e282. Misunderstood Pop Music Politics

A couple weeks ago the RNC presidential primary debates opened with a segment where each candidate got to explain why they best epitomized the conservative values for the real american laid out by Oliver Anthony’s country folk song “Rich Men North of Richmond”. They sounded like idiots, and even more so when Anthony himself released a video saying “no, uh…. I was talking about all politicians INCLUDING you.” Then, just this week Eminem sent a cease and desist letter to rising RNC star Vivek Ramaswamy asking him to please stop trying to rap his songs in public. There is a long history of politicians repurposing popular music and then the musicians getting mad about it. On this episode Wayne and Mav are joined by returning guests Stephanie Siler and Meron Langsner to discuss the phenomenon and argue out why we think it might happen, as well as compare it to similar misunderstanding of the political nature and evolution of other media types like comics and film. Listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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