Baseball players choose their walkup tunes with little regard to fan allegiances in the music industry. When I was about 10, my favorite Mets player, an outfielder named Derek Bell whom I favored because of his interesting mustache, approached the plate to the opening strains of Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’.” It didn’t matter to Derek Bell, Jay-Z or myself that Jay actually supports the Yankees.
Sometimes I wish political allegiances were more like our sports loyalties, that is, important to us in varying degrees, but not the lens through which each of our interactions with the rest of the world should be viewed. I feel comfortable gently ribbing a Phillies fan, and goodness knows I’ve learned to take what they dish back at me, but we can generally get along (as much as anyone can get along with a Phillies fan). Similarly, I think I’m quite able to engage people whose political views differ from mine in debates and good-natured trash talking, but I’ve never seen a dissenting opinion as a reason to write someone off entirely.
Speaking of things people write off entirely, let’s talk about Fox News and Maroon 5. Living on a college campus in a major metropolitan area can insulate us from many of the realities of American life, like Top-40 pop/rock and conservative-leaning news organizations, so it’s not likely that many of us were tuned in when Fox News ruffled Adam Levine’s feathers by playing one of his songs. Luckily, Levine’s angry tweet at the network briefly lit up the blogosphere last week, so now the disagreement is on our radar.
This is a new twist on a very old issue. Left-leaning musicians have a long history of asking conservative politicians not to use their music at campaign events. Most recently, Tom Petty asked Michele Bachmann not to use the song “American Girl.” The tradition goes back much farther, at least to Reagan’s campaign, during which Bruce Springsteen asked that Ronald Reagan not use “Born in the U.S.A.” It’s really too bad everyone always harps on how the song is misunderstood and not actually patriotic. I was always hoping Obama would give it a political reprise.
What’s different in Levine’s case is that Fox News is a network, not a politician. Fox was shelling out royalty payments to Levine for the use of the song. For campaign events, the intellectual property law is a lot murkier, but artists tend to exert their rights over songs only when they don’t like the people who are using them. In each case, I recognize that artists have opinions, and it can be tough to watch someone use what you’ve created to espouse a different one. But I wonder if it might be a wiser choice for artists to enjoy the exposure and save the grandstanding for a different occasion.
Here’s what happened in the case of “Big Pimpin'”: When I got a little older and heard the song in its entirety, I recognized it as a connection to my youth and to a time when the Mets were good. I liked the song. I liked Jay-Z. I don’t think alienating all non-Yankee fans has ever been high on Jay-Z’s priority list, so I wonder why so many artists seem dead set on distancing themselves from all potential fans who are conservative. Adam Levine, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen have enjoyed tremendous musical success among bipartisan audiences. Fans are able to look past their disagreement, and maybe the artists should also be able to.
It’s not that Adam Levine isn’t entitled to his own opinion. He’s just as entitled as the pundits on Fox News are. He should be able to express his opinion however he wants. My opinion happens to be that viewers aren’t really missing much if they can’t hear “Moves Like Jagger.” Regardless, letting our political viewpoints dictate whom we allow to interact with us seems pretty limiting for all parties involved.
Ali Elkin is a Medill senior.
She can be reached at [email protected]
