes:
- Amber Rose
- Anuel AA
- Billy Ray Cyrus
- Gretchen Wilson
- Jason Aldean
- Kanye West
- Kid Rock
- Sexxy Red
- Sheff G
- Sleepy Hallow
“US Former Democrat artist Gretchen Wilson joins MAGA at Trump rally in Wisconsin [Subtitles]”
Americans should be able to come together over food music and those people in the restaurant industry and music industry should steer clear of politics. Over my many years I have noticed both food and music can bring people together so why mess with that?
It might be juvenile but when a musical artist comes out and says, “I hate Trump and I don’t want him playing my music,” our (my wife and my) response is immediate, “Fine, we hate both you and your music and will cease listening to you!”
Is that really the way they want to play this game? I would think over time it is going to hurt their bottom line.
One of those artists, who publically presented her hatred for Donald Trump, while providing misinformation, was Taylor Swift. Happily, some of her fan base has come out to show that she does not speak for them and they will follow her music and President Trump, too! Swifties for Trump!
Copyright © 2024 by Mark S. Schwendau
