It took Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton only one day to dream up a way to capitalize on the death of music legend Prince last week.
The day after Prince was found dead at his Paisley Park estate in Minnesota, Clinton was blasting his iconic song “Let’s Go Crazy” as she strutted out for a campaign rally in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, The Hill reports.
Clinton smiled and clapped off rhythm to the tune in an Instagram video of the rally posted by Joseph C. Farley, whose social media page makes it clear he’s obsessed with the former secretary of state.
“You think of him as being almost eternal,” Clinton said of Prince in an interview with WDAS-FM in Philadelphia. “I mean, he was a bigger-than-life personality. He was not only a songwriter and a singer but literally a one-man band. He was such a great showman. I just was so, so sad.”
The blatant appropriation of Prince’s work may seem intended to pay tribute to the late artist, but a recent editorial by the Observer points out that any true Prince fan would have known better.
Prince was fiercely protective of his music throughout his career and shunned the commercialization of the music industry. He fought those who attempted to post his work to YouTube, and removed his albums from streaming services like Pandora.
The lyrics to his songs literally condemn the idea of using music to sell.
“How can a non-musician discuss the future of music from anything other than a consumer point of view?” he said in “2045 Radical Man,” according to the Observer. “These people make the decisions for the bulk of us without consulting any of us. Sales and distributions of our futures. If this world were fair and right they’d give up the car keys this very night.”
He also sang about his distaste for American politics in “Colonized Mind.”
“Upload: a 2-party system. The lesser of two dangers. Illusion of choice,” Prince said. “Download: a veiled form of fascism. Nothing really ever changes, you never had a voice.”
The Observer opined:
If Ms. Clinton and her campaign were true fans of Prince, they would know he would never have approved playing his song at any campaign rally—because Prince was firmly and compulsively against the commercialization of music. …
The decision by Ms. Clinton’s team to appropriate a Prince song for a campaign rally is viewed by her critics as just another pandering ploy to garner support from voters. Her presidential campaign has been filled with publicity stunts that have backfired. In her latest move, Ms. Clinton is reaffirming the suspicion held by millions of American voters: She is willing to do and say anything to get elected—even if it means exploiting the recent death of a musical legend.
The Observer, of course, wasn’t the only one to point out Clinton’s total lack of tact in hijacking his music for her campaign.
“Wow! Just … Wow!” djrhristo.77 posted in response to Farley’s Instagram clip.
“#tacky #pandering … oh so #phoney #hillary indeed,” bmorem4u wrote.
“I don’t think Prince would care for that,” peterrip108 added.
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