'You're The Voice': Should pub rock and politics ever mix?

The path to the Voice referendum has a new soundtrack, with legendary Australian vocalist John Farnham granting permission for his biggest hit - iconic rock ballad ‘You’re The Voice’ - to be used by the Yes campaign as we edge toward October 14.

It’s the first time Farnham has granted permission for the renowned song to be used in a campaign like this.

The decision has already been met with criticism from some corners of politics and social media, with claims that Farnham is alienating half of his audience by allowing the song to be used for a ‘politically divisive’ campaign and should stop.

While some fans are disappointed and Peter Dutton tries to land some bad jokes, recent history is full of examples of artists and politicians interacting over the use of popular songs - although typically it’s the artist stopping a politician or cause from appropriating their track, as these examples show.

Clive Palmer & Twisted Sister

While some politicians approach bands to use tracks and are rejected for ideological reasons, Palmer - who is notably worth $1.9 billion today - simply baulked at the licensing fee of  $150,000 to use Twisted Sister’s ‘We’re Not Going To Take It’ for a bland parody dubbed ‘Australia ain’t going to cop it’.

After being taken to court for the unauthorised use of the track and publicly criticised by Dee Snider - both for the use of the song and how terrible his version was - Palmer lost and was ordered to pay the band $1.5 million, ten times what it would have cost to just pay the fee.

Jimmy Barnes & Reclaim Australia

Long considered the epitome of Australian rock, ‘Khe Sanh’ was appropriated by anti-Islam group ‘Reclaim Australia’ during a 2015 rally, drawing immediate media attention due to the aggressive nationalism on show at some of the previous rallies that were being held around the country.

Jimmy Barnes personally addressed the matter on social media in the aftermath, asserting that he didn’t support the group and asking them to refrain from using the track in future, citing his own multicultural family as a way to distance himself from the group’s views.

The group, while ‘disappointed’ that Barnes was under the misguided belief that they were a racist organisation, complied with Barnes’ request.

Hunter and Collectors & The Tasmanian Liberal Party

A bit more overt in its political implications, the Tasmanian Liberal Party’s decision to use Hunters hit ‘Holy Grail’ at their 2002 campaign launch drew a stinging rebuke from the band, publicly stating the party went against everything they stood for.

At the time, the venue’s licence to play copyrighted music meant no action could be taken other than the public reply. Thanks in part to this incident, musical licenses held by venues no longer cover political events.

The Liberals were heavily defeated at the election, losing three seats to the Greens.

Donald Trump & Everyone

The former President has been knocked back by so many artists that there’s a Wikipedia page about it.

A long list of renowned performers and songwriters have come out to denounce Trump after the unauthorised use of their music at his rallies, including The Rolling Stones, Queen, Adele, Elton John, The White Stripes, Bruce Springsteen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Beatles, Aerosmith, REM, Linkin Park, Neil Young, Pharrell Williams, Phil Collins and even Nickelback plus many, many more.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Is Farnham creating division by using such a universally loved song for a loaded issue? Does it matter? Has your opinion of the song or the artist changed? What famous song could the 'No' campaign use in return?

‍

‍