Muse have revealed how US politicians and political pundits have made significant attempts to hijack their music and associate it with their theories.
In an interview with UK tabloid the Observer, which will be out later this weekend, frontman Matt Bellamy specifically discusses Fox News presenter Glenn Beck’s embrace of their 2009 album The Resistance and the use of the album’s lead single Uprising in right-wing conspiracy videos on YouTube.
“In the US the conspiracy theory subculture has been hijacked by the right to try to take down people like Obama and put forward right-wing libertarianism,” Bellamy said.
“Uprising was requested by so many politicians in America for use in their rallies and we turned them down on a regular basis.”
Bellamy also revealed that when writing lyrics for Muse songs, his motives are more therapeutic than polemical.
“When I dabble in watching the news and reading about current events I tend to get a future negative view and that’s something I’ve dealt with through music,” he said.
“It’s quite possible I’m slightly paranoid. But I’d say making music is an expression of feelings of helplessness and lack of control that I think a lot of people can relate to.”
Well-known Conservative pundit Beck is a long-standing fan of Muse, despite their labelling him previously as “a crazy right-winger”.
Muse’s new album The 2nd Law came out yesterday. Find more details on it here.
