Election Cycle Angst
Can artists keep quiet for the next nine months?
We at The Cadence were born in the early-to-mid 1970s. As a result, our social media feeds contain of at least 30% Gen X nostalgia content. One recently rehashed artifact is the MTV Choose Or Loose commercial featuring Iggy Pop, Kate Moss, and fashion designer Stephen Sprouse.
For our Millennial readers who might not be familiar with this Clinton-era phenomenon, Choose or Lose was MTV’s version of Rock the Vote — both campaigns designed to encourage youth voting by featuring well-known musicians and pop culture figures in ads that ran non-stop during election years. During these final days of the monoculture, it was omnipresent, edgy and — some might even say — sexy. At least as sexy as asking the 48-year-old Bill Clinton if he wore briefs or boxers during a 1994 MTV town hall.
That last bit hasn’t aged as well, nor has Madonna singing, “Dr. King, Malcolm X, freedom of speech is as good as sex.” to the tune of her #1 hit “Vogue” in 1990. But it was a simpler time when the Cold War was won, the economy was humming, and social media was still 15-20 years away.
Today — Russians are the bad guys again; no one knows what’s up with the economy; and political actors of good and bad faith are harnessing TikTok to influence Gen Z voters the same way Obama leveraged Facebook’s Millennial users in 2008 and Qanon rotted the brains of their parents starting in 2016. This means that today’s artists are competing for attention on the same TikTok scroll as politics and propaganda, an uncomfortable proximity we’ve never really seen.
TikTok isn’t the music business, and the music business isn’t TikTok. But as we’ve seen from the full-scale conflict between Universal Music Group and the app, the two interests are enmeshed enough to fight at the pitch of a familial row. The fact that TikTok is two-timing music content with political content puts everyone at the same dinner table — from the fiercely woke college student to the vehemently racist uncle. Artists are like moms trying to prevent someone from storming off without supper.
A few weeks ago, we wrote about how apolitical artists are thriving in today’s hyper-politicized culture. As we go careening into the 2024 general election, it’s unclear how long artists will be able to maintain that level of neutrality. As things heat up, they better have a plan if fans start demanding statements.
It’s no surprise that one artist who has done it right is Taylor Swift. This week, the super-mega star encouraged her followers to vote on Super Tuesday in an IG post probably worth more than all the 90s pro-voting commercials by Deee-Lite, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Brittany Murphy, Eddie Vedder and Reverend Horton Heat combined.
Taking a page from the Rock the Vote playbook, the post encouraged voting in general rather than picking a partisan side. And as has been the case in some previous posts, the language was framed around Taylor’s home state of Tennessee, even if the message was obviously intended to go national.
Speaking of Swift, last weekend in Florida, Gen Z congressman Maxwell Frost produced an art and music festival co-headlined by Taylor Swift opening act, Muna and squad leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The event was a fundraiser for Frost and his political PAC, along with L.G.B.T.Q. and abortion rights groups and featured appearance by Phoebe Bridgers and Lin-Manuel Miranda. But the progressive bona fides weren’t enough to prevent pro-Palestine protestors from attempting to take the stage during Muna’s.
And speaking of The Squad, this week saw Representative Rashida Tlaib introduce a bill in Congress yesterday to raise streaming rates to the mythical penny-per-stream rate — a move no doubt intended to rally musicians (and their young fans) around Democrats in the same way that Biden surrogates are working overtime to promote the president’s canceling $138B in student debt.
While all this was happening on the left, in Trump World, Johnny Marr and Sinead O’Connor’s estates were both up in arms about the now-official Republican nominee using their songs at his campaign rallies. This is a familiar trope that comes up every election cycle. But since most artists have no way to halt the use of their music legally, and since Trump has never been shamed into anything in his life, it’s unlikely statements by two foreign (and one deceased) artists will cause him to update his playlist.
Of course, if Trump did care, he could probably make a full rally playlist featuring rappers who have begun publically supporting the Republican nominee. The issue is that few attendees of his events are likely familiar with artists like Lil Wayne, DaBaby, Kodak Black, Chief Keef, Benny the Butcher, and Waka Flocka Flame. And they certainly can’t sing along.
TAKEAWAYS
Salient statements from this week’s music news.
1. Live Nation to Continue $1500 Per Show on the Road Subsidies in 2024
The On the Road Again program to subsidize performers at small and mid-size Live Nation venues also dropped merch fees charged by these venues.
Takeaway: [The program] drew fire from independent promoters and venues who, without the backing of a corporation the size of Live Nation, are less able to compete for artists by matching the additional compensation.
2. Sony Music Settles Class Action Lawsuit Over Termination Rights
The settlement means that the broader debate over whether an artist’s right to reclaim ownership of their music after 35-56 years extends to master recordings remains unresolved.
Takeaway: The lawsuit represented a sweeping critique of how the two music giants were allegedly approaching termination rights, which were created in the 1970s as a means of helping correct the imbalance of power between large entertainment companies and individual creators.