A political playlist: The fight over campaign songs
In 1960, the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy featured the popular song “High Hopes,” with specially-written lyrics sung by Frank Sinatra:
K E Double-N E D Y
Jack’s the nation’s favorite guy
Everyone wants to back Jack
Jack is on the right track
‘Cause he’s got high hopes
He’s got high hopes
Nineteen Sixty’s the year for his high hopes
The right music can set a candidate apart from the pack, and that’s why it’s been part of the American political landscape since Day One. University of Michigan music history professor Mark Clague says campaign music goes back to the founding of our nation, “back to the time of George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Really even predates the time when we had broad, popular elections, when it really was the Electoral College. Music was still a part of the discourse, and it was a way to bring passion into politics.”
Talk about passion: The 2024 election has become a Battle of the Bands, starting with Kid Rock at the Republican National Convention in July:
And a few weeks later, the Democrats turned their roll call into a dance party, led by DJ Cassidy:
A catchy song can be a campaign’s calling card, a free ad that plays indefinitely. Take Bill Clinton with Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop,” or Ronald Reagan with Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” That song took on special meaning in the days after 9/11.
Greenwood said he wrote it for all Americans, and initially he did not want it used as part of any political campaign: “No, that bothered me at first. The Democratic Party had called me in 1984 and wanted me to perform ‘U.S.A.’ at their convention in San Francisco, and I said no. I declined. The Republicans also called me for their convention in Dallas; I also declined.”
But when President Reagan asked Greenwood to sing it in 1988, he did, and it’s since become a Republican anthem.
Lee Greenwood sings “God Bless the U.S.A.” at the 1988 Republican National Convention:
Greenwood also sang it at the RNC this past summer.
So, if a Democrat asked him to use his song, would he let them? “If that question came, I’d have to consider that,” said Greenwood. “This is the fourth or fifth Republican president I’ve sang for. But I’ve sang for ten presidents, including Presidents Obama and Clinton and Carter and Nixon and Bush. And so, if another president on the Democratic Party wants to use ‘God Bless U.S.A.,’ I don’t know that it’d be wise, but I’d have to consider that.”
Vice President Kamala Harris has her own musician friends, most notably Beyoncé, who’s allowed Harris to use the song “Freedom” in her campaign.
The Harris campaign’s ad “We Choose Freedom,” featuring the Beyoncé song “Freedom”:
But what happens when a musician doesn’t want their music used? Dozens of artists, from ABBA to The Rolling Stones, have said “no” to the Trump campaign.
The Issac Hayes family objected to the use of “Hold On, I’m Comin'” by the Trump campaign, and last week a judge in Atlanta granted a preliminary injunction barring them from using it.
And Celine Dion pushed back when the Trump campaign used the “Titanic” movie theme, “My Heart Will Go On,” saying, “Really, that song?”
Lawrence Iser is a music copyright attorney in Los Angeles who successfully sued John McCain’s campaign over the use of Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty.” “If they’ve been told not to use it, but then they continue to use it, then that’s actually copyright infringement,” said Iser. “And it’s actionable. It’s actionable in Federal Court. So, you can sue.
“So, if you are a political candidate, those candidates need to respect the Constitutional right of a musician or a songwriter to just say no to the use of their song in a political campaign,” Iser said.
Music may not change voters’ minds, but it can definitely make them sway. “It’s having that chorus that sort of sticks in your brain that doesn’t let you forget it,” said Clague. “And so, that’s part of music’s power in a way that, you know, a stump speech is never gonna pull off.”
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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler.
