campaign songs

I just wrote a paper about campaign songs for one of my other classes and  think they're a fascinating thing to study in American Studies. A lot has already been written on them but I'm sure there's always more to be said! I've found from doing my research that back in the day (1780s until the 20th century) campaign songs were customized, either a familiar song with new lyrics about the candidate or a new song with new lyrics all together. Back then, supporters would sing these songs all together and feel the camaraderie of group singing. Nowadays, candidates come up with whole playlists full of music that they play during events. All of these songs are songs that were already popular before the start of the campaign that will be able to strike a chord so to speak with different people in different regions. In my paper I explore some of the songs that have been used incorrectly in the past. For example, "Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen seems like the kind of song that would be perfect for a campaign because what's more fun than a good "Born in the USA" chant? The only problem is that all of the lyrics are about a young man back from fighting in Vietnam who's disillusioned with the government and what it means to be born in America. So, not exactly the message candidates want to send to possible voters.

I think this is a really interesting topic to study because it's at the intersection of music and politics. I love that a popular song can have tons of power on a campaign and is something that needs to be carefully picked out. It's fun for me to see how much power music really has when politicians lose support because they didn't actually listen to the lyrics of a song or they assumed the artist would support them and didn't.