Kent Nishimura/Getty Images; Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty
- Campaign songs are a staple of presidential elections.
- Vice President Kamala Harris is using Beyoncé's "Freedom."
- Trump is mostly sticking by his longtime use of "God bless the USA"
The themes of the 2024 race are apparent before Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump take the stage.
Drawing on the long history of campaign music, Harris, Trump, and their respective running mates have fine-tuned their playlists in the final sprint before Election Day.
Selecting a perfect campaign song isn't easy. It needs to amp up a crowd like a major leaguer getting ready to get to the plate. But unlike athletes, candidates have historically limited their choices. They don't pick songs that might be controversial. As a result, US presidents and those aspiring to be often stick to a mixture of dad rock and country music. For Democrats, it's a lot of 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 of depicting a campaign and its message," Eric Kasper, who cowrote a book about campaign songs, wrote to Business Insider. "A song might do this with the title or the lyrical hook. Music also has emotional appeal that is different from the spoken word."
"Campaigns use music for the same reason that product advertisers and movie makers use music: if done well, it can produce an emotional reaction," added Casper, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire.
Kasper said the tradition goes back to some of the nation's earliest campaigns. Some of the first examples included supporters pigeonholing lyrics about their favored candidates into popular tunes.
William Harrison's campaign's anthem, "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too," was sung to the tune of "Three Little Pigs" in 1840. FDR paved the way for popular music on the campaign trail in 1932 with the use of "Happy Days Are Here Again," but the practice didn't really catch on until more recently.
It was during President Ronald Reagan's reelection when Lee Greenwood's patriotic ballad "Good Bless the USA" made its campaign debut.
In 1992, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton sold his message of the future with Fleetwood Mac's classic "Don't Stop." Hillary Clinton's campaign loved Rachel Platten's "Fight Song" so much that it enlisted scores of celebrities to record a video singing it for the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
And yes, Pete Buttigieg, a once virtually unknown mayor of South Bend, Indiana, relied on Panic! At The Disco's "High Hopes." (Top Buttigieg advisor Lis Smith later told Business Insider she wanted the song to be the karaoke classic "Mr. Brightside," but that plan did not pan out.)
Here's a look at how the 2024 candidates have and will send their message through music.
Vice President Kamala Harris
Song: "Freedom" by Beyoncé
Message: While Harris is embracing the neon green brat theme of Charli XCX on social media, she has 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 features the song at campaign rallies. The song is on Beyoncé's sixth album, Lemonade, which delves into questions of social injustice, and activists used "Freedom" as a rallying cry during protests following the killing of George Floyd.
The chorus serves as a testament to self-love and resilience: "I break chains all by myself / Won't let my freedom rot in hell / Hey! I'ma keep running / 'Cause a winner don't quit on themselves."
Should she win, Harris would "break chains" as the first woman and first Indian American to become president. By setting her campaign against the soundtrack of a Black woman, Harris is also highlighting her Black identity, which Trump recently questioned.
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 a centerpiece of his rallies. Since its release, the song has been a staple of American politics and 4th of July celebrations. President Reagan's reelection campaign used it. His then-Vice President George H.W. Bush used it at times.
A major hit upon its debut, "God Bless the USA" has returned to the top of the charts during the first Gulf War and after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Trump has recently taken to using the Sam & Dave classic "Hold On, I'm Comin'" as his walk-off song. Booted out of office, Trump has emphatically run on the message that the nation was better off with him in charge. According to American Songwriter, some radio stations refused to play the song when it initially came out due to its potentially suggestive nature. Still, Sam Moore's soulful plea has been on the campaign trail before.
President Obama's 2008 campaign played the song until Moore went public with his frustration that they hadn't asked permission. Other Democrats used the ballad during the Trump era to underline their hope to oust Republicans from power.
Sen. JD Vance of Ohio
Song: "America First" by Merle Haggard
Message: Trump tapped Vance to be his heir apparent to his MAGA-takeover of the Republican Party. Few things epitomize the GOP's turn against the Bush era more than repurposing what Haggard intended to be an Iraq War protest song, a journalist who interviewed the country music legend before he died in 2015 once told Variety.
Vance once told Breitbart that he loves 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 slogan "America First" has an long history.
"And really, it's saying, why don't we stop trying to bring freedom and democracy to every far-flung corner of the globe using American troops to do it?" Vance told the conservative outlet. "Why don't we bring freedom and democracy to our own country first and focus on rebuilding our own country before we focus on the problems elsewhere in the world?"
Vance, or someone working on his behalf in Republican politics, made an even gutsier song choice during the Republican National Convention. The Ohio Republican walked off the stage to an instrumental rendition of Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop," one of the most indelible campaign anthems thanks to President Bill Clinton's 1992 reelection campaign.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz
Song: "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen
Message: Democrats joke about their affinity for the Boss. Springsteen, who has liberal views, once mused that he was entirely fine if people misunderstanding his music made it 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 Our Own."
But Walz, who referenced his Springsteen fandom during his introductory rally, went with one of the classics. Springsteen told Rolling Stone in 2005 that the song speaks to being "exhilarated and frightened about what tomorrow brings," a perfect undertone for a campaign that has built its foundation on not going back to Trump's America.