From the launch of his 2016 presidential campaign to the
more recent reelection campaign for 2020, is President Trump using music “inappropriately”
at his political rallies?
By: Ringo Bones
The Rolling Stones might be the latest of a growing number
of musical artists launching their own cease and desist directives to the
Donald Trump presidential campaign after their songs are used inappropriately
in his rallies. Their 1969 classic You Don’t Always Get What You Want is
probably the proverbial last straw to the normally laid-back Stones. Even
though the Stones had been telling Trump to stop using their songs since 2016,
the iconic band finally issued a legal action for Trump to stop.
Donald Trump had been exploiting loopholes in the BMI’s
Blanket Political Entities License Agreement law in being able to play a number
of classic Rolling Stones, Queen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Pharrell
Williams, Rhianna and Adele just to name a few. But a growing number of artists
are complaining and had launched their respective legal cease and desist orders
from their lawyers because their songs are used in a Trump rally for very
inappropriate lessons.
Earlier this week, the family of the late Tom Petty posted
on the band’s official Twitter account saying that the Trump campaign’s use of
his song is “in no way authorized,” adding that he: “would never want a song of
his used for a campaign of hate.” Pharrell Williams’ Oscar nominated “Happy”
was played at a Trump rally hours after 11 people were killed at a Pittsburgh
synagogue back in October 2018.
This more than just pointing out the preexisting thinking of
hard right conservatives not giving a rat’s ass about copyright laws since the
launch of Fox News, being tone deaf to the social injustices endured by non white
Anglo Saxon Protestant musicians is one thing, but keeping silent while Trump
uses their songs inappropriately in the era of the renewed Black Lives Matter
protests after George Floyd was killed in an act of police brutality is just
unforgivable. It’s high time to vote Trump out of the White House this November
2020.