Jack White and ABBA also say no to Trump
Jack White tells Trump campaign ‘don’t even think about using my music’ after featuring it in clip of ‘Seven Nation Army‘. Jack White is just one of the latest artists to claim that the Trump campaign is using his music without permission.
The song “Seven Nation Army” by White Stripes was used in the clip depicting Trump traveling for his presidential campaign. In an Instagram post, White wrote:
“Oh…. Don’t even think about using my music, fascists” before saying he would file a lawsuit for the inappropriate use. He continued: “My lawyers are about to file a lawsuit for this (in addition to 5k others). Have a nice day at work today Margo Martin,”
he added, addressing Trump’s deputy communications director.
The disputed post, which appeared on Martin’s Twitter profile, has already been removed.
But it’s not just American artists who are opposing Trump’s use of their music. Protests are also coming from Europe, where Queen, the Rolling Stones, The Animals and Johnny Marr of The Smiths have already opposed it.
In fact, yesterday’s news was that even the ABBA have asked Trump to stop using their music. The former US president used several ABBA hits, including “Money, Money, Money,” “The Winner Takes It All,” and “Dancing Queen,” during his July 27 rally in St Cloud, Minnesota. And the location is no coincidence: Minnesota is the US state with the highest Swedish population.
In addition to playing the band’s hits, the campaign also projected footage of the ABBA members on a large screen at the venue. As Rolling Stone reports, news of the former president’s use of ABBA songs and footage reached Bjorn Ulvaeusa member of the group, who told the Swedish news agency TT in a message that Universal Music, the group’s record company, would “make sure it gets taken down.”
A spokesperson for Universal Music said: “Together with members of Abba, we have discovered that videos have been circulated in which Abba’s music/video has been used at Trump events, and have therefore requested that this use be taken down and removed immediately.” They added: “Universal Music Publishing AB and Polar Music International AB have not received any requests, so no permission or license has been given to Trump.”
The Swedish group and Jack White are just two of the latest musicians in a long line of people who have asked the former president not to use their music during his campaign rallies. Recently, they have been joined by Foo Fighters warning Trump against the unauthorized dissemination of “My Hero” (Read here)
Now, however, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung has refuted the Foo Fighters’ denial, sending The Hill an email saying they “have the license to perform the song.” The Independent later reported that it had seen the relevant documents confirming Cheung’s claims about licensing rights. Cheung then took to social media to criticize the Foo Fighters’ post, using several of their song titles as puns: “It’s ‘Times Like These’ that’s important, not being a ‘Pretender.’”
But can artists’ songs be used freely during an election campaign?
In reality, the issue, different in every nation, is controversial, complicated and in the USA has already been the subject of legal disputes in Trump’s previous electoral campaigns, which in the past had to face opposition from artists and a lawsuit filed by Neil Young but later withdrawn.
The use of songs in electoral activities is subject to the agreement with the American rights managers (the main collecting societies are ASCAP and BMI), just like what radios and discos do when they broadcast or use the songs. So the opposition to the use is not linked to a problem of economic recognition of the rights. Even if Neil Young and the Rolling Stones already in previous “disputes” in 2020 argued that that use devalues their economic value.
It is not even a question of “synchronization” since the use during a rally is “public performance”, while synchronization implies a commercial return and applies to the presence of music in advertising, cinema, video games, podcasts or in any case in audiovisual contexts, cases in which the consent of the publisher is necessary (and therefore indirectly of the author and the rights holders).
As if these (fair) rules were not enough, the American collector BMI went further and, in short, asked its members to clarify whether the songs they protect can be used in an electoral campaign, of whatever party it may be. BMI excludes one or more musical works from this type of license in the event that it receives an objection from an author or publisher regarding its use by the licensee. BMI will then notify the licensee that the particular musical work has been removed from the license and that he is no longer authorized by BMI to use it.
So the issue seems to be more “political” than commercial and economic. Usually, in fact, artists who are ideologically distant from the user of the song oppose, or more simply those with rights who believe that there is no correct interpretation or ideological approach to the song. On the part of Trump (and those who manage his electoral campaign) there seems to be a more “brazen” use of the songs, also in line with his image.
