From Charli xcx memes to fan-made covers interpolating her well-known “coconut tree” quote, Kamala Harris’s last-minute presidential bid towards Republican candidate Donald Trump has had an enchanting and outsized relationship with pop music.
Numerous progressive singers, like Ariana Grande and Olivia Rodrigo, have pledged their assist. Katy Perry provided one among her newest singles, “Lady’s World,” for the present vice chairman to make use of in her marketing campaign, although Harris doesn’t appear to have taken her up on it. In the meantime, Harris’s workers has discovered methods to make use of pop music to draw Gen Z voters, having Megan Thee Stallion carry out at an Atlanta rally and totally embracing brat memes. This onslaught of memes and coconut-themed “remixes” has nearly overshadowed essentially the most essential music-related choice concerned in Harris’s candidacy: her marketing campaign track.
Final month, it was reported that Beyoncé permitted the Harris (now Harris-Walz) marketing campaign to make use of her track “Freedom” that includes Kendrick Lamar. Since then, the rousing gospel-tinged anthem from her 2016 album Lemonade has soundtracked Harris’s rally entrances and can inevitably be heard a number of instances at this week’s Democratic Nationwide Conference. There’s even hypothesis that Beyoncé herself might make an look.
The trendy marketing campaign track has develop into its personal character — and goal of inspection — in election politics. Most of those songs have already achieved recognition outdoors of the marketing campaign path, so that they should be important sufficient to re-energize constituents. Additionally they need to be memorable and on message, embodying the values and guarantees of the candidate. However are they really helpful? What does it imply for a track to belong to a marketing campaign?
Publish-Trump, pop music can be one thing that Democrats have been capable of leverage towards the suitable — not simply huge hits themselves however endorsements from the artists who make them. Conversely, there’s a Wikipedia web page of musicians who’ve opposed Trump’s use of their music on the marketing campaign path, along with opposing him as president. Nevertheless, the outcomes of the 2016 presidential election have made the general public second-guess the ability of pop music on this sphere.
Regardless of this skepticism, Dana Gorzelany-Mostak, an affiliate professor of music at Georgia Faculty, argues that music will be an efficient medium for politicians. “Whereas it won’t drive individuals to the polls, music fashions methods of being on this planet and connecting with others,” she says.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
For a marketing campaign like Harris’s that has principally trafficked in “good vibes” and likability over discussions about coverage — the vice chairman simply unveiled her coverage agenda — Harris’s marketing campaign playlist supplies an attention-grabbing window into what she represents and which populations she’s relying on for assist. As Jonquilyn Hill wrote for Vox, Harris’s proximity to Beyoncé might even sign how she plans to conduct herself.
I spoke to Gorzelany-Mostak to get extra perception into Harris’s musical alternatives and the general operate of marketing campaign songs. Her e-book, Tracks on the Path: Widespread Music, Race, and the US Presidency, printed final yr, charts notable marketing campaign songs and the way these musical moments are used to articulate race.
When did presidential marketing campaign songs actually develop into a factor?
The election of 1840 was a watershed second for the marketing campaign track. The supporters of Whig candidate William Henry Harrison promoted singing as a campaign-worthy exercise, they usually printed small booklets referred to as “songsters” with pro-Harrison lyrics. These candidate-inspired lyrics have been set to the favored tunes of the day.
What goes into selecting a marketing campaign track? Is the candidate even instantly concerned on this course of?
It varies relying on the marketing campaign. In 2008, Barack Obama’s staffers had the candidate’s music tastes in thoughts when deciding on his playlist. There was continuity between the artists he mentioned in interviews on the path and his rally playlist, which included Earth, Wind & Hearth, Stevie Marvel, and the Isley Brothers. Donald Trump is thought to pick out his personal soundtrack for marketing campaign rallies, and when off the clock, he “spins” from his iPad at Mar-a-Lago.
What’s the operate of a marketing campaign track, and why do marketing campaign songs matter?
Candidates use music to represent their id in sound, to sonically assemble themselves in a method that appeals to the general public in addition to affords perception into their character and their beliefs.
