It can be easy to forget sometimes, but (most) politicians are not reptilian humanoids every second of every day. Like the rest of us, they (should) have genuine interests outside of work. Sometimes, like in the extraordinary case of Obama or vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine, this translates to palpable musical fandom.
But what the lizards (er, politicians) sometimes seem to forget is that it’s more or less impossible to remove the politics of a song’s creator from the work itself. Outside of country music, the majority of outspoken musicians lean left—a fact that makes itself apparent every time an election rolls around. It’s become an inevitability that artists whose songs are used during conservative political campaigns will take issue with the co-opting of their work. They cite disagreement with the candidates’ politics, or anger at the lack of permission, or often both. In rarer instances over the years, artists straight-up have called out conservatives for even being fans, rebuking their love for the music and distancing themselves as much as possible. You can’t stop all your fans from being douchebags, but you can certainly call out the ones you know.
Rush Limbaugh + Caribou
Just last week, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh was taken to task for admiring Caribou’s 2014 track “Can’t Do Without You,” which he apparently discovered while watching “How to Get Away With Murder.” “This is my new favorite song of all time right now, folks,” he said before playing a snippet of it on his show. “I’ve been grooving to it in every free moment that I have.”
Caribou mastermind Dan Snaith was less than pleased, taking to his Twitter account to tell Limbaugh to “fuck off” and decide whether to “stop using my music on your show” or “stop being a bigot.” It’s admittedly a low-risk, high-reward rebuke—the likelihood of there being much overlap between Caribou and Limbaugh’s fanbases is slim—but it’s an effective political statement nonetheless.
Paul Ryan + Rage Against the Machine
Music listeners can generally be divided into two categories: those who pay attention to lyrics, and those who don’t. Paul Ryan is definitely in the latter group. In 2012, before he was ever Speaker of the House or public enemy number one for Trump’s gang of deplorables, Ryan was the Republican vice-presidential nominee. In a New York Times profile, it came out that Rage Against the Machine was one of his favorite bands—a fact that was (rightfully) noted by the writer to be an example of his “contradictions.”
Rage’s Tom Morello, for his part, skipped the tweets and went straight for the jugular, penning an op-ed for *Rolling Stone *in which he called Ryan “clueless” and “the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades.” “Don't mistake me, I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta ‘rage’ in him,” Morello went on. “A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for campaign contributions.” Woof.
This particular story took an interesting turn years later in 2014, when Ryan called the claims of his Rage fandom an “urban legend.” “Led Zeppelin has always been my favorite band,” he told the NYT, echoing the sentiments of rockist teenage boys across this great nation.
Chris Christie + Bruce Springsteen
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been a big Bruce fan ever since he saw the Boss perform in the homeland when he was just 13. Of all the people on this list, he’s the one that can most accurately be described as a member of a “fandom”: he’s seen more than 100 Springsteen shows, and he sang “Thunder Road” on “Fallon.” Unsurfaced listserv messages from last year even prove his undying adoration!
Or at least, it *was *undying. After Springsteen declined two requests to perform at his events, publicly blasted his policy decisions, and then openly mocked his bridge scandal on “Fallon,” Christie went so far as to say that he preferred Jon Bon Jovi to Bruce. Which is to say: the man was hurting last summer. But true love is forever, and the governor went viral this past spring when he was spotted at a Springsteen concert losing his ever-loving mind to every damn song. Hilarious? Yes. Admirable? Also yes.
David Cameron + The Smiths
Ahead of the 2010 UK general election, future (and now former) Conservative Party Prime Minister David Cameron admitted that his favorite album is the Smiths’ seminal 1986 LP The Queen is Dead. The Smiths, of course, spent much of their career rebelling against the Conservatives—the working title for The Queen is Dead was Margaret* on the Guillotine*.
Both Morrissey and Johnny Marr publicly denounced the Prime Minister, whose fandom has seemed particularly puzzling at times (like when he misquoted some of the most well-known Smiths lyrics). “It was not for such people that either Meat Is Murder or The Queen Is Dead were recorded,” Morrissey would later say. “In fact, they were made as a reaction against such violence.” So, what does it take to bring the Smiths back together? Mutual hatred for the Conservative Party, naturally.
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John McCain + ABBA
Arizona Senator John McCain has possibly the least predictable favorite artist on this list: ABBA. In an interview with Blender, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee named “Dancing Queen” his number one favorite song, a choice that he was clowned for by people on both sides of the aisle. “Now look, everybody says, ‘I hate ABBA. Oh ABBA, how terrible! Blah blah blah,’” he said. “How come everybody goes to Mamma Mia? Huh? I mean really, seriously, huh? ‘I hate ABBA, they’re no good, you know.’ Well, everybody goes. They’ve been selling out for years.”
ABBA might have been “selling out for years,” but they didn’t sell out when it came to McCain. The band hit the candidate with a cease-and-desist after he used “Take a Chance On Me” on the campaign trail as his primary-season theme song. “We played it a couple times and it's my understanding [Abba] went berserk,” McCain said.
