Millions across the country watched Bruce Springsteen deliver on his promise to put on a “12-minute party” for the Super Bowl XLIII halftime show Sunday night. The performance was a testament to the power of rock and roll, bringing together drunken football fans, casual commercial-watchers and dedicated Bruce fans.
Then again, his recent involvement in politics may have led some now-former fans to change the channel during the halftime production this year.
An e-mail posted on the Boss’s official Web site expressed frustration with Springsteen’s politics. He has become a vocal supporter of the Democratic Party, having participated in the Vote for Change Tour to elect Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 election and performing at rallies for Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign. In the e-mail, a fan expressed feelings of betrayal.
“My family and I have been following you and the band since 1977 … We are now very disheartened with you that you have become so political,” the e-mail said. “You are now fast becoming one of Hollywood’s elite … My family and I will no longer be purchasing any more of your music nor will we be seeing anymore shows.”
Unfortunately for the writer of this e-mail, most recording artists lean to the left and are proud of it. The Vote for Change Tour also featured the likes of Pearl Jam and the Dave Matthews Band, and popular artists including Jay-Z and the Decemberists strongly (and publicly) endorsed Obama during the campaign season.
Rock-and-roll has been a progressive, rule-breaking genre ever since Elvis shook his hips on the Ed Sullivan show. Thus the very nature of popular music can be potentially alienating for young conservatives wanting to find musicians with shared beliefs. However, the new Obama administration and its promise of change in the tone of Washington politics could help to usher in an era in which music’s potential to unite supersedes its ability to divide.
Music by the left, for the left?
The left-leaning tendencies of rock musicians can even be seen on campus at Northwestern University. Last Year at Dillo Day, NU College Democrats co-sponsored the appearance of progressive activists Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, and Common ended his freestyle with a simple message: “Vote for Obama, and fuck Bush.”
Communication senior Kaitlyn Patia, co-vice president of outreach for College Democrats, said the group was very enthusiastic about helping to coordinate the appearance of Ted Leo because it was an opportunity to expand its presence on campus.
“Politics can be expressed in more than one medium by reaching out to people who wouldn’t come out if a politician was brought to campus,” Patia said.
Vocal about a variety of issues, Ted Leo has spoken at the Campus Progress National Student Conference in Washington, D.C. and is also known for writing songs from a progressive perspective. Examples include “Bomb. Repeat. Bomb.” and “Counting Down the Hours,” a song critical of the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Weinberg senior Katherine Plimpton, secretary for College Democrats, said it is a definite possibility the organization will sponsor another music act at Northwestern in the future.
“If we don’t bring someone who’s a going to be a speaker, then bringing a musician is a cool possibility,” said Plimpton. “There are a lot of musicians out there who think about the same issues that we do.”
Unfortunately for NU College Republicans, there are not many popular musicians on the other end of the political spectrum to choose from. When asked to think of a conservative rocker, William Upton, vice president of College Republicans, struggled and ultimately could only come up with pro-gun, anti-immigration Ted Nugent. He said the group’s funding simply is not enough to bring someone like Nugent to campus.
College Republicans President James D’Angelo said the fact that so many artists are liberal is “disillusioning at times.”
“It’s unfortunate that it’s all one-sided when it comes to pop and rock, especially for conservatives like myself out there,” he said.
The right tries to rock
Rock artists may in fact be overwhelmingly liberal, but that has not stopped conservatives from using songs for their cause. In 2006, National Review released a list of the “50 greatest conservative rock songs of all time.” The list included songs by the Who, the Beatles and the Sex Pistols, artists known for their rebellious antics and politics in decades past. In the article, John J. Miller writes that the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is a “classic for conservatives” because of its attack on the naïve idealism characteristic of the left.
Glenn Gass, Professor of Music at Indiana University and rock and roll historian, said the list was “desperate,” cherry-picking songs and taking them out of context. He said “Won’t Get Fooled Again” would not be labeled a conservative song when one considers who wrote it and the time in which it was written.
“You can’t just rewrite history. Pete Townsend was not a Nixon supporter,” Gass said. “They’re ignoring the fact this was the music of a counterculture and the radical left.”
Conservatives using rock music was also an issue in the 2008 campaign when Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin used songs by artists who did not want to have anything to do with the Republican ticket. Artists including John Mellencamp, members of Van Halen and Jackson Browne spoke out when their songs were used for McCain rallies and commercials.
“If I was John Mellencamp, and I heard McCain using one of my song used at his campaign, I would be livid,” Gass said.
Although the artists were upset, Republicans might be getting the right general idea in terms of the need to connect with the American people, Upton said. He believes conservatives should use music to reach out to people, particularly the youth.
“The GOP needs to co-opt some aspects of pop culture, of youth culture in order to reach out to voters and let people understand what they actually mean,” Upton said.
However, Upton laughed when asked whether or not Republicans had done anything effective to reach out to young voters through music. He said younger artists will not speak out for Republicans until the party confronts the negative perceptions of its philosophies, which the post-Bush era may allow Republicans to do.
“Calling yourself a Republican has become very negative,” he said. “Conservativism is not a bunch of musty old white men in a closed room that want to stop progress. It’s about prudence and thinking things through, though granted, that hasn’t happened in recent years.”
The times could be a-changin’
In spite of the partisan divide, the inaugural concert organized in honor of the new president struck a new tone of unity. The “We Are One” celebration at the Lincoln Memorial brought together Americans of different backgrounds, ethnicities and generations to watch performances by Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks, legendary folk singer Pete Seeker and Bruce Springsteen.
The day was characterized by a sense of optimism which extended across the aisle. D’Angelo of College Republicans said he watched many of the inaugural events and wants the new president of the United States to succeed.
“I think it’s great that people are excited for the president. I’m glad that people are rallying behind him,” he said. “All the Republicans I know want to see Obama do well.”
It is also important to keep in mind music’s role in society beyond politics. Art and politics do not always line up, and it is important to see the complexity of the politics of music, said Michael Kramer, lecturer in history and American studies at Northwestern.
“Music can be for a Democrat but can also be a place where Americans go to speak about how they’re feeling, to get a glimpse of each other as a collective,” Kramer said. “It’s more than propaganda.”
As the masses gathered before the Lincoln memorial to celebrate the inauguration of Obama, “one of the most important bands that played wasn’t even American,” Kramer noted. He was talking about U2 whose “City of Blinding Lights” provided the soundtrack to Obama’s grand entrance at the Democratic National Convention.
“They have a perspective on the United States, the outsider’s perspective,” Kramer said. “We saw them kind of summing up the history of America and also kind of giving us a mirror of what America looks like to these poor boys from Dublin who made good in the world by playing in America.”
Springsteen might have lost fans because of his support for the Democratic Party, but as the “We Are One” celebration and the Super Bowl halftime show indicated, rock music is more about bringing people together, Gass said.
“There’s a lot of going back to a more rock culture right now. People feel more included,” Professor Gass said. “That’s the natural home turf of people like Bruce Springsteen.”