Kim Gordon re-releases ‘BYE BYE’ with words banned by Trump administration
Kim Gordon, bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth, has released a new version of her tune, ‘BYE BYE‘, featuring words banned by the Trump administration.
Gordon’s tune ‘BYE BYE’ is from her second solo album, The Collective. The musician explained the rerelease by saying that her “Producer and collaborator Justin Raisen had this idea to redo ‘BYE BYE’ starting at the end of the song.”
She continued: “When I was thinking of lyric ideas, it occurred to me to use words taken from a site that had all the words that Trump has essentially banned, meaning any grant or piece of a project or proposal for research that includes any of those words would be immediately disregarded or ‘cancelled’.”
Adding an enraged quip to her explanation, Gordon commented, “I guess Trump does believe in cancel culture, because he is literally trying to cancel culture.”
The single art includes a list of all the words handwritten in red ink, many underlined or struck through with the same pen. Some of the words that have begun to disappear under the Trump administration include “climate change”, “mental health”, “diversity”, “transgender”, “uterus”, “injustice”, and “opportunity”.
The song, familiar in its glitchy and aggressive body, fades out with the final sequence, “lesbian, women, bye bye”. The Trump administration has systematically removed any support for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives. It has also targeted administrative qualities in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and National Science Foundation (NSF).
The original track depicted the story of a woman on the run through a collision of apparent non-sequiturs. Far Out gave it four out of five stars, writing, “Managing to make a track designed to signify complete sensory overload and the further extent of panic and rage yet make it addictively listenable is a feat.”
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