IDuring the strangely turbulent era of George W. Bush's presidency, there was what people arrogantly liked to call “cultural opposition.” It consists of figures in popular culture rebelling against Bush, and one might imagine their spiritual successors 20 years later bracing themselves for a comparable task. The first official opportunity will come next week with President Donald Trump's inauguration, but just as leaders in the tech and business worlds have failed spectacularly to rally against him, some Even among artists and influencers in Japan, there is a growing feeling that their backs are gradually loosening up.
That's a common view, and one that's echoed by country star Carrie Underwood, who is scheduled to sing the national anthem in honor of President Trump on Monday. Mr. Underwood, 41, who shot to fame on Season 4 of American Idol, may seem like a reserved person to comment on the decline of cultural opposition to Trump. But there's a lingering feeling that in 2016, no prominent singer-songwriter like Underwood would have offered his services to the Trump administration. At the time, when Trump's election as president hit many people in the United States and around the world with an out-of-body shock, the best the inaugural committee could come up with was a talent show graduate and unlucky former He was another person holding the position of “President.” Jackie Evancho, child star.
In contrast, Underwood is a multi-platinum artist who has won eight Grammy Awards. She's not the Lady Gaga who showed up at Joe Biden's inauguration. She's not Beyoncé (Barack Obama), Aretha Franklin (also Obama), or Jennifer Lopez (Biden). But she's a big name with a lot of supporters, and her willingness to run for Mr. Trump is justified publicly as “Why can't we all get along?” following a pattern. national unity. Life is a journey, after all, and the opening setlist will give you an idea of how far some of next week's pro-Trump artists have come. For example, Victor Willis, the only original member of the disco group Village People, sent a cease-and-desist letter to President Trump in 2020, stating that he enjoys a growth mindset and stopped demanding his actions. I've done it. Please stop using the 1978 hit song “Macho Man” At the rally, to make sure he was present during the inauguration weekend and to assure everyone that he was “not an illegitimate man.”I hate Trump”.
To be fair to America's cultural elite, the rest of the lineup for President Trump's inauguration festivities is pretty low-class, featuring Kid Rock and Billy Ray Cyrus as inevitably as a cockroach rising after a nuclear disaster. , classical singers are participating. Christopher Macchio (I don't know that either). Moreover, the now reformed Village People are still led by Willis, who has recently, thrillingly, claimed the YMCA. It was never meant to be a gay anthem. And the wife threatened to sue anyone who said otherwise. All Inauguration Day needs at this point is Marilyn Manson wandering around on stage like a 1990s Camden Market goth, and that would have found the perfect level.
Of course, underlying this cultural turmoil is the significant retreat of US money towards President Trump. Meta, Apple, Amazon, and Google are jointly contributing millions of dollars to the founding fund, and BP, Boeing, Delta, Uber, and, with a touch of irony, The same goes for trading platform Robinhood. This is the kind of opportunism that singers and artists at least have the decency to hide from the rest of the world rather than shove under America's nose. (While I'm at it, I'm thinking idly of Beyoncé and Kylie, both of whom play for millions of dollars at private events in Dubai, and whose gay fans enjoy the risk of jail time.) ).
Anyway, as always, next week the task of being more morally rigorous than anyone else will fall on Michelle Obama, who defies protocol and skips the inauguration (she also missed Jimmy Carter's funeral). It is assumed that this decision is deeply rooted in Trump's avoidance). she is an abnormality. In 2009, President Obama capped individual contributions to the Inaugural Fund at $50,000, but of course President Trump has not done so, and the rush of donations is so large and unsightly that there may be a surplus. is high, and it is said that it will disappear. Visit the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library. And if you're grinning at the oxymoron of the words “Trump Library,” you just don't believe in national unity, and the very reason the man was elected in the first place That's it.
