pop music to promote presidential politics

From John Jurgenson in last weekend's WSJ, an interesting article on the use of pop music to pump up campaigns...

The author details the contemporary uses of pop music in this campaign-- and I'll leave that to your reading if you want to follow the link. But I wanted to provide an excerpt on the history of the practice and the potential dangers of one's choice.

Using popular songs for political purposes is a twist on a tactic that goes back to George Washington. The increasing use of such songs is an outgrowth of the fact that, in an age when voters are pulled by a growing number of media sources, politicians are looking for tools to help them cut through the clutter. There are trade-offs, however, including potentially loaded lyrics and the chance of artist backlash. John McCain had been playing "I Won't Back Down," but rocker Tom Petty asked him to do just that and stop using the tune for his campaign.

Another danger: With songs picked to trigger baby-boomer nostalgia or heartland appeal, most candidates are drawing on a well of material that has already been plumbed for television commercials and soundtracks....

Most candidates haven't named "official" theme songs for their campaigns. That move usually follows a party nomination. Instead, they are using these playlists to amp up crowds, signal a candidate's approach to the stage or accompany the handshaking marathons that follow....

George Washington didn't need a fight song to win the presidency -- he got 100% of the electoral votes -- but he had already been celebrated in verses tacked on to familiar tunes like "Yankee Doodle" and "God Save the King." "We've been doing that since the country was settled," says folk musician Oscar Brand, 87 years old, whose album, "Presidential Campaign Songs: 1789-1996," features his versions of the campaign tunes of dozens of politicians, from Washington to Clinton.

The campaign theme song came into its own around 1840, when modern election strategy took shape. Before the dawn of radio, ensembles with names like the Hoi-Polloi Glee Club and Uncle Abe's Choir joined brass bands at rallies, according to "Songs, Odes, Glees, and Ballads: A Bibliography of American Presidential Campaign Songsters" by William Miles. Voters got to know a candidate by seeing his portrait on songbooks and hearing his character extolled or torn down in verse. Abraham Lincoln was the "rail-splittin' statesman." (A compliment.) Grover Cleveland "sowed his wild oats all around." (Not so much.)