SOS. The ship is sinking. Send help.
Was the Trump campaign signaling it would be saved when it played a video clip of the title song from the 1997 film “Titanic” at a rally for the Republican candidate in Montana on Friday? Maybe, but Celine Dion wasn’t about to throw them a lifeline.
Instead, the singer’s management team and record label responded to the former president’s use of her hit “My Heart Will Go On” with this statement: “In no way is this use authorized, and Celine Dion does not endorse this or any similar use. …And seriously, THAT song?”
Choosing a ballad associated with one of the worst maritime disasters in history was not a smart move for a campaign that has been floundering since President Biden dropped out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris entered. A new poll shows Harris holding a 4-point lead over Trump in the key states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, changing the narrative of recent months.
It’s normal for politicians to use pop songs out of context during campaign season, but Republicans seem to have a knack for selecting music that’s totally inappropriate for the moment. Current President George W. Bush adopted the Orleans song “Still the One,” which begins, “We’ve been together for a long time / Sometimes I never wanna see you again.” Did he say the quiet part out loud?
Then there is the truly appropriate musical selection, but not in the form intended by the campaign.
Ronald Reagan attempted to align himself with Bruce Springsteen in 1984 when he waxed patriotic with The Boss’s lyrics: “America’s future rests…on the message of hope in the songs of a man many young Americans admire, New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen.” “Born in the USA” chronicled working-class dreams, which were being dashed by years of warmongering from Washington and new policies like Reagan’s trickle-down economics.
The song's narrator, a Vietnam veteran, recalls his military service: I got into a little trouble in my town / So they put a rifle in my hand / Sent me to a foreign land / To go kill the yellow man.
It's not exactly a dawn in America, but it is one of the most notable examples of a piece of music being misused to highlight the irony surrounding a candidate's statements.
Trump’s team also took up the song, much to Springsteen’s chagrin. Apparently, like Reagan’s team, they only listened to the “Born in the USA” chorus (Trump once claimed he got a bigger audience than Springsteen, but that’s another story about an insecure man obsessed with size).
In 2015, Trump kicked off his candidacy with R.E.M.’s prophetic tune “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” There couldn’t have been a better soundtrack to the beginning of the end of elections and politics as we understand them, but hey, he was feeling fine. R.E.M. Singer Michael StipeHowever, it didn't go over well and he later posted that “we do not tolerate the use of our music by this scammer and fraud.”
The Trump-Pence ticket used Rolling Stone’s song “You Can’t Always Get What you Want” at rallies and events leading up to the 2016 and 2020 elections. It seemed hilarious at the time, but the song would later become the theme song for the majority of those who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 but ended up electing Trump thanks to the electoral college vote.
In September 2020, President Trump stepped off Air Force One in Michigan to the sounds of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son,” which references rich kids evading the draft. The 1969 protest song focuses on class inequality during the Vietnam War, with John Fogerty singing about a “millionaire’s son” who is born with a “silver spoon in his hand” and evades the draft while others are sent off to fight and die. The song was a fitting soundtrack for Trump, but probably not in the way his team intended. It drew attention to his draft-dodging record of five deferments at the height of the Vietnam War. Oops.
During the 2024 Republican National Convention last month, the former president went out to see James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” concert. It’s hard to imagine what the organizers were thinking with that choice, given that women’s reproductive rights were decimated with the overturning of Roe v. Wade thanks to three Trump-appointed justices. There’s also the former president’s history with women, which includes being found guilty of sexual assault and the horrible things he says he “can do without anyone noticing” because he’s famous.
Like R.E.M.’s Stipe, one artist after another has warned the MAGA machine to stop using their songs at rallies and events. Among those aggrieved are Adele, Neil Young, Aerosmith and the Smiths. The latest cease-and-desist order comes from the estate of the late, great Isaac Hayes. His family posted a legal complaint on X on Sunday demanding that Trump stop using “Hold On (I’m Coming).” They said if they don’t get satisfaction by Aug. 16, they will sue.
But sometimes, pop culture takes revenge on those who don't bother to understand its nuances.
When Trump visited an N95 mask factory in Arizona, it was 2020. COVID-19 was claiming thousands of lives and much of the country was under lockdown. But he wasn’t wearing a mask. The music blaring from the factory’s speakers? Guns N’ Roses’ “Live and Let Die.”
