Axwell of Axwell/\Ingrosso has ordered Presidential candidate, Marco Rubio, to stop using his music for his campaign.
After using his song “Something New” several times on the campaign trail, Axwell ordered the Republican candidate to cease and desist the unauthorized use of his music. Apparently the Swedish DJ is not too fond of Rubio’s brand of politics and is even less interested in having his music used to promote Rubio. Alex Conant, the communications director for Marco’s presidential campaign tweeted:
At @FurmanU event, @marcorubio complains he can't play EDM at rallies. True fact: @Axwell asked our campaign to stop playing "Something New"
— Alex Conant (@AlexConant) December 12, 2015
According to Your EDM, Rubio himself went on to simplistically claim:
“Electronic dance music — I’m a fan of. We just can’t play it cause none of the DJ guys — they all send us letters, ‘Don’t play my music. I’m Swedish. I don’t care about American politics.’”
This mess is not 100% Rubio’s fault. The poor guy probably just wanted to look as cool as Obama did back in 2012 when he had Adam Bravin spin for him at a rally out in West Hollywood at The House of Blues. In Rubio’s case, the wrong person started playing music that they were never given permission to play. This was a particularly bad move, because as EDM has grown more popular, the artists have grown more outspokenly political. Artists like Moby, Zedd, and Steve Aoki have all expressed more liberal-leaning perspectives, giving a sense of the political affiliations of the scene. Business, not politics, was probably the motivation between Axwell’s cease and desist, but one could recommend that, in the future, candidates ask before they use music from an artists that may or may not support them.
Rubio’s “supporters” seem to have an alternative. The thread has a handful of tweets encouraging Rubio to play country music instead.
@AlexConant @FurmanU @marcorubio @Axwell Lots of great country songs out there. Maybe they won't mind. Party songs. Better voices.
— Caique Parrot (@ParrotCaique) December 13, 2015
@AlexConant @FurmanU @marcorubio I have no idea who @Axwell is/are? Time for Marco to play more country at the rallies.
— NC Bennot (@LtningSams) December 12, 2015
Now, I put quotations around the word “supporters,” because with suggestions like that it’s unknown if these were actual supporters or just people secretly trying to sabotage his rallies before they even begin. I suspect the latter, but we’ll see. In the meantime, below is a video of the song Rubio doesn’t get to use anymore.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCH9gClZprM&w=560&h=315]
