There are many people in the world that share a common belief: all musicians should keep their noses out of the political sphere. Its just bad for business and it just downright bums everyone out. To that end, I can totally understand where these ideas are coming from.
That being said, I think people are missing a rather large point about this form of art. Music encompasses everything under the sun and beyond; politics is no exception. Artists have covered political messages for decades with songs such as Stars and Stripes of Corruption by the Dead Kennedys or Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday.
Songs like these are not criticized for their political nature, but rather they are praised for their message. It is when an artist comes out personally to make a political message that seems to strike a nerve with some people.
A recent example of this comes from Third Man Records, the record label founded by Jack White. For a Trump/Pence campaign promotional video, their camp used the hit White Stripes song Seven Nation Army without asking permission from Third Man. Trump's campaign has been known to use songs by several artists without permission.
Directly after the ad debuted, Third Man responded with a message condemning the use of their works, specifically for political gain. Soon after, Third Man made a decision to capitalize on the drama by producing "Icky Trump" stickers and shirts with the title being reference to another popular White Stripes song, Icky Thump. The song and video heavily reference immigration.
Though many of Jack White's fans were in favor of his position to push back against the republican nominee, there were also others who found this move to be extremely distasteful. They sighted their discontent with the artist, and in many cases, threatened to stop supporting him all together.
With a high stakes election like this one, personally, I'm surprised more artists haven't made it known where they stand. This election encompasses everything from the fate of the supreme court to our reputation among our international neighbors.
If we are going to stress the individuality of bands and artists then we should treat them as such, granting them the right to make their voices heard as well. Ultimately, it is our decision to support them or not, but it is important to acknowledge the hypocrisy in ignoring certain political messages and blasting others.
