All music is political in its own way.
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Even chart-toppers churned out by the pop machine, implicitly or not, subscribe to certain ideas about the world we live in.
This is perhaps most evident in the United States, where it’s a common occurrence for popular musicians to throw their weight behind presidential candidates’ campaigns.
In 2016, we saw power couple Beyonce and Jay-Z endorsing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House.
And in the land of the free, conservative politicians are often publicly rejected by the musicians they love.
Republican Senator and former presidential nominee John McCain was issued a cease-and-desist from ABBA for using their song Take a Chance on Me on the campaign trail.
Bizarrely, Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan admitted his undying passion for socialist hard rock band Rage Against the Machine in a 2012 New York Times interview, which prompted the group’s guitarist Tom Morello to pen a scathing take-down of Ryan in Rolling Stone.
This week, South Australian Senator and darling of the right Cory Bernardi got a similar taste of unrequited love.
Senator Bernardi launched his own answer to Triple J’s Hottest 100 on Wednesday, complete with Spotify playlist.
The senator made waves early in 2017 when he defected from the Liberal Party and started his own movement Australian Conservatives.
His #AC100 Australia Day Spotify playlist has some interesting picks that actually undermine his pro-Australia Day message – Gurrumul, Christine Anu and Yothu Yindi make up a strong contingent of indigenous artists that Senator Bernardi rates.
Both Peter Allen and Savage Garden are on the list, too – and it’s safe to say the senator isn’t exactly the biggest advocate we have for gay rights.
The rebuke from some of the most prominent artists on the list was strong and swift.
“I do not want to be associated with you, your party or your views. Remove my music from this stunt or expect contact from my publisher,” Savage Garden’s Darren Hayes tweeted at Senator Bernardi on Wednesday.
“Why would you listen to anything Cory Bernardi says, especially about music?” Jimmy Barnes wrote.
Hip-hop trio Hilltop Hoods were slightly more forthright in their criticism.
“Go f--- yourself Cory Bernardi,” the group said on Twitter.
Then, Spotify removed Senator Bernardi’s playlist for being “offensive”.
“Welcome to the Brave New World,” the conservative firebrand tweeted in response to the playlist’s removal.
The stereotypical conservative is characterised as ignorant, uninformed to the point of being cold and heartless.
But Senator Bernardi is a keenly intelligent man – he would have had an inkling as to what the reaction to his playlist would be.
Indeed, it was likely the very reaction he was hoping for.
Now he has fresh fodder for his relentless campaign against the left, against the “politically correct brigade”.
"These artists think ... to lecture Australian conservatives about what we’re allowed to like,” Senator Bernardi said to Sky News on Thursday.
It’s admirable that some musicians took a stand against what they saw as a person with repugnant political views.
But it may be that they were just playing into his hands.