Musicians to GOP: Stop using our music!

By Nathan Rothwell

A brief history of GOP musical fails.

Dee Snider joins the growing list of musicians who are not taking it.

Those of you who were around for the summer of 1984 probably remember Bruce Springsteen being a huge part of it. Seven songs from his Born in the U.S.A. album would rank on Billboard’s “Top Ten” hit singles list, a record that still stands today. None of those seven, however, were as iconic and controversial as the album’s title track. While the lyrics tell the story of a working-class American in the midst of a spiritual crisis after surviving the horrors of the Vietnam War, the song’s famous and catchy chorus caused many casual listeners to misinterpret the song as a patriotic anthem.

President Reagan’s 1984 re-election campaign was definitely guilty of making that mistake. Reagan and other conservatives praised the song for confirming the values they promoted, while of course paying little heed to lamentations of the song’s protagonist; a man deeply troubled by a government that “put a rifle in my hand, sent me off to the foreign land, to go and kill the yellow man.” The Reagan campaign would go on to seek official endorsement from Springsteen, but anyone who knows Springsteen well can tell you how that turned out.

And so, unofficially, began an era of a strange relationship between music and Republican political campaigns. While Reagan never actually used any of Springsteen’s music at any of his campaign events, other Republicans would later make such attempts with the music of other artists. There have been more than two dozen documented instances since 2008 of a Republican using a band’s song at a campaign event, only to later receive a request from that band to stop using their music. Most likely, every one of those requests read something like the one Dee Snider of Twisted Sister used when he found out VP candidate Paul Ryan was using “We’re Not Gonna Take It” at one of his events:

"I emphatically denounce Paul Ryan's use of my band Twisted Sister's song 'We're Not Gonna Take It' in any capacity," Snider said in a statement. "There is almost nothing he stands for that I agree with - except the use of P90X."

To paint a better picture of just how curious the music choices have been for the GOP, I refer you to the following list (h/t to Redditor Alyeska2112, who came up with this list and even more examples):