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Friday, November 18, 2011

White House Music! The Siren of the Right

Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 1:00 PM

In this week's music section, I interview comedian Tim Heidecker about his Herman Cain-inspired album, Canthology: Songs in the Key of Cain. In the piece, I talk for a little bit about "an '80s-aerobics-video anthem" featuring "a comically impassioned vocalist named Krista Branch." It's called "I Am America," and it's best-known for appearing in the background of the atrocious Cain video that inspired Heidecker's album. "I Am America" has its own official video, but I prefer this one, with Branch singing a lame karaoke version of the song at a live edition of The Herman Cain Show in late 2010. My favorite part of this video is watching Herman Cain "dancing" along to the song in the background, with his top half ticking back and forth, left and right, like a metronome.

There's always a market, however small, for conservative-themed music. Branch seems to be the Celine Dion of the conservatives right now; her most recent song is about the plight of Israel. I wonder if she's going to do a teabaggy version of "Crush on Obama" for whoever wins the Republican nomination? "Mitt Is It?" "Song-ny for Romney?" I can't wait to see what Bonnie Tyler knockoff hell Branch will dip into for 2012.