Over the past one and a half terms that President George W. Bush has served, his popularity has waned more and more. Sure, he has made some rather large errors in judgment, but there is one area in which we should be very grateful that Bush is our President…music.

Even more powerful than plain speech, some music has been devoted to the anti-Bush movement. If you honestly think about it, the music industry has had a thriving anti-Bush market since he became President. The three major genres of the teen to early thirties age groups (those genres being rock, hip-hop and country) have all contributed to the anti-Bush sentiment of the United States.

One of the most public and recognizable Bush protests was that of hip-hop artist Kanye West, when he said, “Bush hates black people,” in response to the poorly planned distribution of aid in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Fat Mike of the punk band NOFX produced and put out two CDs on his record label, “Fat Wreck Chords” motivated by his want to impeach Bush. Those two CDs were simply named “Rock Against Bush” volumes 1 and 2. They were compilation CDs of major punk bands involved in the industry, such as Bad Religion, Alkaline Trio, Rancid, Green Day and The Offspring, along with many, many more bands. All of the songs united under a common theme–social injustice related to the policies of President Bush.

Some of the songs even had samplings of Bush speeches, such as Ministry’s song “No W,” which ties into a new up and coming genre of music, the mash-up genre.

The mash-up genre uses President Bush in their music as a form of political satire; most recently, two songs were released with music videos of President Bush singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” and U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” Both are original ideas with an underlying purpose of protest, but have brought new crowds to the already burgeoning mash-up scene.

One of the songs that paved the way for the mash-up scene was “Weapons of Mass Destruction” by Curtis, who amongst many others made songs with that title. “Weapons of Mass Destruction” was played constantly on local alternative rock music stations around the bay area, and for a while was one of the most requested songs on alternative rock radio such as Clear Channel’s Live 105.

Hip-hop has also been used to protest Bush’s actions. An underground hip-hop duo, The Grouch and Eligh, released a song on their album No More Greener Grasses called “Mr. President.” It not only sampled interviews with the President, but also used those samples to show the irony of the economic standpoint of President Bush.

The Dixie Chicks were also scrutinized for their music protesting the Iraq war and faulting Bush’s actions. This was a bold step since country music tends to be more conservative and patriotic, which led to the Dixie Chicks becoming outcasts of sorts in their genre, but they still managed to have a successful tour after all was said and done.

With even more success were bands System of a Down and Green Day, whose politically charged and altogether anti-Bush albums comparatively became their most popular; System of a Down releasing “Steal this Album” and Green Day releasing “American Idiot.” Both attacked the United States policy that President Bush has pushed forward on his agenda.

Had Bush not been president, great, original albums and new ideas may have never been released for the world to enjoy. So no matter how badly the public may feel President Bush is acting, the music will always be there ready to capitalize on what Bush does and says.

The music industry should be very thankful for having such an inspiring President like George W. Bush.