Too good- From Melania to Kid Rock's halftime show: why is Maga art so dreadful? [View all]

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/feb/10/melania-kid-rock-maga-art
It’s not fair, what they did to rightwing folks on Super Bowl Sunday. Regular viewers could either take in an elaborate and joyful halftime performance from Puerto Rican recording artist Bad Bunny, one of the most popular music stars in the world, or, if they weren’t interested in football or in Bad Bunny’s music, they could quietly find something else to watch or listen to. There are a lot of options out there. Those who wanted to prove their Maga bona fides or loyalties, however, may have felt obligated to watch a parade of similar-sounding country singers lead into a performance from a shorts-wearing Kid Rock, jumping around and seemingly lip-syncing to a novelty hit from 1999.

At the Super Bowl, Bad Bunny challenged the meaning of ‘America’

For rightwingers who couldn’t stomach the Spanish lyrics to Bad Bunny songs, they could take comfort in the clear English of the man also known as Robert Ritchie: “Bawitdaba, da-bang, da-bang, diggy-diggy-diggy.” (These lyrics are actually just what a certain segment of white listeners prefer: something ripped off from Black culture, in this case rapper Busy Bee.) This sad spectacle was provided by Turning Point USA, which is not actually a charity organization for faded turn-of-the-century rap-rockers, but a rightwing advocacy group co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk. When Kid Rock pivoted back to Ritchie and covered the country tune Til You Can’t (with a pious and half-assed new verse added by Ritchie himself), the music was chased with a tribute to Kirk. This means that viewers were treated to all the artistry of a Kid Rock show plus all the cheerfulness of a funeral.

Movie theaters have their own rightwing cause célèbre this winter with the documentary Melania – a critically reviled less-than-puff piece about the current first lady, Melania Trump, from the director of the worst X-Men movie and the worst Hannibal Lecter movie. Seemingly unable to figure out how to make art of its own out of such a vacuous subject, the Melania documentary resorts to borrowing heavily and nonsensically from others: music cues closely associated with Goodfellas, or actual score from Phantom Thread, which composer Jonny Greenwood and director Paul Thomas Anderson have demanded be removed. (Greenwood’s contract stipulates that he be consulted in third-party uses.) With Melania filed on the bottom shelf alongside various ham-fisted faith-based movies, Dinesh D’Souza hack jobs, and projects that threaten to include Ben Shapiro cameos, it’s enough to make you wonder: are there any remaining rightwingers who can make seriously great or even good art?
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