Trump of the Day: Donald Really Pissed Off R.E.M's Michael Stipe
We're having to slowly come to grips with the fact that a lot of people seem to like Donald Trump and his bid for the White House in 2016. Many others do not. One of those people is R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe.
On the campaign trail, candidates use a lot of music to set the tone for how they perceive the world and what they plan to do to get it right. They don't always ask for permission.
At a Tea Party rally Sept. 9, Trump used the R.E.M. song "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)" without checking to make sure it was OK with the band. It wasn't and Michael Stipe took to Twitter to express his opinions about it.
The band later released a more, ahem, tactful statement on their Facebook page.
"While we do not authorize or condone the use of our music at this political event, and do ask that these candidates...
Posted by R.E.M. on Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Gawker points out that this is certainly not the first time candidates have angered artists:
R.E.M., of course, is only the latest group to object to their music being hijacked for tone-deaf political purposes. Just yesterday, Survivor slammed Kim Davis for using "Eye of the Tiger" as her walkout song and in June, Neil Young asked Trump to please stop rockin' in the free world.
However, the saddest example (by far) is Bruce Springsteen superfan Chris Christie, whose history of getting sh*t on by his idol apparently dates back to the Clinton administration.