General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNot Just Carrie Underwood!! Kid Rock, The Village People, Billy Ray Cyrus Part Of Shitstain's Star-Powered Inauguration
EDIT
This is a general observation and also one located in the figure of Carrie Underwood, the country star scheduled to sing the national anthem in Trump’s honour on Monday. Underwood, a 41-year-old who came to prominence via the fourth season of American Idol, may seem a slim figure on whom to hang observations about the waning of cultural opposition towards Trump. There persists a feeling, however, that in 2016, no singer-songwriter of Underwood’s prominence would have offered her services to the Trump administration. Back then, when Trump’s election struck many in the US and around the world with the force of an out-of-body experience, the best the inauguration committee could come up with was another talent-show graduate and holder of the unfortunate mantle “former child star”, Jackie Evancho.
By contrast, Underwood is a multi-platinum artist who has won eight Grammys. She is not Lady Gaga, who appeared at Joe Biden’s inauguration. Nor is she Beyoncé (Barack Obama), Aretha Franklin (also Obama) or even Jennifer Lopez (Biden). But she is a big name with a huge following, and her willingness to appear for Trump follows a general pattern of appeasement publicly justified as “why can’t we all get along?” national unity. Life is a journey, after all, and glancing down the inaugural set list, we can see how far some of next week’s artists-for-Trump have come. Victor Willis, for example, the only original member still in the disco group the Village People, has enjoyed a growth mindset that has taken him from sending cease-and-desist letters to Trump in 2020 demanding he stop using his 1978 hit Macho Man at his rallies, to making himself available for the inauguration weekend and assuring everyone he is not a “Trump hater”.
To be fair to the American cultural elite, the rest of the lineup for Trump’s inaugural festivities is pretty low grade, involving, as inevitably as a cockroach rising after a nuclear event, Kid Rock, as well as Billy Ray Cyrus and classical singer Christopher Macchio (no idea either). Plus the now reformed Village People, still led by Willis, who recently claimed, thrillingly, that YMCA wasn’t ever supposed to be a gay anthem and whose wife threatened to sue anyone who said otherwise. All the inauguration needs at this point is Marilyn Manson dithering about on stage like a Camden Market goth from the 1990s, and it will have found its perfect level.
Underpinning these cultural wobbles, of course, is the momentous backsliding towards Trump of US money. Meta, Apple, Amazon and Google have collectively contributed millions to the inauguration fund, as have BP, Boeing, Delta, Uber and, with a nice touch of irony, the trading-platform-for-little-people, Robinhood. This is opportunism of a kind that singers and artists at least have the decency to hide in other parts of the world, rather than shove under American noses. (I’m thinking vaguely of Beyoncé, and Kylie, while we’re at it – both of whom played for millions of dollars at private events in Dubai, where their gay fans enjoy the risk of imprisonment.)
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/donald-trump-inauguration-earth-kid-rock

DeepWinter
(931 posts)When you chase fame and fortune that tells me all I need to know.
J-Lo has spent time with plenty of Republicans in social settings. Beyonce is all about the money. It's all a shell and pea game.
William769
(58,367 posts)Rewriting Gay history. Like that's never happened before.
Kid Rock always has been & always will be a cockroach.
Billy Ray I'll give a pass, I just love that damn mullet!
Traildogbob
(10,875 posts)Approve of Daddy’s kiss the ring of bigotry.
Does she know the Jesus crowd daddy is singing to would ban her sexually explicit videos from destroying young people’s minds.
William769
(58,367 posts)Not in my Genre.
Traildogbob
(10,875 posts)That was a bit of a fan.
Mily is talented, a very good singer and performer.
But as she got older and grew out of her TV character, she got very sexual in her videos. (Who isn’t these days)
“Wrecking Ball” is one example.
She seems to be very liberal and not what the Jesus folks would allow, based on book burning.
I believe the Moms For Liberty type will ban MTV and VH1 under this regime. Latinos actually singing in Spanish, and whites and blacks mingling. For the Love of God…..
William769
(58,367 posts)


Traildogbob
(10,875 posts)Gonna lose my Fan Club membership.
is a bit of a mixed bag. She's into the big 4x4 monster trucks, she has her own gun collection and grew up hunting, but then she is socially liberal with LGBTQ. She's all over the board.
Traildogbob
(10,875 posts)We will be good.
JT45242
(3,228 posts)Curious as to how the original and most successful iterations view this sell out.
Wondering if the surviving members or the families of those who have died may litigate.
Lovie777
(17,721 posts)MLK.
a kennedy
(33,210 posts)☘️ 🍀 ☘️ 🍀 ☘️ 🍀 ☘️
dutch777
(4,190 posts)William769
(58,367 posts)

GoCubsGo
(33,693 posts)Search it or "We Are One." The entire concert is there, either as a whole, or by individual performers. There's U2, Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Garth Brooks, James Taylor, Pete Seeger, Stevie Wonder,lots of others... I think it might be my entertainment for Monday night.
Also, you can watch the original American Idol, Kelly Clarkson, perform at Obama's 2013 Inauguration, if you want to see one who can actually sing.
SheltieLover
(65,868 posts)Ty for sharing!
a kennedy
(33,210 posts)
Buns_of_Fire
(18,282 posts)Imagine the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's rendering of "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang". Gets you right here, doesn't it?
sop
(13,453 posts)hatrack
(62,168 posts)Just a rumor . . .
tanyev
(45,965 posts)of the 2020 election, BY ANY MEANS POSSIBLE, is even worse than if they’d appeared at his 2016 inauguration, IMO.
And that goes for all the corporate support, too.
2naSalit
(96,317 posts)"C" listers!
InAbLuEsTaTe
(25,050 posts)marble falls
(64,441 posts)The Wizard
(13,115 posts)probably stealing hubcaps or holding up gas stations.
hatrack
(62,168 posts)
travelingthrulife
(1,968 posts)tulipsandroses
(7,098 posts)She has nothing to lose. Most country fans are bigots. They will approve.
I doubt that her performing says anything about the entertainment industry at large.
Chrisette Michele- An R&B singer was blasted after she performed at the 2016 inauguration. It did nothing for her career and she lost fans.
She was never an A lister - I don't know why she thought this was a good career move - She was probably desperate for the money.
On the other hand, Underwood is not desperate for money - so it tells us where her values lie.
ETA: I would not call this " Star Powered"
Billy Ray is pretty much a has been.
He's fortunate that a black gay rapper - Lil Nas X somewhat brought him back to relevance with Old Town Road.
Quiet Em
(1,745 posts)Before he cheats?
Jesus, take the wheel?
I'm not going to spend one minute watching this pathetic thing.
marmar
(78,383 posts)Basso8vb
(806 posts)Paladin
(29,988 posts)No problem; it wasn't as if I planned on watching that inauguration shit-show.
Happy Hoosier
(8,860 posts)alarimer
(17,079 posts)And I use that term generously.
LetMyPeopleVote
(161,108 posts)
bdamomma
(67,864 posts)maybe when he dances to the Village people, he'll get out of breath.