30 most vicious John Oliver take downs
By Jeremy Dick
29. Blasting poor campaign song choices in politics
At the Republican National Convention when Donald Trump came out to formally accept his nomination, he curiously entered to “We Are the Champions” by Queen. The band themselves would later clarify that the song was used without their permission, as they had never agreed to have it used for the event. But this was just one of Trump’s odd song choices for his campaign.
But Trump is not the only one to use songs without permission. When Scott Walker used a song by the Dropkick Murphys, they tweeted at him to stop as they “literally” hate him. On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver showed this example along with some of Trump’s, mentioning a few other times as well.
This is certainly not a new phenomenon. The best example, as shown by Oliver, came three decades ago with Ronald Reagan. Reagan would use “Born in the USA” until Bruce Springsteen suggested he actually listened to the lyrics, which highlighted the dark side of the country.
The segment concluded with Oliver’s own song about campaign songs, featuring various musical guests. Michael Bolton, Cyndi Lauper, and Usher, among others, all came together to collaborate on a song begging the politicians to stop using their music.
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