Quote Originally Posted by SealBeachHusker View Post
And, yet most artists are coy about their art's "true meaning", and "art is open to interpretation", and happy that "people find inspiration in my art". If "Get up, Stand up!", for example, is used in a GOP youth vote campaign it would be entirely hypocritical, IMO, to discourage voter participation based on disagreement with one's own political views.

And, it would seem that in saying their music is so tied to their public identity, and they then tie that public identity so tightly to partisan politics...then people have every right to distance themselves.

I absolutely love artists who's work has meaning, purposes and cause...it's makes for much more meaningful music, film, etc., but explicitly partisan interjection either through their art or through their fame, takes them from artist to political partisan...and that kinda sucks.

I think there is a difference between an artist saying, "Hey don't use my music, because some people may think it implies endorsement, and btw, I'm for the other guy," and an artist making a point of complaining about a politician. I can't even remember what it was the Dixie Chicks said about George Bush, but I may well have agreed with them. But when they said it, I could only roll my eyes. Like I care what the Dixie Chicks think?