The EDL Loves Katy Perry

The list of things the EDL is associated with is pretty lengthy: inciting racial hatred, supporting capital punishment, commissioning hundreds of unimaginably bad tattoos of armoured knights etc. But pop culture is definitely not at the top of that list. You would think its members are too busy trying to take all the ray guns off of Muslims so Britain can be back British to bother keeping up with the Billboard 100, but that’s just one of those things we all tell ourselves to avoid the uncomfortable fact that the things we enjoy are also enjoyed by people we hate. Hitler had fine art, Putin has ice hockey and, as it turns out, members of the EDL post music videos on the group’s main and sub-divisional Facebook pages as a way of communicating #feelings about “the struggle” against Islam. I don’t imagine its collective music taste will ever come to be something the EDL is known for, but the quiet, almost secret exchange of media within these pages is as revealing as it is weird. We like to imagine that people involved with hate groups spend all their time crammed into smoke-filled rooms debating what to petrol bomb next, not listening to Northern Soul and hugging. It just doesn’t sit well.

In many ways, anything that comes under the words “popular” and/or “culture” seems like it would be the last thing to be connected with an organisation that is the absolute antithesis of both. Nevertheless, in this world of everything for everybody, music is (unfortunately) up for grabs as another populist costume for right wing politics to dress up in and pretend it has things in common with other human beings.

Unsurprisingly, political organisations tend to make a habit of using ill-fitting songs within their promotional campaigns in an effort to “connect” with people – namely the young ones, who are super important in terms of the electoral vote but don’t care about anything so need to be coaxed in by stuff with hashtag status. Team Obama did a half-decent job of it when they used "Fake Empire" during the 2008 presidential campaign, proving once and for all that there is something more boring than politics and that something is The National.

The EDL appears to be toying with a similar formula to hilariously misguided ends despite the fact that they are their only audience (excluding the occasional midnight anthropologist such as myself). Last summer they royally pissed off the Manic Street Preachers by using "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" on one of their rally videos. I guess that song’s explicitly anti-fascist content escaped them and in turn says a lot about their sense of perspective. It is, without a doubt, the worst misappropriation of a pop song since that time Ronald Reagan didn’t get "Born in the U.S.A", but it’s certainly not alone in its absurdity.

I spent some time lurking a variety of the organisation’s Facebook pages, curious to know what its members identified with.

Here’s what’s on the playlist at Club EDL lately:

Katy Perry – “Dark Horse”

Lord and saviour of tragic tat that she is, Katy Perry went straight for the neck of pseudo-controversy in her latest video "Dark Horse". Issues of fashion and historical coherence aside, there's a scene that features a man wearing a pendant in the shape of the word Allah who she proceeds to turn to sand whilst looking for which culture to appropriate next a suitor. Apparently offending multiple thousands of people, regardless of religious persuasion, is something the EDL have a lot of time for. Maybe this pop lark is something they can get on board with. One supporter even suggested that “One Direction’s next video should feature Allah wearing a suit made out of bacon”, which sounds way too passé but if someone wants to go ahead and make Harry Styles disintegrate maybe it would force next years Brit Awards to find a better joke.

30 Seconds To Mars – “This Is War”

“This is a song about peace”, reads the text intro to this video, which immediately makes me question if this song is about peace because that should definitely be pretty self-explanatory. I wouldn’t dare drag the artistic integrity of Jared Leto through the mud, but a music video made up entirely of firing guns into the sunset will inevitably lend itself to patriotism and sometimes patriotism can lend itself to violence. Why can’t everybody just get along :(

Emeli Sandé– “Read All About It” (Part 3)

Tissues at the ready, team, it’s an Hungarian shadow theatre group transforming their bodies into castles to the tune of Emeli Sandé and it is very emotional. Maybe it’s because a group of Hungarians are absolutely slaying Britain’s Got Talent. Or maybe it’s because the EDL is trying to soften its image by focussing on female-fronted recruitment drives and from now on rallies will begin to express slogans like “Defending Your Country Does Not Make You Racist” through the medium of interpretive dance. Only time will tell.

Krista Branch – “Remember Who We Are”

I literally had no idea who this person was but a cursory Google immediately brought up the words “America”, “Anthem” and “Tea Party Movement”, so I guess this makes total sense. It’s only a matter of time before a UK version manifests itself and the absolute best we can hope for is a prog-rock outfit called something like Knights Templar Movement or The Nick Griffin Experience.

Bobby Hutton – “Lend A Hand”

Here is a certified wall-to-wall banger from the archives. Guaranteed to go down well everywhere from EDL HQ (apparently) to wherever the outstanding pro-disco pro-equality movement that is English Disco Lovers decide to host an event in opposition of it. At least we can agree on something.

All things Ted Nugent

Some people are also pretty stoked on the fact that Ted “I’m addicted to freedom” Nugent recently called Obama a “sub-human mongrel” (don’t worry though he was using “street talk” so it wasn’t offensive), but I hope for all our sakes that this doesn’t escalate. Race hate is bad enough without it being weaselled into a rally chant variation of "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang".

Metallica – “Nothing Else Matters”

Finally…of course this exists. The internet is the definitive home of nonsense propaganda so the real question is why wouldn’t there be a montage of EDL protest images coupled with the least metal Metallica song ever?

Follow Emma on Twitter @taylorswuft666