Themes of the 2024 race are evident before Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump take the stage.
Drawing on a long history of campaign music, Harris, Trump and their respective candidates have fine-tuned their playlists in the final sprint before Election Day.
Choosing a perfect campaign song is not easy. It needs to grow a crowd like a major leaguer getting ready to go to the plate. But unlike athletes, candidates have historically limited their choices. They don’t choose songs that might be controversial. As a result, US presidents and those who aspire to be often stick to a mix of baba rock and country music. For Democrats, it’s too Bruce Springsteen.
“Songs can play a role similar to yard signs; while a yard sign is a visual depiction of a campaign and its message, a song is a musical and lyrical way to describe a campaign and its message,” Eric Kasper, who wrote a book. about the campaign songs, he wrote for Business Insider. “A song can do this with its title or lyrical connection. Music also has emotional appeal that is different from the spoken word.”
“Campaigns use music for the same reason product advertisers and filmmakers use music: if done well, it can produce an emotional response,” added Casper, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire.
Kasper said the tradition goes back to some of the country’s earliest campaigns. Some of the first examples involved supporters reading lyrics for their favorite candidates to popular songs.
William Harrison’s campaign anthem, “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too,” was sung to the tune of “Three Little Pigs” in 1840. FDR paved the way for folk music on the campaign trail in 1932 with the use of “Happy Days Are Here Again. ” but the practice did not become widespread until recently.
It was during President Ronald Reagan’s re-election that Lee Greenwood’s patriotic ballad “Good Bless the USA” made its campaign debut.
In 1992, then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton sold his message about the future with Fleetwood Mac’s classic “Don’t Stop.” Hillary Clinton’s campaign loved Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” so much that she enlisted many celebrities to record a video of her singing it for the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
And yes, Pete Buttigieg, a once virtually unknown mayor of South Bend, Indiana, endorsed Panic! At The Disco’s “High Hopes”. (Buttigieg’s top adviser Lis Smith later told Business Insider that she wanted the song to be the karaoke classic “Mr. Brightside,” but that plan never materialized.)
Here’s a look at how the 2024 candidates have and will deliver their message through music.
Vice President Kamala Harris
Song: “Freedom” by Beyoncé
Message: While Harris is embracing the Charli XCX theme on social media, she’s made a different female pop icon a cornerstone of her campaign: Beyoncé.
Harris used the artist’s anthem “Freedom” in her first campaign video and often plays the song at campaign rallies. The song is on Beyoncé’s sixth album, Lemonadewhich delves into issues of social injustice, and activists used “Freedom” as a rallying cry during the protests following the killing of George Floyd.
The chorus serves as a testament to self-love and resilience: “I break the chains alone / I won’t let my freedom rot in hell / Hey! I’ll keep running / ‘Cause a winner doesn’t give up.”
If she wins, Harris would “break the chains” as the first and first Indian-American woman to become president. By setting her campaign against the soundtrack of a black woman, Harris is also highlighting her own black identity, which Trump has recently called into question.
Former President Donald Trump
Songs: “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood and “Hold On, I’m Comin” by Sam & Dave
Message: Trump has made Greenwood’s 1984 classic the centerpiece of his rallies. Since its release, the song has been a staple of American politics and Fourth of July celebrations. President Reagan’s re-election campaign used it. His then-Vice President George HW Bush used it occasionally.
A huge hit on its debut, “God Bless the USA” returned to the top of the charts during the first Gulf War and after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Trump has recently taken to using the Sam & Dave classic “Hold On, I’m Comin'” as his exit song. Out of office, Trump has clearly conveyed the message that the nation was better off with him at the helm. According to American Songwriter, some radio stations refused to play the song when it first came out due to its potentially suggestive nature. However, Sam Moore’s heartfelt plea has been on the campaign trail before.
President Obama’s 2008 campaign played the song until Moore went public with his disappointment that they hadn’t asked for permission. Other Democrats have used the ballad during the Trump era to underscore their hope to oust Republicans from power.
Senator JD Vance of Ohio
Song: “America First” by Merle Haggard
Message: Trump tapped Vance to be his heir apparent for MAGA’s takeover of the Republican party. Few things epitomize the Republican turn against the Bush era more than Haggard’s repurposing of what was intended to be a protest song about the Iraq War, a reporter who interviewed the country music legend before he died in 2015 once told Variety.
Vance once told Breitbart that he likes the opening line, which calls on the world to help the US instead of the other way around. It also helps that the title is Trump’s foreign policy in a nutshell, even if the “America First” slogan has a long history.
“And really, he’s saying, why don’t we stop trying to bring freedom and democracy to every far corner of the globe using American troops to do it?” Vance told the conservative newspaper. “Why don’t we bring freedom and democracy to our country first and focus on rebuilding our country before we focus on problems elsewhere in the world?”
Vance, or someone working on his behalf in Republican politics, made an even bolder choice of song during the Republican National Convention. The Ohio Republican exited the stage for an instrumental rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop,” one of the most indelible campaign anthems thanks to President Bill Clinton’s 1992 re-election campaign.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz
Song: “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen
Message: Democrats joke about their affinity for the Chief. Springsteen, who has liberal views, once thought he was perfectly fine if people misunderstanding his music made him more popular. Reagan famously praised “Born in the USA,” missing the frustration and isolation at the heart of the song.
Most modern Democrats have embraced the Hurricane Katrina-inspired ballad “We Take Care of Ourselves.”
But Walz, who referred to his fans in Springsteen during his introductory rally, went with one of the classics. Springsteen told Rolling Stone in 2005 that the song is about being “excited and scared for what tomorrow brings,” a perfect undertone for a campaign that has built its foundations on not returning to Trump’s America.