Music for the Trump era: They’ve got the loons, we’ve got the tunes. By Hal M. Brown

Something different for the blog today. Everyone else I read is rehashing what went wrong in the election or doomsaying about what Trump will bring us. I wrote about music. This is where our side wins.

Note: When I posted this in the morning for some reason I erased the title.

The only photo I could find of the J6 Prison Choir was the blurry one (below) which was used to illustrate this article in The UK Telegraph.

Trump will probably pardon all of the people who ended up in prison due to their role in the January 6th attack on the Capitol. They no doubt are feeling vindicated. Even those with a job to return to may be looking on ways to (ready for the pun) capitalize on their fame.

Some will go on to become social media personalities and a few may end up being hired by right wing media. 

Members of the J6 Prison Choir, once they are released, we will will no doubt have new songs and they'll probably have an album. They don't have to write them. There are plenty of patriotic songs in the public domain (here's a list).

I expect that they will go on tour, possibly with Kid Rock, and enough people will attend their performances so they will eventually become rich beyond their dreams.

I doubt whatever recording they make will go Platinum as it was falsely claimed their song "Justice For All" did (see article) but I expect people who paid for Trump's  non-fungible token collections (NFT) and made money and bought other Trump crap will shell out for their musical renditions which will be sung with bits of Trump's speeches in the background. That song was number 1 on the iTunes download list (article) for a week and was viewed on YouTube over 500,000 times after its release.

Trump may have the J6 Prison Choir to the White House if Chief of Staff Susie Wiles decides they don't belong in the clown car (read article).

It doesn't really matter if Trump goes beyond pardoning them and calling them patriots by calling them musical artists. This is America. They are famous for being famous. If they get a good manager they can have a musical career which while short-lived can make them money. There might be one or two of them who can carry a tune and be their lead singer.

Picture their concerts with jumbo screens showing Trump dancing and prancing and raising his fist after getting shot at. 

This is from the Business Insider article:

Two songs about Trump's wealth, however, have achieved RIAA certification. 2011's "Donald Trump" by Mac Miller — who later feuded with Trump over the lyrics and called him a "delusional waste of skin and bones" — went platinum. "Up Like Trump," a 2018 song by Rae Sremmurd, has gold certification.

To be sure, "Justice for All" has achieved some success. An image of the plaque included on the event website correctly notes the song charted at No. 1 for weekly digital song sales at one point in March 2023 and reached No 4. on the "Bubbling Under Hot 100," according to Billboard charts reviewed by BI.

Hmmm... even if a record of theirs does sell the million needed to reach Platnium status, it could go Gold with 500,000 sales.

How well do these 20 men sing? You can watch the video and judge for yourself here. I'm not a music critic but I'd say that for their musical careers to really take off they really could use singing lessons.

For comparison here's Kid Rock singing "Never Quit" his anthem to Trump." 

Aside from country singers and rapper Kanye West Trump doen't have an A list musical artist who will sing live for him. He can still use other A-listers music even if they object if he pays royalties (read why here). 

Whether he can convince his suporters that the cat being strangled sounds of the J6 performers is music remains to be seen.

Of his supporters who can sing most are country artists. There's Billy Ray Cyrus. You can decide for yourself listening to him singing Achy Breaky Heart. There's Jason Aldean. Here he is singing Fly Over Country. And then of course there's rapper Kanye West. Here he is 14 years ago in a music video performing Runaway.

Here's an article with a list of all the musicians supporting Trump. I'm not going to provide links to the songs of those I never heard of as my ears are hurting from listening briefly to the music of the others.

Compare the list of Trump's musicians with Kamala's list here. 

I expect that once Trump begins to unleash his dark cloud of despotism over America we will see a new era of protest music similar to what we saw during the civil rights movement and the anti-war protests during the Vietnam War.

His musical minions will have their songs but I expect we will have songs coming from some of singers and song writers like Carole King who were active in the civil rights and anti-war movments back in the day, and others who came on the scene more recently. They will provide anthems for our resistance against Trump's autocracy.

I can see a national tour of some of our top musicians - I am sure someone will come up with a good name for it. Consider some of the duets it could feature. There are the obvious ones like Taylor Swift and Beyonce, but for those of us who are Boomers or older how about a duet with James Taylor and Bruce Springsteen? We even could have a generational mix, for example, Carole King, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, and Taylor Swift together.

At 81 I don't know how Carly Simon's singing voice is holding up, but she could certainly introduce other acts. Consider:

Carly Simon on meeting Donald Trump: “He was all over me like ugly on an ape” 

There also could be a version of Woodstock. 

For all the bad that we know Trump will usher in there is the power of music. Democracy loving Americans have supremacy in their musical armory to inspire and rally their troops in the battle for what the Founders envisioned as the embodiment of American spirit.

Afterthought:

I wonder if Trump will have live music at his primary inaugural ball, the one where he'll dance with his every so happy loving wife.

I doubt he'll want the country to see him dancing with Melania to the dulcit tones of Kid Rock. Perphaps his very-bestie Vlad will send him the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.

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