How ‘Combat Tune’ Outlined a Marketing campaign—And Then Its Loss

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On the Democratic Nationwide Conference final month, Hillary Clinton walked offstage to her marketing campaign anthem from 2016, “Combat Tune” by Rachel Platten. It was meant, in fact, as an uplifting second. However a journalist buddy I used to be watching with who had lined the Clinton marketing campaign froze when he heard it, and stated, “I’m triggered,” solely half joking. Platten again then was having her first actual style of fame. She had loaned the music to the marketing campaign out of a sisterly feminist feeling. However given the best way historical past unfolded, the choice got here to hang-out her. “I felt dangerous for my music. I felt dangerous for me. I felt dangerous for all of us,” she says.

Currently many musicians have objected to Donald Trump utilizing their songs at his marketing campaign rallies, typically as a result of they disagree along with his politics. On this episode of Radio Atlantic, we discuss with Platten about what can go flawed even in case you are sympathetic to a marketing campaign. After eight years of processing her expertise, she is each brutally sincere and gracious.

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The next is a transcript of the episode:

Hanna Rosin: Only a fast notice: This episode comprises some cursing that you could be not normally hear on this present.

[“Fight Song,” by Rachel Platten]

Rosin: That is Radio Atlantic. I’m Hanna Rosin.

Each 4 years, the music world and the political world work together, and bizarre issues occur.

[“Turn Down for What,” by DJ Snake and Lil Jon]

This election 12 months, there’s been the DNC roll name that includes Lil Jon. There was additionally the rumor the Beyoncé was going to indicate as much as the DNC, which she by no means did, “Kamala Harris is brat,” “Swifties for Kamala.”

After which on the Republican aspect, a less-cute type of relationship with the music world.

Rosin: However even when a musician agrees with a politician—like, is wholeheartedly down with the mission of the marketing campaign—there will be risks. One musician has gone on this journey in essentially the most crushing and public type of manner. Her identify is Rachel Platten.

Rosin: Rachel is the artist behind “Combat Tune.”

Rosin: “Combat Tune” was additionally the music that—for higher or worse—grew to become synonymous with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign.

[“Fight Song” overlapping with crowd applause]

Rosin: “Combat Tune” performed and performed and performed—over and again and again at 10 million marketing campaign rallies—till my buddy and political reporter Olivia Nuzzi tweeted that summer time: “I might fairly be strapped to a chair and compelled to take heed to ‘Tiny Dancer’ on a loop for 9 hours than hear ‘Combat Tune’ another time.”

However right here’s the primary heartbreak: Initially, Rachel didn’t even need the Hillary marketing campaign to make use of the music in any respect as a result of Rachel was having her first actual brush with fame and success after greater than a decade of hustling within the music trade, and he or she didn’t need to threat it.

So when the marketing campaign first known as, Rachel was like, No.

[“Fight Song”]

Rosin: After the break—why Rachel possibly ought to’ve stated no.

[Break]

Rosin: “Combat Tune” was already a success, but it surely cemented its standing when a model premiered on the 2016 Democratic Nationwide Conference. A montage of celebrities sang alongside in entrance of vibrant, colourful backgrounds. The vibes had been: We’re hopeful. That is good.

Additionally, we had been nonetheless actually right into a capella again then, post-Pitch Good and all.

[Rendition of “Fight Song”]

Platten: The primary time I heard it used within the context of her marketing campaign was the DNC, and it was on TV.

Platten: And caught my husband being like, Dude, flip it on. He was in New York. And I keep in mind, I used to be in my towel with moist hair, alone in a small, little bungalow in Venice, completely caught unexpectedly.

[Rendition of “Fight Song”]

Platten: I knew she was going to, however I feel it hadn’t been officialized or one thing. We didn’t know if she’d truly use it for the DNC. For some motive—it is perhaps dumb of me—however I didn’t know that I utterly anticipated it.

Rosin: Mm-hmm.

Platten: And so listening to it was thrilling. And it was lovely. And I had tears in my eyes. And I used to be proud. And it was superb. It was superb.

[Rendition of “Fight Song”]

Rosin: That appears uncomplicated.

