The White Stripes singer Jack White called Donald Trump’s campaign “fascists” and threatened to sue after an aide apparently used a clip of the band’s hit Seven Nation Army on a pro-Trump social media post.
Trump’s deputy director of communications, Margo Martin, shared a brief 10-second video clip of Trump boarding a plane to campaign events with the music as a background soundtrack.
The move clearly angered White, who rapidly became the latest in a long line of musicians to take umbrage at their art being used as a soundtrack to Trump’s bid to retake the White House.
On Instagram White wrote: “Don’t even think about using my music you fascists. Law suit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your 5 thousand others.) Have a great day at work today Margo Martin.’
I imagine most artist being seen as dead-weight weirdos for a regular fascist unless they already achieved their respect or\and came from the right background. Excluding the effect of what consuming and making art for decades makes to a person, the one who does it is rarely seen and appreciated as a part of the machine. Taking the funny political compass meme as a framework, we see that from a capitalistic angle good art is the one that sells, and from an authoritarian - it’s the one that serves some utilitarian purpose. These limits are too tight for self expression and they don’t inspire creativity, but reproduction and continuation of something that works in either direction. Innovation and provocation that make art get written into history books are threats to what fascism implies, and it fears it unless it’s something on Wagner or Riefenstahl level they can coopt. Artists themselves can start or become fascists easily, and channel their hatred into words and strokes, but they are mostly either too ‘normal’ to be really invested in art and got somehow remembered (see nazi punks) or too weird to fit in the world they themselves wish (see Lovecraft and his dog).