Campaign song

Under a campaign song means a song that by sympathizers of a party or partisans of a candidate as an advertising and detection song released is. Sometimes a campaign hit uses a simple, well-known tune to make it easier to sing the election messages. Very often, however, existing songs by well-known artists are used without adapting the text.

Campaign songs in the United States

Campaign songs ( English Campaign songs ) can be in the United States until well traced back to the 19th century. Andrew Jackson chose the song Hunters of Kentucky as his campaign hit in the 1824 , 1828 and 1832 presidential elections . William H. Harrison used himself with his vice-presidential candidate John Tyler in the 1840 election of the song Tippecanoe and Tyler too .

To date, in the United States, all presidential candidates, as well as many primary candidates, use campaign songs , including:

• Lincoln and Liberty ( Abraham Lincoln , presidential election 1860 )
• Battle Cry of Freedom ( Abraham Lincoln , presidential election 1864 )
• Happy Days Are Here Again ( Franklin Delano Roosevelt , 1932 presidential election )
• Born in the USA ( Ronald Reagan , 1984 presidential election - until Bruce Springsteen banned Reagan from using this song)
• Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow ( Bill Clinton , 1992 presidential election , originally by Fleetwood Mac )
• This Land Is Your Land ( George HW Bush , 1988 presidential election , using a song by Woody Guthrie )

See also : List of Slogans from Presidential Campaigns in the United States

Election campaign hits in other countries

Campaign hits are also common outside of the United States. In Germany, for example, the CDU used the song Angie from the Rolling Stones in allusion to its top candidate Angela Merkel for the 2005 federal election . The lyrics, however, contain some unsuitable passages, such as All the dreams we held so close seemed to all go up in smoke , which translated means as much as All the dreams that meant so much to us have gone up in smoke .

Furthermore, the Austrian politician Heinz-Christian Strache from the FPÖ used a rap song entitled Austria first for his campaign for the 2006 National Council election .

In the wake of the presidential election in Zimbabwe in 2008 , the domination of dictator Robert Mugabe's campaigner by thugs was seen as a differentiator between supporters of Mugabe and the opposition. “ Anyone who didn't master the text was given it with clubs. "

Web links

• Campaign Songs on Wikisource
• History of the American Campaign Songs

supporting documents

1. ^ "The Hunters of Kentucky": A Popular Song Celebrates the Victory of Jackson and his Frontier Fighters over the British, 1824 ( en ) History Matters: The US Survey Course on the Web. Retrieved May 26, 2008.
2. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Roth: "All the dreams we once had went up in smoke!" . heise online. August 24, 2005. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
3. ↑ Election campaign: HC raps on the night shift . The Presse.com. August 21, 2006. Retrieved May 26, 2008.
4. ↑ Thomas Scheer, in: FAZ am Sonntag, June 29, 2008, p. 11