You Shook Me All Campaign Long

You Shook Me All Campaign Long You Shook Me All Campaign Long Music in the 2016 Presidential Election and Beyond EDITED BY Eric T. Kasper and Benjamin S. Schoening ©2018 University of North Texas Press All rights reserved. Printed in Canada 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Permissions: University of North Texas Press 1155 Union Circle #311336 Denton, TX 76203-5017 The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, z39.48.1984. Binding materials have been chosen for durability. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Kasper, Eric T., author, editor, writer of introduction. | Schoening, Benjamin S., 1978- editor, writer of introduction. Title: You shook me all campaign long : music in the 2016 presidential election and beyond / edited by Eric T. Kasper and Benjamin S. Schoening. Description: Denton, Texas : University of North Texas Press, [2018] | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018030231| ISBN 9781574417340 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781574417456 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Music--Political aspects--United States--History--21st century. | Presidents--United States--Election--2016. | Campaign songs--United States--21st century--History and criticism. Classification: LCC ML3917.U6 Y68 2018 | DDC 781.5/990973090512--dc23 LC record available at https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A %2F%2Flccn.loc.gov%2F2018030231&data=01%7C01%7Ckaren.devinney %40unt.edu%7Cbc7ee94d4ce24da8c61108d5fd2b629f %7C70de199207c6480fa318a1afcba03983%7C0&sdata=RCKaP2yvdh4Uwe1bo7RKlObBDeb %2FvX3n35WV8ddVCfo%3D&reserved=0 The electronic edition of this book was made possible by the support of the Vick Family Foundation. Table of Contents Introduction: Tippecanoe and Trump Too Eric T. Kasper (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) Benjamin S. Schoening (University of North Georgia)............ 1 Chapter One:This Is What Democracy Sounds Like Justin Patch (Vassar College) ............................... 19 Chapter Two:“Not My President” Lars J. Kristiansen (James Madison University).......... 51 Chapter Three: Rapping for a Revolution Eunice Rojas (Furman University) ....................... 89 Chapter Four: Political Music, Media Spectacle, and Organizational Communication Competence Nancy A. Wiencek (Rider University) Jonathan Millen (Rider University) David R. Dewberry (Rider University) ................................................. 119 Chapter Five: We the People Sing Eric T. Kasper (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) ...................................................... 153 Chapter Six: Ameritude Quentin Vieregge (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire —Barron County) ........................................... 185 Chapter Seven: This Is Our Fight Song Kate Zittlow Rogness (Hamline University) ........... 215 Chapter Eight: “Weapons of Mass Distraction” Lily E. Hirsch (California State University, Bakersfield) ............................................... 239 vi You Shook Me All Campaign Long Chapter Nine: Trump the Musical Prophet Daniel Oore (University of Toronto) ..................... 263 Chapter Ten:“Pub Fight” Politics David Wilson (Stanford University) ....................... 317 Contributors’ Bios ......................................................... 347 Index ......................................................................... 351 You Shook Me All Campaign Long Introduction Tippecanoe and Trump Too A Brief History of Why Music Matters in Presidential Campaigns Eric T. Kasper (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) Benjamin S. Schoening (University of North Georgia) Music has played a role in American presidential campaigns since some of our first elections. Though not as prominent at the time, parodied songs were repurposed as early as the reelection of George Washington in 1792 in an attempt to sway the electorate, and they started to become standard practice in the 1796 contest between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.1 Music usage has not been static though; rather, the way in which music has played a part in presidential elections has changed dramatically over time, moving from parody to original composition to pre-existing songs. New technologies—including advancements in movable type lithography, radio, television, and the Internet—have also influenced the relationships among candidates, music, and the electorate. Regardless of these technological changes, it is ultimately communication and emotion that make music so important in the framework of presidential campaigns. Music has long been a vehicle by which campaigns 2 You Shook Me All Campaign Long could relay important messages about their candidates or disparage their opposition. Early on, this was primarily accomplished through parody, or changing the lyrics of a popular song, in whole or part, to produce new meaning. This also made songs very effective in conveying campaign messages. People would attend rallies and hear these new words sung to familiar tunes and, through music, spread the word about a particular candidate. In modern elections, candidates have primarily expressed themselves musically through “canned” songs: pre-existing popular tunes that are appropriated by campaigns without changing musical notes or lyrics. Given the wide range of the contemporary pop music catalogue, a well-chosen song can say something effective about a candidate, and, if the association is strong enough between a song and a candidate, may even offer another means of advertising for a candidate through play on the radio or other mediums.2 Tapping into the emotion of the electorate is just as important for presidential candidates. Many books have been written about the power of music and its connection with the brain and human emotion.3 Music has the power to heighten an existing mood or change our overall disposition.4 It has the capability to bond groups of people together.5 It is this emotional power that campaigns also work to exploit within the electorate; they attempt to form bonds in voters’ minds between candidates (including their ideas) and the music that is played at campaign stops, rallies, conventions, and in television advertisements. Regardless of the way in which campaigns choose to use music, its enduring power in presidential campaigns is indisputable. The first watershed moment in the use of campaign music occurred in the election of 1840, which featured William Harrison against incumbent President Martin Van Buren. While numerous songs were written or parodied for the election, it was “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too,” set to the famous tune of “Three Little Pigs,” that demonstrated the growing dominance of songs in elections.6 This was the first moment where the power of music to affect the electorate in a presidential election Tippecanoe and Trump Too 3 was significantly documented. In fact, the song was so popular that Helen Johnson wrote in The North American Review that the song “sang Harrison into the presidency.”7 An anonymous Democrat of the day followed up that sentiment by noting that “[w]e have been sung down, lied down [and] drunk down.”8 As was observed by journalist Irwin Silber, the song “firmly established the power of singing as a campaign device,”9 thus beginning the singing campaigns of the 1800s. Several factors explain why this song was so effective. First, the Jacksonian reforms of the 1820s and 1830s greatly expanded the electorate by eliminating property qualifications for voting rights, and this larger electorate included more people without formal education;10 thus, a need emerged to communicate campaign messages in new, non-written ways, including through the singing of song. Furthermore, by the 1830s, candidates for the presidency were no longer selected by the congressional King Caucus system, but were instead nominated by national conventions, giving the parties and the public more say over who those candidates would be,11 resulting in candidates needing to connect with voters on a more emotional level, such as through music. Finally, improvements in printing press technology made it significantly easier and cheaper by 1840 to mass produce typed materials,12 including songbooks, thus allowing for tunes like “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” to be widely distributed in print form. All of these factors combined to lead campaigns to reach the people more effectively via song. The 1860 election was a four-way contest featuring Republican Abraham Lincoln, Democrat Stephen Douglas, Constitutional Union Party candidate John Bell, and Southern Democrat John C. Breckenridge. This election had one of the most recognizable campaign songs supporting Lincoln, titled “Lincoln and Liberty, Too,” which was set to the tune of the well-liked “Rosin the Beau.”13 This election and song are notable for a second reason as well. The text of “Lincoln and Liberty, Too” was written by Jesse Hutchinson, one of the members of the Hutchinson Family Singers, who were quite popular by 1860.14 This was possibly 4 You Shook Me All Campaign Long the first celebrity endorsement of a presidential candidate by a singer lending both their skill and the value of their name to a campaign; it is an early precursor to a trend that caught on in the twentieth century and has been a stalwart in modern campaigns. Around the turn of the twentieth century, there was a new development in campaign music with candidates, in part, moving away from some of the singing traditions and the use of parodied song by incorporating popular music styles and compositions in

Load more