Platten: Yeah. It was uncomplicated. No matter what I believed, it was a really particular factor to listen to a music that I wrote for myself. It was uncomplicated, and it made me actually proud.

Rosin: And did it stay that manner?

Platten: (Laughs.) No.

Rosin: (Laughs.)

Platten: No. what occurred! I imply, no! It wasn’t simply her shedding. It was the political pundits—these poor individuals who needed to hear it time and again and over, my God. Something you hear time and again is so annoying.

Rosin: (Laughs.)

Platten: You hate the music that’s the most-played music. It’s so fucking annoying. And so in fact “Combat Tune” grew to become annoying. And I felt dangerous for them. I felt dangerous for my music. I felt dangerous for me. I felt dangerous for all of us. It’s similar to, I don’t need you to have to listen to my music that a lot. And also you don’t need to hear my music that a lot.

Platten: And it grew to become difficult and onerous as a result of there was quite a lot of tweets making enjoyable of me and personalizing it. Kevin, my husband, follows all of that, and so he was conscious of what was taking place and displaying me. If it possibly had been as much as me, I might have simply tuned it out—or tried to—however he’s obsessive about Twitter and the information cycle and, like, all the time updating. And so he was seeing all of it. And these those that he adopted and admired and appeared as much as had been making enjoyable of his spouse each day, and he was similar to, That’s not good.

And it didn’t really feel good. It was complicated. And I felt misunderstood. And I used to be taking it personally when it was not private in any respect. It wasn’t private. There’s a naivety concerning the music for those who don’t know the artist behind it, and there’s a simplicity concerning the music for those who don’t know me and also you don’t know my story and also you don’t know what occurred to me and why I wrote it. And possibly there’s a simplicity regardless.

However to be made enjoyable of was actually—it sucked. It sucked.

Rosin: Did it make you’re feeling—I don’t know; I’m guessing right here, however—ashamed of the extra naive elements of you? Or what was the half—as a result of typically you’ll be able to say, Fuck you, Twitter. And typically it hurts, you realize? I’ve been there myself.

Platten: No. It did damage. I might by no means—till now, till I turned 40, had youngsters, went by way of a extreme mental-health disaster. Now I don’t give a shit. I perceive what issues and who I actually am. And I derive my sense of value from my very own coronary heart and from my household and buddies. However on the time—newly well-known—I didn’t really feel like, Fuck you, Twitter. I felt like, Oh my God. There should be one thing dangerous about me or my writing, or it should be dumb.

After which it was conflicting as a result of, on the similar time, I used to be nonetheless getting 1000’s and 1000’s of messages from folks telling me that it was therapeutic them from most cancers or their battle cry or the factor that saved their life. So I additionally felt protecting of the individuals who had been being moved by it, and in order that was a complicated feeling.

I type of wished to be like, I want that each one of you might see the individual within the hospital. Or possibly it’s your mother, or your sister, or your brother. I want you might see what I see and expertise how this has therapeutic energy, too. And the way something massively common—there’s going to be folks’s constructive reactions and detrimental reactions when it turns into so massive. And I feel that it was onerous to abdomen, and it was complicated.

Rosin: Did it make you query any elements of your self or the best way that you simply had been?

Platten: Yeah. I feel that my relentless positivity that I used to be selling—as a result of I assumed that that’s what I used to be speculated to do, because the singer behind “Combat Tune”—it wasn’t essentially who I’m. It was one a part of me. Sure, I’m a hopeful individual to my core. However on the similar time, I’m somebody who has had trauma and confronted ache and felt deep worry. And I didn’t suppose that that was who I used to be speculated to be within the public. I didn’t suppose that was who anybody wished to see sing “Combat Tune.”

Rosin: After all, everyone knows what occurred subsequent: Hillary misplaced.

Rosin: With Hillary’s loss, “Combat Tune” took on a distinct type of feeling. The annoyance concerning the overexposure and its relentless optimism curdled into one thing meaner. It was now not the anthem of the primary feminine presidential marketing campaign. It was a reminder of its failure.

In 2020, Matt Miller of Esquire wrote this: “Even 4 years later, it’s inconceivable to separate that senseless, cloying refrain with the crumbling of our nation’s delight.”