A marketing campaign track is greater than its lyrics. Candidates want to consider the myriad methods songs would possibly sign messages in political contexts. This implies making an allowance for the artist’s biography, the composition and character of the artist’s fan communities, the connotations connected to the track’s style, and naturally, the meanings a track has accrued by means of its presence in different media. Whereas pundits might privilege the spoken phrase or photos, sound and music will be simply as highly effective persuaders.
General, marketing campaign music preaches to the choir. I don’t suppose it converts individuals or drives them away.
In Tracks on the Path, you write about candidates articulating race by means of music. What do you suppose Kamala Harris is attempting to convey by selecting songs, each previously and presently, by high-profile Black ladies?
Black feminine artists kind the spine of Harris’s 2024 rally playlist — Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Lizzo, Megan Thee Stallion. Harris elevates a matrilineal paradigm of Black excellence that spans 60 years.
This can be a notable distinction to the classic-rock-dominated Republican Nationwide Conference final month, which featured a band of getting older male rockers taking part in covers of the Eagles, Kenny Loggins, Grand Funk Railroad, Steely Dan, and the Doobie Brothers. Trump has questioned Harris’s management cred and her racial id, so Harris makes use of her soundtrack to disrupt this narrative by leaning into the very id that he critiques.
Harris’s earlier marketing campaign track, Mary J.Blige’s “Work That,” is much more light-hearted and enjoyable, in tone and message, in comparison with Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” which is a extra austere, pressing track. How do you suppose these songs mirror the variations in these campaigns and even the broader political local weather?
“Freedom” does convey a sure degree of urgency. However extra broadly, Harris’s playlist reminds voters that they will acknowledge the nation’s painful historical past, decide to the intense work that must be achieved, however nonetheless sing, snort, and dance alongside together with her on the trail to victory.
A lot of Harris’s playlist consists of dance music, from Diana Ross and The Brothers Johnson to Dua Lipa and Bruno Mars, to not point out the newer sounds of Charli xcx. To of us on the suitable, disco would possibly sign the hazards of hedonism. However a style that finds its roots within the leisure tradition of Latinx, Black, and homosexual communities, it additionally factors to a wealthy historical past of resistance and hope — though these sounds have lengthy since been domesticated, as evidenced by their presence in your mom’s gymnasium playlist.
It isn’t stunning that a number of the movies of Harris set to Charli xcx’s music present the candidate laughing, dancing, or mid-gaffe — Trump himself has even criticized Harris’s laughter. By infusing her playlist with unfettered expressions of pleasure and pleasure which are Black, queer, and/or female-centered, Harris manages to wrest the reins away from the male-centric gerontocracy, if solely on the dance ground.
I discover there’s a dissonance between the breezy, light-hearted tone of Harris’s marketing campaign and the best way it has been memed by Gen Z with the austerity of a track like “Freedom” — to not point out, “Freedom” is hardly one among Beyoncé’s hottest songs. Do you suppose this alternative is a misstep?
Regardless of its extra austere tone, I do suppose “Freedom” is an efficient match for Harris. It brings collectively lots of narratives that align together with her marketing campaign message and the presidential model she is attempting to domesticate.
“Freedom” adopts an nearly prayerful tone in its adoption of gospel signifiers and its textual reference to the religious “Wade within the Water.” Within the religious, water represents the chance for escape in instances of enslavement. In “Freedom,” water additionally comes within the type of “rain” and “tears.” This alludes to the aftermath of Beyoncé’s private turmoil and the cultural trauma of New Orleans post-hurricane and of Black communities impacted by mass incarceration. The track additionally samples the voices of a mid-century prisoner and preacher, and Jay Z’s grandmother opening up about her personal hardship in 2015.
In selecting “Freedom,” Harris is situating herself and the 2024 election within the lineage and the sound world of those transhistorical struggles, each private and political.
It looks as if Beyoncé‘s co-sign is perhaps extra highly effective than the track itself.
Beyoncé herself is a logo of female energy, endurance, and vitality. Her music defies categorization. She writes her personal guidelines and frequently reinvents herself. So it’s no shock that Harris desires to align herself with such a story as she embarks on her personal reinvention from prosecutor to district legal professional, to legal professional common, to senator, to vice chairman, to president of america.
