Yulia Samoylova from entering the country due to a previous tour of Crimea. Ukraine’ s controversial winning song in 2016 was about the deportation of the region’ s Tatar people by Stalin in the 1940’ s and did little to improve relations between the counties..
All art forms can be subject to use by those in politics. Campaign posters are often used inventively to create an image or aura about political leaders or parties such as Obama’ s iconic‘ Hope’ posters in 2008 or the Conservative’ s famous‘ Labour Isn’ t Working’ poster from 1978. Likewise music has become very important in political campaigning. Nowadays you can’ t go to a political rally or party conference without hearing some kind of entrance music, and that itself isn’ t as simple as it may seem. In the US Presidential races over the years we have seen the likes of Fleetwood Mac’ s‘ Don’ t Stop’ for Bill Clinton, U2’ s‘ City of Blinding Lights’ for Barack Obama and more recently by John Kasich, and, in a bizarre twist, ABBA’ s‘ Take a Chance On Me’ was used by John McCain.
These songs are not chosen by chance or just because they sound a certain way; they are used to convey a message. It is also now not uncommon for musicians to send a message by prohibiting certain politicians from using their music. Bobby McFerrin objected to George HW Bush’ s use of‘ Don’ t Worry, Be Happy’ and Keane drummer Richard Hughes tweeted that the Conservatives had not asked permission to use the band’ s song‘ Everybody’ s Changing’ in 2010 and that he would not be voting for the party. Multiple artists, including Adele, Queen, Neil Young, R. E. M, Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones, demanded that the Trump campaign stopped using their music at rallies and events( John Oliver did a great segment on it which you can watch here).
Musicians are as influential as ever, they, just like Trump, are able to express their views to millions through social media. So while some may see the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Jay Z on stage with Barack Obama at political rallies and roll their eyes, the ability to emanate into pop culture( like Obama has managed to do) can help create a positive image while bypassing the press. In 1997 Tony Blair’ s New Labour rode the wave of‘ Cool Britannia’ to a landslide electoral victory. Their endorsements from the likes of Oasis’ Gallagher brothers and their campaign song‘ Things Can Only Get Better’ by D: Ream( probably the most typically 90’ s campaign song they could
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