Rosin: Do you keep in mind when she misplaced? Have been you at a celebration with your pals, like lots of people?

Platten: Oh. I used to be, sadly, in a becoming as a result of I had the American Music Awards—I feel I had a becoming. It was so silly. I used to be in a robe. I used to be making an attempt on robes, and I used to be very pissed off as a result of I keep in mind feeling like, That is so dumb. I’ve made the flawed life selections, that I’m being stuffed right into a shiny, sequined factor when this humongous factor is about to occur.

And it was panicky. And we had been all, like—somebody was hemming the gown, and it was a kind of basic film moments the place she pricked me, and I used to be like, Ah! None of us had been feeling nice, and all of us had been anxious. And, yeah, it felt so silly and superficial to be doing that. I keep in mind trying round like, What am I doing?

Rosin: And when she misplaced, then did one thing change across the music for you or for the music? Then what occurred? As a result of that’s an entire different layer of that means that you simply didn’t ask for.

Platten: That’s fascinating. It modified for folks within the political spectrum—and I’m positive folks within the public, in the event that they didn’t know the music in some other context, I’m positive it modified in that manner—however not for me, personally. No. I imply, I used to be nonetheless touring to fifteen,000, 20,000 folks at a time who had been screaming it again to me with tears of their eyes. And so it wasn’t actually altering for me in that manner except I appeared on my cellphone.

And there it was altering. Regardless of the information was saying, or whoever was interviewing me, and being advised, Oh, your music is definitely representing failure now, or being made enjoyable of in a worse manner, I used to be like, Okay, proper. I perceive that. And but I’m touring, and that is what’s taking place in my precise life. So what am I supposed to concentrate to?

Rosin: So that you’re headlining, and the persons are responding to the music, after which the narrative someplace out there may be like—

Platten: Someplace on the market are those that hate it and hate me and hate what it means, and—hate’s a powerful phrase. That’s what I felt. That’s a younger a part of me that felt that manner, in order that’s in all probability why I stated that. However there’s an entire different group of individuals which are collectively, possibly, rolling their eyes or pissed off or feeling no matter manner they’re feeling.

And but there’s a large quantity of those that I’m seeing in entrance of me which are feeling fairly otherwise, and likewise, folks on-line which are additionally nonetheless sending me these messages, and the music continues to be primary. So it’s a bit of complicated, proper?

Rosin: Understanding what you realize now, would you continue to let the Hillary marketing campaign—or any marketing campaign—use your music?

Platten: (Laughs.) Did you see my submit on X? I feel Matthew Yglesias was like, All proper, pop stars. Let’s go! Kamala’s operating! The place are you? Taylor? Selena? And I posted a meme of Homer Simpson retreating into the bush.

Rosin: (Laughs.) I used to be going to say, if one other artist got here to you and stated, Hey! Kamala’s marketing campaign needs to make use of my music, what would you say?

Platten: I might say, I feel I’m good. I feel I’m good. I like you. Bless you. I feel I’ve performed my half in that manner, and, I feel, a sort hell no. (Laughs.)

Rosin: (Laughs.) Would you advise anybody else to do it?

Platten: I don’t know. I don’t know. On one hand, look—I needed to undergo all of that to be the place I’m in the present day.

Rosin: Fascinating.

Platten: I don’t remorse it. I don’t look again and really feel dumb or really feel damage anymore about it. I really feel a way of understanding and kindness in the direction of the Rachel that in that second made that call. And I like her, and I want I might put my arms round her and say, That is gonna suck. However what you’re going to study from this expertise is—whew—it’s so good. And I don’t need to rob you of that have. So, lady—get your armor on. Get your massive lady’s panties on. Let’s go!

[Music]

Rosin: This episode of Radio Atlantic was produced by Jinae West. It was edited by Claudine Ebeid, fact-checked by Stef Hayes, and engineered by Rob Smierciak.

Claudine Ebeid is the manager producer of Atlantic audio, and Andrea Valdez is our managing editor.

By the best way, Rachel has a brand new album out. It’s known as, I Am Rachel Platten.

I’m Hanna Rosin. And thanks for listening.