So You Wanna Be a Rock N Roll Star (Part 3)

In November, I embarked on putting together a list of music-related posts about the Democratic Presidential candidates.  Part 1 covered the very musically inclined Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg.  Part 2 covered Deval Patrick (son of a member of Sun Ra's Arkstra), and the musically gifted pair of Tulsi Gabbard and Marianne Williamson.

Part 3 will start off with a candidate who has now dropped, Kamala Harris, but had a couple of music related stories that stepped in to distract from her campaign.

One of which was that when asked about recreational marijuana, Kamala said, sure, in college she would listen to Tupac and Snoop Dogg and partake in the Chronic.

All would be well in good, if Kamala hadn't graduated in 1986, Five years prior to 2Pacalypse and 7 years before Doggystyle, their respective debuts.

Which gives a few possibilities.  1- She's lying to sound "cool" 2- She did smoke some weed but it was back when Dr Dre said Cess caused Brain Damage, or 3- it was an honest mistake of a sort.

It was not the only musical story that caused distraction.

In July, at a fundraiser, she posed with Katy Perry, Demi Lovato, and Ariana Grande

Sounds fairly innocuous, right?

It just happened that it was Scooter Braun hosting.  It doesn't get much bigger than Braun- the mogul behind Justin Bieber, who has worked with Usher, Kanye, and the 3 artists pictured above.  He is also an "incessant, manipulative bully" according to Taylor Swift.  Harris may have got a fierce pic to post on Instagram, but by hanging out with Braun earned the wrath of the Swifties.

A happier music-related story of a former candidate is Cory Booker sitting with Questlove for Black History Month and discussing musicians like Gil Scot-Heron, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Alberta Hunter.  Cory shared a great playlist featuring Aretha, James Brown, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, J Cole, and Lauryn Hill, to name a few.

As far as current candidates go, we know of Elizabeth Warren's close relationship with Melissa Ethrridge, but who knows about her relationship with the Main Street Brigade.

Check the time stamp on that story.  This is a almost a decade before Old Town Road and The Git Up.

Cowboy rap and Elizabeth Warren sounds like Peak 2019, not made in 2010.

While I don't know Warren's musical influences, the influence that she has over musicians is incredible.

Jonathan Mann, a famous Youtuber known for his Song a Day, has written a song inspired by Warren.

Warren has weighed in on Taylor Swift (siding with her against.. um.. Big Music and defending Billie Eilish for not knowing who Van Halen are.  She also revealed her workout music which was ummm. Patsy Cline.

Crazy about rock hard Abs, that is!

Warren's biggest musical news story might be when Dolly Parton asked her to stop using "9 to 5" (a song that is ostensibly about killing your sexist, lying, bigoted, egotistical Dabney Coleman of a boss.

At this point, we are used to Trump using unauthorized music all the time.  Still, it was surprising to see it; Parton aspiring to stay apolitical.

It might have just been easier to change the theme to Sheena Easton's '9 to 5'.

Same title, much different song

I assume it all worked out as Warren seems to still be using it.

I don't have much info on Tom Steyer, whose biggest musical moment was when Kellyanne Conway tweeted at him "Money can't buy you love".  That said, with his omnipresent plaid tie, he does look like he could be in a ska band

Trump is a Fraud and the Failuretones

Nor would I expect to have much luck googling Michael Bennet without pulling up thousands of results for Tony-winner Michael Bennett (A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls)

Joe Biden famously talked about vinyl and inspired that Donald Trump Nickleback tweet.

I don't know if I want to live in this world anymore

Conservatives were angry that the band shut down the tweet over copyright infringement, leading to a weird week of liberals defending Nickleback .

I would have to go back to his 2008 campaign for the biggest music-related news story which was Biden siding with Lars from Metallica to fight P2P sharing.

Musical fan Michael Bloomberg apparently inspired a musical called Smoking Bloomberg.  Based on the Mayor's fight against Tobacco, this review from 2006 compares it to Avenue Q and Urinetown.

Four writers share equal credit for book, music, and lyrics. Co-authors David Cornue, Sam Holtzapple, Warren Loy, and Chris Todd have set their show in 2003, amidst a devastated New York — where Sept. 11, Iraq, and Mayor Bloomberg's smoking ban all blur together as Americans trade liberty for safety at an exchange rate that would have vexed Benjamin Franklin. A few numbers, including "Riding on the Backs of Giant Turtles" and "Pimps and Ho's," need a bit more work, but the only critical problem is the comparative poverty of the material given to the chorus of smoking dilettantes.

I'm not sure if I am willing to link to the vulgar musical and you've likely seen the satirical "Moves Like Bloomberg", so I will go with this charming ditty from Matt Singer.

Which brings us to Andrew Yang, a fitting end to this series, from that most musical of candidates.

Yang shared on twitter a long ago Halloween where he dressed as a hardcore punk.

UBI?  More like DRI, amirite?

While hardened online cynics decreed "Punkface", Yang came out as an ex-Goth.

When in most cases, senior pictures might cause us to ridicule, I only loved Yang more for his revelation of his favorite bands (circa 1992) were the Smiths and the Cure

This Charming Yang

Like Bernie Sanders, Yang is one of the more musical candidates- whether having Weezer play for his rally in Des Moines, singing at a predominantly African American Baptist church in Waterloo, or joining Asian Hip Hop star Rich Brian on stage in concert.

Other highlights including doing some Jazzercise (getting respect from Chance the Rapper) and (as I joked way back when) appearing with a Hologram Tupac. (To be fair, I had no idea, and it seemed the obvious joke, but apparently, he did it a month before I said it).

This really happened?

As one might expect, there are rap songs on youTube dedicated to Yang.  The populist appeal surely reflects in some DiY attempts.  Still, nothing compares to an actual musician (who makes money making muisc) putting Andrew Yang in his video.

Musician/singer/Skrillix collaborator Zhu (who went to the top of the US dance charts with his debut) released "I came for the low" in October.  It is everything you would expect from an EDM release- pulsating beat, scantily-clad women, futuristic lighting.... and Andrew Yang.

So unless John Delaney joins forces with Canadian R&B frontman John Delaney, I think we have got all the big music stories of the 2020 Election covered.