The Sound & The Fury: Petty and Bachmann Face Off

posted in: Music News

Of all of the crucial components in a presidential election strategy, the campaign song is key. It sets a positive tone for rallies, distills the campaign’s core message and immediately allies the candidate with a specific musical demographic.

Or, it totally backfires.

With the majority of musicians leaning left in the political spectrum, conservative candidates have historically had a difficult time securing songs for their campaigns. So, what’s a politician to do when faced with a likely rejection from a copyright lawyer? Just use the song and pay the price later.  After all, isn’t asking forgiveness is easier than asking permission?

GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has become the latest target of political ire from liberal musicians. After playing the Tom Petty song American Girl during her presidential bid announcement, Bachmann received a stern cease and desist order from Petty’s lawyers alleging that she had used the song without permission. Not a week later, Bachmann received a similar warning from Katrina Leskanich, the lead singer of ’80s new wave group Katrina & the Waves. Bachmann had used their song Walking on Sunshine during rallies in Iowa and South Carolina, also supposedly without permission.

 

Though she didn’t consult Petty or Leskanich’s lawyers, Bachmann at least chose songs appropriate to her central campaign message. Past politicians haven’t been nearly as shrewd. In his 1984 re-election campaign, Ronald Reagan famously used Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. without the Boss’ permission. Exactly why his staffers thought that a song about a shell-shocked, probably disabled, disillusioned Vietnam War veteran would bolster their patriotic campaign still remains a mystery.

Though some pundits have argued that monetary motives are fueling Petty and Leskanich’s cease and desist orders to Bachmann, money is clearly not the only factor. Petty was completely cool with Hillary rocking out to American Girl in her 2008 campaign, but he forbade George W. Bush from using I Won’t Back Down in 2000.  So, ultimately it does seem to be politics that are at stake for these artists, even if they unwittingly aid the very politicians they want to defeat in the process.  By openly denying conservative politicians the use of their songs, musicians only give those politicians more media attention and press exposure. What is supposed to represent a triumphant rejection of Republican principles merely shines the spotlight brighter on them.  But Petty and Leskanich wouldn’t understand that. After all, they’re not politicians.