Political Music Memes: a collection

the artistic case for a progressive, anti-neoliberal political revolution

The following are a series of 18 music-related memes that I began creating in 2016 as part of a fun and non-confrontational attempt to inform my musical friends & colleagues about the dangers of the “status quo” candidates for President of the United States.

Originally, I had not explained the meaning behind these images and aim to do so now in effort to describe the severity of these choices as well as our important role as artists in this dangerous cultural & sociopolitical climate:

Sanders VS Biden (2020)

War

• To this day Joe Biden defends his terrible foreign policy ideas — sometimes while disrespecting concerned veterans voicing their opinions on his history with issues like gun control or the Iraq war.
• Biden has also continued his historic strategy of lying by telling war stories that are outright false.
• (Much the same could’ve also been said for Hillary.)

Contrafacts

• A play on his infamous ‘gaffe’ line (among many) from a campaign rally in Iowa: “We choose truth over facts.”
• Both truth and facts appear to be missing from Biden’s long history of plagiarizing and lying, even recently.
• For reference, a “contrafact” is a musical term for a work that is based on a prior work — kind of like a cover (the tune names listed are examples of famous jazz contrafacts).

Adjustments

• Joe Biden has advocated cutting social security for 40 years.
• He also lies about it relentlessly.
• Musicians adjust their instruments using parts of their setups like neck straps and slide part adjustments.

Orff

• An ode to his constant state of confusion, which the campaign says is due to his lifelong battle with stuttering.
• His frequent slurring, among other signs of cognitive decline, is not the same as having a stutter.
• In music, Orff is a method of teaching based on movement, song and basic instrumental practices.

Time Signature

• Again referring to Biden’s confusion based in numbers.
• In music, time signatures tell performers the number of beats in a measure and what kind of note gets one beat (examples of time signatures are listed on the left-hand side).

Oleo

• Biden’s lies concerning his climate policy are consistently flip-flopped depending on his audience.
• His recent ties with The Sunrise Movement environmental group have left the organization divided between integrity and what some activists see as a neoliberal sellout.
• His campaign has been historically fueled by fossil fuel donations despite his assertions to the contrary.
• “Oleo” is also the name of a music album and standard jazz song by legendary saxophonist Sonny Rollins.

Accidentals

• Calling attention to Joe’s numerous sexual harassment and assault allegations.
• In music, accidentals are symbols that alter the pitch of a note (examples of written accidentals appear on the left).

G String

• Another reference to his harassment accusations involving women and their underwear.

Tour Bus

• Voters seem to forget who Biden was (and still is) during his decades in the Senate, and may have voluntarily forgotten his Vice President pick’s scathing remarks about his 1977 views on busing.

Sanders VS Clinton (2016)

Jazz

• Kenny G is regarded as the quintessential lame-stream saxophonist in real jazz circles.
• Kenny is often seen as the dividing factor between faux-jazz “easy listeners” and people looking for real jazz who get turned off by his relatively cheesy playing compared to true jazz artists.
• A running joke in politically conscious jazz circles is that Hillary Clinton and her supporters think jazz is centered around Kenny G’s music — a joke that has offended some who claim it’s a sexist assumption.

Live Music

• Democrats have always had exorbitant speaking fees that can only be described as bribes.
• Hillary was later featured in a live stream fundraiser for Joe Biden’s campaign with tickets starting at $2,800 — effectively eliminating the possibility of the majority of Americans from attending and having their voices heard.

Dynamics

• She has always been labeled as loud — somewhat rightfully due to her yelling into microphones and monotone voice, but also often due to sexism — and has been means testing her pandering techniques for decades.
• In music, dynamics are written symbols that tell performers the volume ranges to be played in written music — the marking on the right is an obnoxiously loud indicator, while those on the left indicate a common range of viable options.

Trombone Glissando

• Clinton has been known to arrogantly suggest terrible and out-of-touch solutions to problems she clearly doesn’t understand outside her Martha’s Vineyard social bubble.
• This clearly impossible trombone glissando is an ode to her cluelessness.
• Examples of acceptable trombone glissandos — which are only possible across certain parts of the horn — appear on the left.

Post-Gig

• Hillary’s campaign was known for cycling through unpaid interns in order to avoid paying for their work.

Doubles

• In jazz big bands, saxophonists are often asked to play flute, clarinet and/or soprano sax parts — known as “doubles” — in addition to their main instruments.
• Saxophonists often joke about the difficulty of clarinet as opposed to the other doubles, due to its fingering schemes and differences in reading notation.

2–5–1

• Area code 251 is based in Alabama, where she charged $150 for tickets to her public event.
• She also lost to both Mitt Romney and Donald Trump in the state.
• In music, a 2–5–1 (written: iim7–V7–Imaj) is one of the most well-known and versatile chord progressions.

Lead Vocals

• Clinton is known for changing her opinions based on the political climate, often parroting her opponents’ plans publicly for political expediency before abandoning them in private as she always planned to do.

Sax Guy

• Michael Brecker is one of the greatest saxophonists of all time.
• Lloyd Blankfein was the Chief Executive of the Goldman Sachs banking system.
• This is a joke based on where each of the candidates’ minds might go when hearing one of the homophones.
• Do yourself a favor and look into the content of her emails in the infamous Podesta emails WikiLeaks publication.

The issues America faces were around long before Trump was inaugurated (and were plausibly fostered by Clinton Democrats as well as Biden’s lengthy career, as noted above). Previous generations have been at the very least silently complacent in the perpetuation and growth of these issues over the near-century of electoral experience between Biden & Clinton, stemming from the Red Scare of the 1950’s and morphing into an anti-socialist generational divide. But Bernie Sanders’ supporters have had enough and many refuse to be associated with neoliberals’ quadrennial Conservative scaremongering in favor of revamping our political systems.

There is a common fear among progressives that liberal America will go back to sleep if Hillary or Biden become president. Many are also completely disillusioned by the blatant undermining of democracy by the Democratic Party in the 2016 and 2020 primaries.

If people still feel the need to vote for the center-right-at-best Biden2020 ticket (along with his arguably unwise VP pick, Copmala Harris) in effort to beat Trump, that’s fine; just understand & take responsibility for what you’re supporting.

Anthony Casamassima is a professional musician & educator. Learn more about his work here, and follow RealMusicInProgress on Twitter or YouTube.