For decades now, Republican candidates for office have had a hard time finding rock music they can use for rallies and advertisements without earning the ire of songwriters and performers. Four years ago, Jackson Browne sued Republican presidential nominee John McCain and the Ohio Republican Party for using his hit “Running on Empty” in a campaign ad and won a cash settlement and a public apology from McCain. This month alone, both of the leading GOP presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, have been forced to stop using songs. American copyright law, which has become more restrictive since the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, requires commercial users of songs, including political campaigns, to get permission to use a song.

 

The Romney campaign played a song titled “Wavin’Flag,” at a televised campaign rally the night of the Florida primary. Complaints from fans, as well as his own political beliefs, caused the song’s writer and performer, Somali-Canadian rapper K’Naan, to demand that Romney cease using the song, which he immediately agreed to do. Meanwhile the Gingrich campaign has been sued by Frankie Sullivan, a member of the band Survivor who helped write their hit song, “Eye of the Tiger,” for using the song at rallies and in YouTube videos. Sullivan, who got the Romney campaign to stop using the song without a lawsuit, says his objection has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with protecting the value of the iconic 1982 tune.

 

Those with longer political and musical memories will also remember the dustup that occurred in 1984 between President Ronald Reagan and rocker Bruce Springsteen. Reagan, who was running for re-election, implied an endorsement from Springsteen, whose song “Born in the USA” was, despite its lyrics, widely misinterpreted as a patriotic anthem, prompting Springsteen to distance himself publicly from Reagan.

-Matt Bewig

 

G.O.P. Candidates Are Told, Don’t Use the Verses, It’s Not Your Song: Romney and Gingrich Pull Songs After Complaints (by James C. McKinley, Jr., New York Times)