With the midterm elections reaching their drawn-out conclusion, voters can look forward to being inundated with the unofficial kickoff of the 2016 campaigns as early as Wednesday. While no candidate has officially announced their run for the White House, former New York senator and US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has emerged as the frontrunner for the Democrats, while favourite son and former governor of Florida Jeb Bush is generating the most support among Republicans. While the nuances of their platforms and the soap opera dramas of their strategies have yet to be revealed, the question remains: what will their campaign theme songs be?
The first known campaign song was probably The Hunters of Kentucky, used for Andrew Jackson’s 1824 and 1828 presidential campaigns. Though much has been made of FDR’s choice of Happy Days Are Here Again in 1932 – to signal a current-change following the Great Depression – the campaign song did not become a fixture in political life until 1960, when John F Kennedy won with the jingle-y High Hopes. The rules for picking a campaign song are loose, yet the parameters oddly challenging and restrictive: an American artist is a necessity, of course, and the song should be catchy and accessible, preferably infused with a hint of nostalgia and a pinch of patriotism.
The reigning king of American working-class power and pride, Bruce Springsteen, has had his music featured in this context more than any other artist. His songs have been used by John Kerry (2004) and Barack Obama (2008, 2012). Occasionally, though, the selection of a campaign song ends in acrimony. Tom Petty threatened to sue George W Bush for using I Won’t Back Down in 2000. In 2008, Mike Huckabee faced similar verbal daggers from Boston’s Tom Scholz, who objected to Huckabee’s use of More Than a Feeling. During his 2004 campaign, Dennis Kucinich allegedly had a “hip-hop coordinator” on staff to help with his musical selections, perhaps to prevent such mishaps.
At the weekend, Clinton campaigned in Kentucky for Senate hopeful Alison Lundergan Grimes, with Katy Perry’s pop anthem Roar providing the soundtrack. If this is any indication of Clinton’s future music choices, one wonders if she might be well served by an equally rousing top 40 hit by a chart-topping female performer.
Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off seems like a natural choice for a woman who has lived in the public eye for the better part of the past two decades. With its chorus of “’Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate / Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake / I shake it off, I shake it off,” Clinton could pre-emptively strike at the rightwing talk radio machine.
Should she wish to go in an even more tongue-in-cheek direction, Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again seems appropriate. If she wishes to make a nod to Bill’s use of Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop during his 1992 campaign and subsequent victory, perhaps she could go with the Stevie Nicks-fronted Rhiannon, with its mournful, repetitive pleading lyrics, “Wouldn’t you love to love her?” and “Would you stay if she promised you heaven?”
Jeb Bush might elect to acknowledge his desire to seek a job previously held by both his father and brother in his campaign song choice. The Animals’ House of the Rising Sun would have made for a clever play on words if not for its unfortunate allusion to a tragedy in New Orleans; brother George W is still contending with hurricane Katrina in constructing his legacy. Country and TV star Blake Shelton’s new single Bringing Back the Sunshine might make for a better choice, with its play on the Sunshine State and promise of the self-made changing times.
Continuing in the country oeuvre, a regular favorite of the GOP in their attempt to appeal to their base, Bush might find similar success with Florida-Georgia Line’s Here’s to the Good Times. Father George HW found success in 1988 with Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land, while George Dubya utilized Billy Ray Cyrus’ We the People in 2000 and Brooks & Dunn’s Only in America in 2004. Guthrie’s book Bound for Glory could make an excellent campaign tagline, and Cyrus’ Achey Breaky Heart just begs to be played in commercials smearing opponents. It is doubtful, however, that the latest Bush might try to use the music of the youngest Cyrus. Wrecking Ball and We Can’t Stop may not convey the sort of family values so beloved by candidates everywhere.
