Rage Against The Machine: How Donald Trump Has Inspired The Music World’s Anger
On Tuesday (May 3)—the same day that Donald Trump won the Indiana primary, effectively becoming the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party as Ted Cruz concurrently bowed out of the race—Radiohead released a new video.
In the stop-motion visual for new single “Burn The Witch,” smiling characters welcome an outsider into a seemingly idyllic but actually deranged community. A noose is proudly displayed, strange rituals are committed by masked men, and the eventually, the outsider is burned to death in an ending that directly recalls The Wicker Man; the rest of the community waves happily as it happens, unaware of their insanity.
Following the video release, animator Virpi Kettu, who also worked with Radiohead on the 2003 video for “There There,” told Billboard, "They wanted the video to contrast with what they're playing and to wake people up a bit." Kettu added that Radiohead wanted the song and video to raise awareness about the "blaming of different people... the blaming of Muslims and the negativity" that could lead to the titular phrase. Radiohead perhaps wasn’t specifically invoking Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the United States—Kettu says that the song is more focused on the refugee crisis within Europe—but it’s worth noting that the stop-motion video is an homage to a classic British children’s show titled… wait for it… The Trumptonshire Trilogy, set in the fictional county of Trumpton.
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