The music world has had enough of Donald Trump. Acts from the Rolling Stones to Miley Cyrus have come out in the past few months to denounce the polarizing Republican presidential candidate, whose campaign hit a low point last week when a video from 2005 emerged depicting him bragging about sexually assaulting women.
A renewed effort by musicians to show their distaste is underway.
In “30 Days, 30 Songs,” a new campaign launched Monday (Oct. 10), major artists are banding together to release music for a “Trump-free America.” At noon every day from now until the US’s election day of Nov. 8, artists including Death Cab for Cutie, R.E.M.,Thao Nguyen, and Aimee Mann will drop a new track on the campaign’s site. The full list of participating artists has not been released, so each day will deliver a surprise song.
Organized by the Dave Eggers—founder of McSweeney’s and author of books such as A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and The Circle—the project will send proceeds to the Center for Popular Democracy, a leftist non-profit.
Two tracks, “Million Dollar Loan” by Death Cab for Cutie and “Can’t You Tell?” by Aimee Mann, have been released so far—and are available for listening via the Spotify playlist below. ”Million Dollar Loan” is accompanied by a music video that features a Trump-like silhouette solemnly preaching to an invisible audience.
Eggers, speaking to Entertainment Weekly this week, says he came up with the idea for the campaign after attending a Trump rally this summer and realizing the time may be ripe for a resurrection of the political protest song. (The project is reminiscent of group music charity projects like 1985’s “We Are the World“—though that raised money for famine relief, not to defeat a political candidate.) Protest is indeed the mindset of the participating artists, who wrote in a group letter on the site:
We hope these songs provide both motivation and soundtrack to doing the right thing these last few weeks before this most pivotal election. Consider this the music by which you will register to vote and cast your ballot for Hillary Clinton, the only candidate who can prevent the apocalypse that would be Donald Trump as president.
Though a handful of artists, including Ted Nugent and Loretta Lynn, have voiced support for Trump, the vast majority of music’s big acts have urged their fans to reject him.
At least two musical former Trump supporters, Aaron Carter and Azealia Banks, have changed their minds in light of the video released last week.
Just this past weekend, at the massive classic rock festival Desert Trip, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters decorated his performance with a series of psychedelic background visuals bluntly depicting Trump making a Nazi salute and wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood.
And the judgment isn’t limited to musicians from within the US. Earlier that same night at Desert Trip, the English rock band The Who took the stage. In the middle of the band’s set, lead guitarist Pete Townshend dryly told his American audience: “Good luck with the election, folks.”